The history of the Fox family as researched and given as a lecture by Brinley Morris to the Falmouth Civic Society:

George Fox was a shoemaker from Leicestershire who lived from 1624-- 1691. He toured the country as he plied his trade giving sermons to anyone who would listen arguing that consecrated building such as churches and ordained ministers were irrelevant to the individual seeking God. Three years later Fox had a divine revelation that inspired him to preach a gospel of brotherly love and so the ”Society of Friends” was born later to be called the ‘Quakers, the word itself I understand first used by Justice Bennet of Derby , who heard Fox urging his followers to ‘TREMBLE I urge Thee at the word of God.’ And so the Quakers were born.

I mention all this, as the Quaker movement had a most profound effect on all the Fox family who lived in Falmouth, for it completely governed their lives as a way of life. But I have found no family connection of this George Fox with the Falmouth Foxes, but I am hoping that this will be clarified by a book on the Falmouth Foxes to be published later this or next year.

The Foxes of Falmouth were a wealthy Quaker family who had settled in Cornwall having come from Wiltshire in the seventeenth century to settle initially at St Germans. From St Germans in the eighteenth century George Croker Fox had established himself as a shipping agent and merchant in Fowey. Fox came to Falmouth in 1759 and in 1762 the firm of George Croker Fox and Company began business as consuls, shipping agents and ship owners. I should, perhaps, now, explain why the Foxes became such a wealthy and very influential family at this time but not only in Falmouth but all over England.

Robert Were Fox 1789-1877

In the 18 th century marriage outside the Society of Friends meant exclusion and disownment, so that this led to a closely knit group of Quaker families.

Elizabeth Gurney later became the well known prison reformer Elizabeth Fry .

As all these families were excluded from the professions and the universities because of their beliefs, amongst which was not subscribing to the 39 Articles of the Established Church, they concentrated all their attention, interest and considerable intelligence on two aspects of life open to them, namely commerce and industry which are the places of course to make money and have influence..

And it is therefore no surprise that we find at the beginning of the 19 th century, the beginnings of great commercial and industrial enterprises being owned and run by these families out of all proportion to the size of their membership. And we still have for example the businesses began and owned by them known to all of us today as the cocoa and chocolate firms of Fry, Cadbury and Rowntree together with the banks of Lloyds and Barclays, and the firms of Reckitt and Colman, Huntley and Palmer, and a host of others.

Combining all the qualities that the Foxes possessed were those of their strong religious belief in the moral virtues of integrity, honesty thrift and a capacity for hard work, I now wonder why they don’t still present a force in the community today, However, a few years ago they stopped operating their shipping business in the fine Georgian brick building near Trago Mills and they sold their interest in the Perran Foundry. The only Fox that I knew personally was Mrs Trench Fox but I am sure that some of you here have met others belonging to the family too.The head of the Falmouth Foxes at the beginning of the 19 th century was Robert Were Fox who with his wife Elizabeth had 7 sons and 3 daughters.

Charles Fox

One of his 7 sons, Charles, lived at Perran - ar - Worthal and later at Trebah and became a managing director of the Perran Foundry which produced large iron and steel engines of all types but mainly mining equipment. Unfortunately today it is becoming more and more derelict because the CDC committee of which I was a member failed to get a government grant to buy the fine old building and turn it into a museum It is now my impression the present owners are letting the property deteriorate so that they can apply for a demolition order and develop it as a valuable housing site.

The other brother Joshua was the maverick and really caused a stir when he married outside the Quaker fraternity family a lady who had sometime lived in Paris and was rumored to have been a dancer. But he was different from the rest of his brothers for he was a real romantic and had no head for business. Really interested in natural history he would spend his time with his 3 motherless but high spirited daughters at Tregedna, next to Penjerrick with the birds and animals on his estate.

But perhaps the black sheep of the brothers was Lewis who was known to have repented of his sins on his deathbed but I have found little about him except his reputation.

Howard Fox 1836-1922

The most famous son with his father’s Christian names Robert Were was a scientist of some distinction who lived at Rosehill which is now the art school in Woodlane but then acquired Penjerrick, His interest in science produced technological inventions that developed Watt’s steam engine adapted for the tin mines but he will be remembered chiefly for his invention of the dipping needle compass which the polar explorer Captain Nutes told him enabled him to discover the South Magnetic Pole.

His brother Alfred who lived at Glendurgan married one of the Birmingham banking Quaker family Sarah Lloyd and had 6 sons and 6 daughters.

He ran the fishing and pilchard salting and export part of the diversified Fox family business. He was Vice Consul of the USA in Falmouth for a large number of foreign countries.

In 1859 he was elected as Chairman of Directors of the Company authorised by Parliament to improve Falmouth Docks.

It would take too long to describe each life of his 12 children but I should mention one of the granddaughters gave Fox Rosehill Gardens to CDC. Incidentally it was the custom among the Foxes that any children born in the family were given the mother’s maiden name so we have George Croker, Robert Were, Robert Barclay etc.

In 1833, with his daughters Anna Maria and Caroline, and also with other relatives and friends and especially Sir Charles Lemon MP for Truro who lived at Carclew, Robert Were initiated the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. and in 1848 he earned the distinction of his election as an FRS

Travelling by coach or horseback at that time was slow tedious and uncomfortable for the first railway was about to be built in the North so that the Foxes would have to travel to their religious meetings in London in the very uncomfortable Royal Mail Coach via Bodmin, Exeter, and Salisbury starting from the Falmouth Ship Inn at 3am. , arriving in Exeter at 9-and then some passengers joining the different coaches to Portsmouth Bristol and Bath .although Russell’s cheaper Fly wagon would go to London every Monday and Thursday and would start from Killigrew Street and arrive late the next day.

Sometimes the Foxes would go by sea in a sloop to Plymouth and would visit the Crown and Anchor Tavern in Falmouth and negotiate the fare with the captain who would stay there to meet the passengers.

A Packet boat from Truro would sometimes come and return with the tide each day, weather permitting with goods and passengers and the passengers would visit the proprietor Mr. Vann also at the Fish Strand Crown and Anchor Tavern for a ticket.

With the increase in membership of the ‘Friends’, a meeting house adjoining New Street was built in 1805, shortly afterwards a Roman Catholic Chapel in Well Lane and in 1808 a Jewish Synagogue on Fish Strand Quay.

Without a doubt the Fox family’s income from the tin mines they owned as well as some of the other enterprises mentioned far exceeded the Packet Captains‘income, so that Barclay Fox, son of Robert Were and his two sisters had private tutors. And the family had servants and a life style well above anyone else who lived in the town at the time for, according to the records at the turn of the century there were in Falmouth 465 houses and 1218 families showing that accommodation was rather tight which if my sums are correct the town had 4 families per dwelling discounting the number of seafaring men who were always being accommodated in the houses.

If you dip into the diary of Barclay Fox you will impressed not only by his wide circle of friends and constant visiting to other Fox families in the area but by his wide intellectual interests not confined to his religious beliefs which of course he never questioned. I should explain that the diaries of Barclay Fox born 1817 in Falmouth started when he was a school boy and stopped only when he got married, runs to 10 volumes and makes fascinating reading because you hear about what happens in the day to day lives of a Falmouth family albeit an extraordinary one. For this reason I find the diaries more fascinating than the more celebrated journal of the more famous Caroline Fox. The diaries only contain dates but no names of Months or days of the year as these were of pagan origin.

I should like to read the opening pages from Barclay Foxes 10 volume diary to give you a flavour of what it was to be a 16 year old Fox in Falmouth in 1832 . I was intrigued sometimes by the journal and hope you will be too if ever you read it. What for example was a crocodile doing walking in Arwenack Steet on March 4 th 1832? Barclay doesn’t tell us or perhaps he doesn’t know himself!

Some extracts from the diary of Barclay Fox:

March 4 th 1832

Explored the cavern at Pennance and went aboard the Alchemist.

A rat bit one of my monkeys in his paw. Pappa came home yesterday. I . rode to Perran with Papa to meet Uncle Charles. Saw a crocodile in Arwenack Street.

April 4 th Rowed with Cavendish (his young tutor ) to the Aurora frigate and in the afternoon the boys from the Classical School (now the Marine School in Killigrew Street came for a game of cricket and tea.

April 25 th Cholera reached Falmouth today. One old woman has been seized Uncle Charles in a great fright.

May 11 th Uncle and Aunt Charles and Uncle Lewis dined here. Rode with the latter to Perran after the afternoon meeting and slept there. Her accounts from London is that the Duke of Wellington has been appointed Prime Minister.

May 16 Pappa, Mamma AM and Kitty set off for London this morning in the carriage. I rode to Penjerrick after the meeting to take leave of Uncle Joshua. Dined and lodged at Grove Hill.

May 17 th we got on board the Sir F. Drake a little before 7. Changed her for the Brunswick off Plymouth the wind against us.

May l8 th Got up at 5 am and landed at Portsmouth about 9 and was sea sick. Set off for London by coach arriving at 7. Lodged at Cousin Reynolds and met Pappa Mamma AM and C then dined with them.

May 22 nd this evening Uncle Dl Barclay and Cos. Reynolds called and told us the brewery had been on fire with £50K damage done.

I should explain that several Quakers at this time were brewers but drew a line at distilling spirits.

May 30 th went to see the ruins of the brewery and met Uncle and Arthur Barclay there. From there went to Austin Friars to dine where we met our relatives, the Chapmans and Betsy Fry who was Elizabeth Fry. Attended the meeting at Devonshire House. It was dull and long.

It was at this time too that the Falmouth Foxes started buying up land outside the town and building country retreats both for their leisure hours and eventual retirement for there is no doubt that they were the equivalent of millionaires today but without their vulgar ostentation. They were very generous in their invitations and regularly visited members of the families and friends and sent their children abroad to benefit from the knowledge of other cultures. For example Barclay went on the tour of the continent to Italy and France.

You I am sure have visited some of these country retreats which become familiar when I mention for example Penjerrick, now flats, where Robert Were Fox lived, Glendurgan bought by his brother Alfred and Trebah occupied by Charles. Tregedna next door to Penjerrick was where Joshua Fox lived in 1789 . All of these houses except Tregedna are now visited by the general public because of their beautiful gardens.

So in the 19 th century we have living in and around Falmouth, R.W. Fox Senior at Bank House, opposite Trago Mills, George Croker Fox at Grove Hill which you can see from Woodlane, Robert Were Fox Sen. at Rosehill now the Art School, Alfred Fox at Glendurgan, another Alfred Fox at Wodehouse Terrace, another Robert Were Fox at Penjerrick, Charles Fox Perran and then Trebah, Mrs Robert Were Fox Senior at Roscrow, and Joshua Fox at Tregedna.

At that time you would recognise immediately any member of the Fox family walking along the roads in Falmouth and anyone of course who was a Quaker, for all of them wore the traditional Quaker dress of a drab grey rough fustian garment and large hat. They used the old form of ‘thou’and ‘thee’ in addressing each other. Some strict Foxes wouldn’t go to a theatre, and wouldn’t even have mirrors or pictures in their homes saying they were all forms of vanity but the Falmouth Foxes were not so strict but played games, enjoyed music and some of them even drank alcohol in moderation.

The Foxes believed in helping anyone in need and many of the citizens of Falmouth were helped not only with money but with their time and energy. and indeed as I have said, it was to fulfill the need to develop the education and skills of the young people of Falmouth that the Poly’ was set up.

The family had a wide circle of friends amongst whom was Davies Gilbert who was President of the Royal society from 1827 to 1830 and represented Helston as an MP and lived at Trelissick which as we all know is now owned by the National Trust. Among their Cornish friends were Sir Charles Lemon of Carclew MP for Truro, John Enys of Enys and Sir William Molesworthy, MP for East Cornwall who had been expelled from Cambridge for challenging his tutor to a duel, but eventually becoming a minster of the Crown.

Barclay Fox had as personal friends Thomas Carlyle and John Stuart Mills who were so prominent in England at the time. What has impressed me was the large amount of entertaining the family indulged in not only with their large circle of family relatives but the wide circle of friends outside the family whom they were always inviting to stay with them or come for breakfast and stay the whole day.

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