THE GREAT FAMILIES OF CORNWALL: The Fox family

THE GREAT FAMILIES OF CORNWALL: The Fox family

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 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.

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.

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.

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
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
G.C. Fox (Shipping Brokers)[18] 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[19]

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.[20]

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.[21]

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

Other investors in Cornwall’s mining revolution were the Fox family of Falmouth. The name of Fox is one that occurs regularly in the history of the town, as family members also had interests in maritime industries. The family company, G. C. Fox & Sons, was a major ship agent. In addition to this, because Falmouth was such a busy thoroughfare for traders and travellers, family members acted as consul to countries such as the United States. With many homes between them in and around the town, the family created a cluster of several highly impressive sub-tropical gardens. Their success in establishing these gardens can be attributed to two main factors. The first was the mild climate of the area; Cornwall being particularly well suited for exotic species, and Falmouth even more so. Imports were more likely to survive in gardens around Falmouth than in most other locations in Britain. The second, and most definitive, factor in the success of the Fox gardens was the family’s business connections in Falmouth and across the globe.

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]

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, 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.