Hall, 1865, with plates and facsimiles. An able essay on George Fox: his Character, Doctrine, and Work, 1873, by a member of the Society of Friends [Edward Ash, M.D.], deals with the limitations of Fox's mind; a reply, Immediate Revelation True, 1873, was published by George Pitt. In the Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth, 1876, by Robert Barclay (1833–1876) [q. v.], much new light was thrown on Fox's aims and methods, and the genesis of his movement; the writer somewhat over-estimates the direct influence of the ideas of the Mennonite baptists. Joseph Smith's Descriptive Catalogue of Friends' Books, 1867, 2 vols.; Biographical Catalogue, 1888, by Beck, Wells, and Chalkley. Articles by the present writer: Theological Review, January 1874, July 1877. The exact date of Fox's birth is not recoverable: the early registers of Fenny Drayton are lost, and there is no transcript for 1624 in the records of the archdeaconry; the first entry relating to the family is the baptism of Fox's sister Dorothy on 9 April 1626. Use has been made of the Swarthmoor MSS., of the original manuscript of the printed Journal, and of a large number of manuscripts from Swarthmoor in the Spence collection; also of Southey's manuscript Life of Fox (unfinished) in the same collection; and of a contemporary manuscript account of Fox's funeral per C. Elcock; works cited above.]
FOX, GEORGE (1802?–1871), topographer, a native of Pontefract, Yorkshire, carried on the business of a bookseller and stationer, in partnership with his father, John Fox, in Market Place in that town, and was for some years a member of the corporation. He died at his residence, Friar Wood House, on 23 Aug. 1871, aged 69. He compiled an excellent and now scarce ‘History of Pontefract,’ 8vo, Pontefract, 1827, illustrated with plates from his own drawings.
[Pontefract Advertiser, 26 Aug. 1871; Pontefract Telegraph, 26 Aug. 1871; Boyne's Yorkshire Library, pp. 147–8; Pigot's Directories.]
FOX, HENRY, first Baron Holland (1705–1774), younger son of Sir Stephen Fox [q. v.], by his second wife, Christian, daughter of the Rev. Francis Hopes, rector of Haceby, and afterwards of Aswarby, Lincolnshire, was born at Chiswick on 28 Sept. 1705, and was educated at Eton, where he was the contemporary of Pitt, Fielding, and Sir Charles Hanbury Williams. It has been generally asserted that Fox went up to Oxford University, but there is no record of his matriculation in ‘Alumni Oxonienses 1715–1886.’ Indulging recklessly in gambling and other extravagances, he soon squandered the greater part of his private fortune, and went abroad to extricate himself from his pecuniary embarrassments. Upon his return to England Fox was elected to parliament for the borough of Hindon in Wiltshire in February 1735. Being by profession a whig he attached himself to Sir Robert Walpole, whom he served with unswerving fidelity, and was quickly rewarded for his services with the post of surveyor-general of works, to which he was appointed on 17 June 1737. At the general election in 1741 Fox was returned for the borough of Windsor, for which he continued to sit until the dissolution in March 1761. Upon the fall of Walpole in 1742 Fox resigned office, but was appointed a lord of the treasury in the Pelham administration on 25 Aug. 1743. After holding this post nearly three years he was appointed secretary at war in May 1746, and was admitted a member of the privy council on 23 July following. During the debate on the Regency Bill in 1751, Fox repelled with great warmth an attack made on his patron, the Duke of Cumberland, by Pitt. So incensed was Fox with his colleague's speech that he left the house without voting. When Pelham, remonstrating with him afterwards, told him that he had not spoken like himself, Fox spiritedly replied, ‘Had I indeed spoken like myself I should have said ten times more against the bill.’ In 1753 he attacked Lord Hardwicke, whom he had never forgiven for deserting Sir Robert Walpole. When the lord chancellor's Marriage Bill appeared in the commons, Fox vehemently opposed it, and neither spared the bill nor the author of it (Parl. Hist. xv. 67–74). Upon the death of Pelham in March 1754, the Duke of Newcastle opened negotiations with Fox, through the Marquis of Hartington. It was proposed that Fox should be secretary of state with the lead of the House of Commons, but that the disposal of the secret service money should be left in the hands of the first lord of the treasury, who should keep Fox informed of the way in which the fund was employed. In his interview with Fox, however, the duke declared that he should not disclose to any one how he employed the secret service money. Fox refused to accept these altered terms, but promised to remain in the administration as secretary at war. But though Fox continued in office it can hardly be said that he continued to support the ministry. Reconciled by a common enmity, Fox and Pitt combined in seizing every opportunity which arose during the debate for the purpose of making Sir Thomas Robinson, the newly appointed secretary of state, ridiculous. The covert sarcasms of Fox and the open denunciations of Pitt quickly rendered Newcastle's position intolerable, and in
