Fox family of Falmouth

The Fox family of Falmouth, Cornwall, UK were very influential in the development of the town of Falmouth in the 19th century and of the Cornish Industrial Revolution.[1] In the 18th and 19th centuries, many of them were members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

Caroline's and Barclay's journals

Caroline and Barclay Fox kept remarkable journals, which were published in the 1970s and provide historical and literary biographical sources for mid-nineteenth century Britain. Caroline's Journal was originally published in 1881, when it was a “surprise best-seller”. A new selection from the 1882 edition by Wendy Monk was published in 1972.[2]

Caroline Fox kept her journal from 1835 to 1871.[3] Barclay Fox kept his journal from 1832 to 1854 (but with few entries after 1844).[4] Barclay's journal was published in a scholarly but accessible edition by Raymond L. Brett in 1979, reprinted with additional material in 2008.

Family friends, mentioned in the journals of Caroline and Barclay Fox

View of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, in Falmouth. The building was designed by George Wightwick

Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society

The idea for the foundation of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society was created by Caroline, Barclay and their older sister, Anna Maria. The first Committee of the "Poly", elected in January 1833, was rather dominated by Fox family members: "Dr. Fox , Mr & Mrs RW Fox, Mr & Mrs GC Fox, Mr TW Fox, Mr GP Fox, Mr & Mrs A Fox, Mr J Fox, Mr & Mrs C Fox of Perran, Miss Fox and Misses AM and C Fox and Mr RB Fox of Bank.".[5]

In 1870, the Falmouth & Penryn Committee included Charles Fox (President), Miss AM Fox, A.Fox, N.Fox, RW Fox, Howard Fox, Mrs Howard Fox, Robert Fox, Samuel Fox and George Henry Fox. Miss AM Fox judged the Needlework that had been exhibited in the Annual Exhibition.[6]

The Poly in Church Street, Falmouth hit serious financial problems in January 2010 and closed its commercial arm. It recovered and is still operating (October, 2014).

Science and technology

R.W.Fox FRS

Caroline and Barclay's father and uncle were both scientists. Their father, Robert Were Fox, was an FRS with interests in mineralogy, metallurgy and geomagnetism. He was a live wire in the British Association. He invented an improved version of the Dipping Needle Deflector, a navigational aid for polar explorers.

Charles Fox

Their uncle, Charles Fox also published scientific papers and ran an innovative Iron Foundry at Perranarworthal.

Fox family and the BAAS

The Fox family descended from R W Fox the Elder had a long engagement with the British Association for the Advancement of Science (now called the British Science Association), founded in 1831.

In August 1835, Barclay Fox, aged 19, recorded in his Journal his visit to Dublin, for the BAAS Annual Meeting, with his father, Robert Were Fox the younger and his uncle, Charles Fox. R W Fox read a paper to the Physics section and demonstrated his instrument.[7] In 1836, Barclay Fox records a large family visit to Bristol, at the time of the BAAS Annual Meeting in 1836.[8] His younger sister, Caroline was in the party and attended the Physics`section.[9]

In 1837, the family made a tour of the North of England, and this included the BAAS Annual Meeting in Liverpool.[10] Caroline was also present at this event.[11]

In 1841, Barclay attended the Annual Meeting held at Plymouth, with his two sisters and became a life member.[12][13]

Caroline Fox also attended the 1857 Annual meeting, in Dublin. Her father read a paper on the temperature in mines in the Geological Section.[14]

In August, 1884, Barclay and Caroline's older sister, Anna Maria visited Canada and the USA, with her nephew, Howard Fox, to attend the British Association meeting in Montreal and the meeting of the BAAS with the American Association in Philadelphia.

At the British Association's Annual Meeting held in Nottingham in September 1893, Howard Fox read a paper to the Geology Section "The radiolarian cherts of Cornwall".

Gardens

Robert, Charles and their brother, Alfred, were deeply engaged in exotic botany and horticulture. They founded the gardens at Trebah, Glendurgan (now a National Trust property), Penjerrick and Rosehill, in Falmouth, all currently open to the public and containing mature specimens on exotic plants and trees.

Minerals

George Croker Fox (1784–1850), Robert Were Fox FRS and Alfred Fox assembled excellent collections of minerals, which are now in the British Museum (Natural History), given by Arthur Russell. Edward Fox (1749–1817), merchant, of Wadebridge, supplied the great collector Philip Rashleigh with mineral specimens.[15]

Quaker interests

Gravestones at the Quaker Burial Ground, Budock, where many members of the Fox family were buried, along with their Friends, of the Tregelles and Stephens families.

Many of the family were Quakers, but they were not related to the George Fox (1624–1691) who was one of the founders of the movement.

They were active locally in the Falmouth Meeting, Cornwall Monthly Meeting and Devon and Cornwall Quarterly Meeting. According to the Journals of Caroline and Barclay Fox, their parents and uncles usually attended the annual gathering of Quakers called London Yearly Meeting, when, as well as attending the sessions of Yearly Meeting, they met their Quaker relations and friends from all over the United Kingdom. Caroline and Anna Maria Fox were "Plain Quakers" all their lives, their unfashionable narrow skirts inspiring the names of two mine chimneys. However, the Falmouth Quakers were not "plain" in their appreciation and practice of art and literature. During the period that Barclay Fox kept his Journal, he abandoned the numbering of months for the "pagan" names, previously avoided by Friends.

The Fox family intermarried with local Quaker families and prominent Quaker mercantile families,[16] such as Backhouse and Pease of Darlington, Hustler, Lloyd and Barclay of Bury Hill.

Charles Fox (1797–1878)) and Alfred Fox's eldest son, Alfred Lloyd Fox played a part in the Society of Friends overseas missions.[17]

Business interests of the Fox family

The family worked in partnership with other Quaker families, Tregelles of Falmouth and Price of South Wales and with the Methodist family of Williams.

Shipbroking

Pilchard fishery, processing and export

Iron founding

Metal mining

Portreath Harbour when the tide is out

Coal Mining

Timber trade

For 200 years, the Fox family carried out the timber trade, with depots at Penryn, Falmouth, Truro and Grampound Road. In 1957, the business was merged with Harvey's of Hayle.[23]

Consulships

"U.S. State Department FAQs: Have there been multi-generational foreign affairs families in U.S. history? . . . .

A family of English Quaker merchants named Fox were U.S. Consuls at Falmouth, England. Robert Were Fox served from 1794 to 1812, and again from 1815 to his death in 1818. Robert Were Fox , Jr. served from 1819 to 1854 (their middle name is sometimes spelled "Weare" or "Ware"). Somehow the Consulate passed out of the family between 1854 and 1863. Two more generations of Foxes then served.

Alfred Fox was appointed in 1863, and Howard Fox served from 1874 until the post was closed in December 1905.".[24]

U.S. Consuls

Medicine and Surgery

Several members of the family were surgeons and physicians, some based in Falmouth. The most distinguished of these seems to have been Edward Long Fox (1762–1835), lunatic asylum proprietor at Brislington and developer of Weston-super-Mare as a sea-bathing resort. He married twice and had 15 daughters and 8 sons.[25][28] He should not be confused with another Edward Long Fox (1832–1902), in whose name an annual public lecture has been endowed, at the University of Bristol.[29] The Oxford Companion to Medicine states there were 21 doctors in the Fox dynasty.[30]

Politics

In his journal for 1839 and 1840, Barclay Fox records his enthusiastic support for the Liberal candidate for Penryn & Falmouth, Edward John Hutchins, his approval of the reformed electoral process and his delight at victory.[31] In March 1840, he campaigned for Cornish MPs to support Ewart's bill to abolish the Death Penalty for all offences.[32]

Barclay, his father, R W Fox and his uncle, Alfred Fox were involved in lobbying Ministers and officials in Westminster and Whitehall with other Cornish gentry and merchants for the Post Office Packet Service, the fishing and mining industries and the extension of a railway service west of Plymouth.

At the 1868 general election, Charles Fox of Trebah was one of two representatives of Falmouth on the committee to elect the Liberal candidate, Pendarves Vivian to Parliament, representing West Cornwall. Howard Fox was the Treasurer of the Falmouth Liberal Association.[33]

Robert Barclay Fox, Barclay's grandson, was a Conservative County Councillor in Cornwall.

Genealogy

Children and grandchildren of George Fox of Par

George Fox of Par was the son of Francis Fox of St Germans, Cornwall, and his second wife, Tabitha Croker.[34] Francis's father, also Francis, and his mother, Dorothy, were early converts to the revolutionary Quaker faith. George Fox married twice, first, to Mary Bealing and, second, to Anna Debell.[25]

Advertisement for lawnmowers, supplied by Nathaniel Fox, ironmonger, of Church Street, Falmouth. He was a son of Joseph (1729–1784) and Elizabeth Fox

Children of first marriage of George Fox to Mary Bealing

Children of George Fox's second marriage to Anna Debell

The eleven children of Joseph Fox (1729–1784) and Elizabeth Hingston included two who became medical doctors-

The other children of Joseph Fox (1729–1784) and Elizabeth Hingston were:
    • Anna, who married first, William Rawes, and second, Thomas Thompson
    • Elizabeth married John Allen
    • Sarah
    • Tabitha
    • Rachel
    • Richard married Hannah Forster
    • Nathaniel
    • Francis married Hester Mills
    • Philip

Children of George Croker Fox the First (1727–1781) and Mary Were, his wife

George Croker Fox the First was the son of George Fox of Par and his second wife, Anna Debell. In 1749, he and Mary Were (died 1796) were married. Their children were:

The home of Lucy and George Croker Fox in Wood Lane: Grove Hill House

Children of R.W. Fox the Elder and Elizabeth Tregelles (1768–1848), his wife

Gravestone of Joshua Fox (17 April 1792 – 27 March 1887) of Tregedna, and his second daughter, Marie Louise Triebner (1825 – July 1894) in the Quaker Burial Ground at Budock, Falmouth.

Children of R.W. Fox the Younger and Maria Barclay, his wife

Other relations

References and sources

References

  1. ↑ For a brief online account of the activities of the Fox family, see Brinley Morris's talk to the Falmouth Civic Society, illustrated with portraits. (Accessed 23 October 2007). For evidence of their influence, see Gill, Crispin Great Cornish Families (1995).
  2. ↑ See “Sources” below for bibliographical details if the Journals.
  3. ↑ Caroline Fox's Journal
  4. ↑ Barclay Fox's Journal.
  5. ↑ RCPS Annual Report 1833
  6. ↑ RCPS Annual Report 1870
  7. ↑ Barclay Fox Journal, p.79-82: 8 to 31 August 1835 – Dublin BAAS meeting
  8. ↑ Barclay Fox Journal, p.94 – 95: 20 August 1836 – Bristol BAAS meeting
  9. ↑ Caroline Fox Journal p31: 22 and 31 August 1836 – Bristol BAAS meeting.
  10. ↑ Barclay Fox Journal, p.115: 12 and 16 September 1837 – Liverpool BAAS meeting
  11. ↑ Caroline Fox Journal p43: 14 and 16 September 1837 – Liverpool BAAS meeting
  12. ↑ Barclay Fox Journal, p.239-240: 29 July to 5 August 1841 – Plymouth BAAS meeting
  13. ↑ Caroline Fox Journal p.110 – 111: 30 July to 3 August 1857 – Dublin BAAS meeting.
  14. ↑ Caroline Fox Journal p.225: 22 to 29 August 1857 – Dublin BAAS meeting.
  15. ↑ Mineralogy references: Embery, P.G. and Symes, R.F. (1987) Minerals of Cornwall and Devon, British Museum (Natural History), ISBN Hardback 0-565-01046-8 Paperback 0-565-00989-3.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 The Biographical dictionary of British Quakers in commerce and industry, 1775–1920, by Edward H. Milligan, Sessions of York (2007) ISBN 978-1-85072-367-7.
  17. ↑ Greenwood, John Ormerod Quaker Encounters; in three volumes; York, William Sessions – Volume 3: Whispers of Truth (1978) ISBN 0-900657-42-1 p92-93.
  18. ↑ The counting house of G.C. Fox & Co. was at 48 Arwenack Street, Falmouth TR11 5JH, near the Custom House. The building was refurbished in 2005 and the ground floor is now a branch of the Great Atlantic Art Galleries.
  19. ↑ Denholm Barwil Ltd. (accessed 18 Oct 2010)
  20. ↑ The National Archives file BT 81/14703/16640.
  21. ↑ "Cornish copper mining 1795–1830: economy, structure and change" by Jim Lewis in Cornish Studies Vol 14 (2006), pp164-186; Exeter University Press, ISBN 0-85989-799-0. The reference to the Fox family is pp.171–172, 176, 178.
  22. ↑ West Glamorgan Archive Service: papers of the Neath Antiquarian Society – Neath Abbey Coal Company. and History of Coal Mining in the Bryncoch Area
  23. ↑ G.C. Fox & Co 1762–1977: to commemorate with loyal affection the Silver Jubilee and visit to Falmouth of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 6 August 1977 and to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of George Croker Fox. (Souvenir brochure, 8 pages).
  24. 1 2 U.S. State Department FAQs
  25. 1 2 3 4 5 Redwood, U.M. (1989) A family of Quaker doctors photocopied electric typewriter text. Copy at the Cornish Studies Centre, Reduth.
  26. ↑ The Library of the U.S. State department says that this appointment was a mistake. They intended to appoint R.W. Fox.
  27. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Old Falmouth by Susan E. Gay (1903). A portrait of George Croker Fox the Second is in Page 148 and an account of his family on pp. 149–160. Miss Gay was a personal acquaintance of Anna Maria Fox.
  28. ↑ Names of Children of EL Fox listed at http://www-civ.eng.cam.ac.uk/cjb/hingston/hpad.htm. His eldest son was also named "Edward Long Fox".
  29. ↑ University of Bristol Public lectures webpage. (accessed 15 Sept 2007),
    Long Fox Memorial Lecture: The Edward Long Fox Memorial Fund was raised by subscription among the friends of Edward Long Fox, M.D., F.R.C.P. (1832–1902), Physician at the Bristol Royal Infirmary from 1857 to 1877 and Lecturer in the Bristol Medical School from 1869 to 1874. The income from the fund is used mainly to provide an annual lecture on some subject connected with medicine or the allied sciences, to be held at University College, Bristol (later the University of Bristol) and given by a lecturer either selected from Bristol or the neighbourhood or who has been a student or a member of the teaching staff. The first lecture was given by Dr. J. Beddoe in 1904. In 1958 the Trusteeship of the Fund was transferred to the University.
    The connection, if any, with the earlier E.L. Fox has not been established.
  30. ↑ Oxford Companion to Medicine online on Google Books accessed 8 November 2007 – page 696.
  31. ↑ Barclay Fox Journal 13 December 1839 to 24 January 1840.
  32. ↑ Barclay Fox Journal 2 March 1840
  33. ↑ Edwin Jaggard (ed.) Liberalism in West Cornwall: The 1868 Election Papers of A Pendarves Vivian MP; Devon & Cornwall Record Office, New Series Volume 42, 2000 ISBN 0-901853-42-9
  34. ↑ Genealogy of the Fox family
  35. ↑ HINGSTON PEDIGREE Copied from a chart by JOHN ALLEN, of Liskeard; by ROBT. DYMOND, JUN., 1851. (including Fox & Tregelles marriages). and Richard Hingston of Penryn and his family (from a document of vague provenance) on Chris Burgoyne's website.
  36. 1 2 Chris Knight's genealogy database. (Accessed 23 October 2007)
  37. ↑ A family tree of the Barclays is on pages 26/26 of Barclay Fox's journal (Ed. Brett). See Sources below, for bibliographical details. Additional information from Barclay Family tree (Accessed 23 October 2007.)
  38. ↑ The Times Death Notice Joshua Fox, 2 Apr 1877; pg. 1; col A. However, Milligan gives the death date as 27 March.
  39. ↑ Foxhound Genealogy website
  40. ↑ Triebner family website, giving an account of the marriage. She was buried in the Quaker Burial Ground at Budock.
  41. ↑ Marriage notice in The Times 24 Apr 1849; pg. 9; col A
  42. ↑ "The Late Mrs Charlotte Fox". The Cornishman (48). 12 June 1879. p. 5.
  43. 1 2 3 DQB
  44. 1 2 Barclay Fox's journal. See Sources below for bibliographical details.
  45. ↑ Foxhound
  46. ↑ Gay, Susan E. (1903) Old Falmouth page 238
  47. 1 2 Memories of Old Friends Caroline Fox of Penjerrick, Cornwall, See Sources below for bibliographical details.
  48. ↑ The journals of Caroline Fox, 1835–1871: a selection, See Sources below for bibliographical details.
  49. ↑ W. P. Courtney, Fox, Charles (1740?–1809), rev. Philip Carter, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2007 accessed 16 July 2007.
  50. ↑ Who was Who

Sources

The Journals

Other Sources

Members of the Fox family of Falmouth with articles in Milligan's Dictionary . .
  • Alfred (1794–1874),
  • Alfred Lloyd (1829–1885),
  • Arthur Edward (1864–1940),
  • Frederick (1798–1830),
  • George Croker (1752–1807),
  • George Croker (1785–1850),
  • George Henry (1845–1931),
  • Howard (1836–1922),
  • Joshua (1792–1877),
  • Nathaniel (1835–1910),
  • Robert Were (1754–1818),
  • Robert Were (1789–1877),
  • Theodore (1831–1899),
  • Thomas Were (1766–1844),

Online

For the Fox family 1914 to 1918 See "A Quaker record of maritime Falmouth in World War One" by Pamela Richardson in Troze: Journal of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall Volume 1, No. 2 (December 2008). Online at http://www.nmmc.co.uk/images/uploaded/troze/081203%20Falmouth%20WW%201.pdf

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