Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fox, Henry Stephen
FOX, HENRY STEPHEN (1791–1846), diplomatist, only son of General Henry Edward Fox [q. v.], by Marianne Clayton, sister of Lady Howard de Walden, was born on 22 Sept. 1791. He was educated at Eton and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, 26 Jan. 1809, but soon sought a diplomatic and political career. Deprived by the tory supremacy of any chance of preferment, and inheriting little from his father, Fox spent his time in the fashionable world, where he made himself popular by his wit and charming manners. He was a friend of all the whigs and well known in the clubs. After the peace of 1815 he travelled on the continent with Lord Alvanley and Thomas Raikes, and at Rome had a bad attack of fever. When Grey's reform ministry was formed in 1830, Lord Holland pressed the claims of his cousin, who was appointed the first minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary at Buenos Ayres. He was moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1832 and thence to Washington in 1835. The relations between England and the United States were then disturbed by much ill-feeling, and Fox's tact and courteous manners did much to improve them. When Sir Robert Peel came into office in 1841, he sent Lord Ashburton to settle outstanding difficulties, and the success of the Ashburton treaty was in great measure due to Fox, whose services were cordially acknowledged by Ashburton. In December 1843 Fox was superseded, but he continued to reside in Washington, where he died in October 1846.
[Gent. Mag. 1847, i. 82; Raikes's Journal, iii., iv.; Foster's Alumni Oxon.]