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. 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.

Caroline Fox kept her journal from  1835 to 1871. Barclay Fox kept his journal from 1832 to 1854 (but with few entries after 1844). 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

 * Henry de la Beche
 * John Bowring
 * John Bright
 * Thomas and Jane Carlyle
 * Derwent Coleridge
 * William Forster
 * Davies Gilbert
 * Robert Hunt
 * Thomas Brown Jordan
 * Charles Kingsley
 * Charles Lemon
 * F.D.Maurice
 * John Stuart Mill
 * John Rogers (divine)
 * Dean Stanley
 * John Sterling
 * 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.".

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.

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).

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. In 1836, Barclay Fox records a large family visit to Bristol, at the time of the BAAS Annual Meeting in 1836. His younger sister, Caroline was in the party and attended the Physics`section.

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

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

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

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.

Quaker interests
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, 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.

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

 * G.C. Fox (Shipping Brokers) was a major shipping agency and broker in the growing freight port of Falmouth. The company was established in 1762 and passed out of family control on 30 September 2003. It remains the oldest ship agency company in Falmouth

Pilchard fishery, processing and export

 * Alfred Fox was heavily engaged in the Pilchard industry of Cornwall. Much of the output was salted fish for export to Catholic Southern Europe.
 * In 1882 Howard, George and Robert Fox formed the Falmouth Fishery Company Ltd., which also purchased G.C. Fox's ship towage business; in 1893 it was transformed into the Falmouth Towage Company Ltd.

Iron founding

 * Perran Foundry
 * General manager of the Foundry: George Fox the Second ( -1825), Charles Fox (1825–1842), Barclay Fox (1842– )
 * Neath Abbey Iron Foundry.

Metal mining

 * Tin and Copper mining – supplying credit, pumping engines, imported materials: timber balks, coal. In partnership with the Williams family, developing the harbour at Portreath and the Portreath Tramway to the mines from there.

Coal mining

 * Neath Abbey Coal Company (in partnership with the Price and Tregelles families).

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.

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.". U.S. Consuls
 * Consulships of various foreign countries, held successively by members of the Fox family.
 * 1792–1794 Edward Long Fox.
 * 1794–1812, 1815–1818 R.W.Fox the Elder.
 * 1818–1854 R.W. Fox the Younger.
 * 1854–1863 [Unknown] The American Civil War(1861–1865)
 * 1863–1874 Alfred Fox, brother of R.W.Fox the Younger.
 * 1874–1905 Howard Fox, son of Alfred Fox

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. 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. The Oxford Companion to Medicine states there were 21 doctors in the Fox dynasty.

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. In March 1840, he campaigned for Cornish MPs to support Ewart's bill to abolish the Death Penalty for all offences.

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.

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

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. 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.



Children of first marriage of George Fox to Mary Bealing Children of George Fox's second marriage to Anna Debell
 * Edward Fox (born 1719) of Wadebridge, married Anna Were (1719–1788). They had nine children, including
 * George Fox (11 July 1746 – 22 June 1816) of Perranarworthal near Falmouth, Cornwall, merchant
 * Thomas Fox (17 January 1747/8 – 29 April 1821) of Wellington, Somerset (woollen manufacturer and banker).
 * Edward Fox (13 December 1749 – 8 April 1817) of Wadebridge, Merchant.
 * Robert Were Fox (1758–1818) of Wadebridge (not to be confused with his son, Robert Were Fox (1792–1872) or his cousin or cousin's son, both also called "Robert Were Fox").
 * George Croker Fox the First (1727/8-1781) (See below).
 * Joseph Fox (1729–1784) of Falmouth. Joseph was the first Falmouth Fox, and founder of the medical dynasty. He was also a man of character, as is plain from the affair of the Prize Money. He married Elizabeth Hingston (28 October 1733 – 1802) on 17 May 1754. He was Mayor of Falmouth at the time of the visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, on 1 September 1843.

The eleven children of Joseph Fox (1729–1784) and Elizabeth Hingston included two who became medical doctors-
 * Joseph Fox (1754–1832), of Falmouth, who married his 2nd cousin Elizabeth Peters. Joseph became a catholic.
 * Edward Long Fox (1762–1835), lunatic asylum proprietor at Brislington and developer of Weston-super-Mare as a sea-bathing resort (Described above under "Medicine and Surgery"). Edward Long Fox married first, Catherine Brown, and second, Isabella Ker, and had 22 children.


 * 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:


 * George Croker Fox the Second (2 June 1752 – 31 December 1807). He married Catherine Young (1751? – 1809) in 1780.




 * Their son, also called, George Croker Fox (1784–1850), in 1810, married Lucy Barclay (b.1783), whose sister, Maria, who married R.W. Fox the Younger. Lucy and Maria were daughters of Robert Barclay (1751–1830) of Bury Hill, near Dorking, Surrey. Lucy and George Croker Fox the Third had no children. He was the author of the following translations:
 * The Prometheus of Æschylus and the Electra of Sophocles. Translated ... With notes, intended to illustrate the typical character of the former. Also, a few original poems. By George Croker Fox. London, Darton & Harvey, 1835.
 * The death of Demosthenes, and other original poems: with the Prometheus and Agamemnon of Æschylus, translated from the Greek; London, 1839.
 * Joshua Fox (?1752–1791). (Not to be confused with Joshua Fox (1792–1877).
 * Robert Were Fox the Elder, (1754–1818), businessman See below.
 * Thomas Were Fox (1 July 1766 – 23 July 1844) married Mary Tregelles (1770–1835). They had four sons, He moved to Plymouth after his wife's death
 * William Were Fox (d.1775)
 * Philip Fox (d.1775). William and Philip were drowned "in a great storm, off the coast of Holland."
 * Three other children.

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

 * Robert Were Fox the Younger (1789–1877), F.R.S. and businessman. (See below)
 * George Philip Fox (1790–1854)
 * Joshua Fox (17 April 1792 – 27 March 1887) of Tregenda, married Joanna Flannering, who died 1826. Three daughters:
 * Joanna Ellen Fox
 * Marie Louise Fox (1825 – July 1894) – married Harry Triebner in October 1877.
 * Josephine Fox
 * Alfred Fox (1794–1894), businessman. Twelve children. (Details of his marriage and children are given in his Wikipedia article).
 * Henry (d.1809)
 * Charles Fox (scientist) (1797–1878) of Trebah, general manager of the Perran Foundry
 * Charlotte Fox (1799–1879) married Samuel Fox (1794–1874), of Wellington, his second marriage, 18 April 1849. The family moved to Tottenham in 1837 and on his retirement in 1857, to Falmouth. At the time of Charlotte's death she resided at Lamorva.
 * Elizabeth Tregelles Fox (1800–1837) married Will Gibbins (1791 – 15 February 1843), of Birmingham and later of Falmouth, banker, in 1833. No children.
 * Lewis Fox (15 February 1803 – 6 December 1839), unmarried. Merchant at Perran Wharf.
 * Mariana Fox (1807–1863) married Francis Tuckett (1802–1868), of Frenchay, leather factor, in 1833

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

 * Anna Maria Fox (1816. – 1897) ), promoter of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. No children. Amateur painter and organiser of the Art section of the Annual Exhibition at the “Poly”. The first purpose-built building of Falmouth School of Art, in Arwenack Avenue, was given in memory of her. The 1904 building was refurbished in 2007.
 * Barclay Fox (1817–1855), author of Journal, published in 1979 (Details of his marriage and children are given in his Wikipedia article).
 * Caroline Fox (1819–1871), author of Journal, published in 1881 and 1972.

Other relations

 * Edmund Backhouse (MP) (1824–1906), son-in-law of Charles Fox.
 * Horace Pym, editor of Caroline Fox's Journal, published 1881 and husband, successively of two of her relations.
 * Josiah Fox (1763–1847), naval architect and a relation of this family.
 * Howard Fox, (10 February 1836 – 15 November 1922), son of Alfred and Sarah Fox, Chair of the Falmouth Harbour Board and the Falmouth Docks Company for 45 years. Married Olivia Blanche Orme, a non-Quaker. They had two sons, Charles Masson Fox and Howard Orme Fox, and two daughters, Olivia Lloyd Fox and Stella Fox.
 * Charles Masson Fox (6 November 1866 – 11 October 1935), chess player. Son of Howard Fox and Olivia Blanche Orme, his wife. Partner in the Fox family's businesses and Consul to Russia and Sweden.
 * Charles Fox (1740?–1809), poet and orientalist of Falmouth and Bristol. This Charles Fox is the subject of a DNB article. It is not clear whether or how he was related to other Falmouth Foxes.
 * Robert Barclay Fox (24 July 1873 – 22 April 1934), Son of Robert Fox and Ellen Bassett, his wife. Grandson of Barclay Fox. Cornwall County Councillor, High Sheriff of Cornwall, 1920–1921, Partner in G.C. Fox.