Robert Were Fox the Elder

Robert Were Fox (July 5,1754 - 1818) was a Quaker businessman who lived in Falmouth.

Life and work

Fox was born in Fowey, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom, and married Elizabeth Tregelles (1768 – 1849) in 1788. The couple had six sons, including Charles Fox of Trebah, Robert Were Fox FRS [ODNB articles cited below. ] of Penjerrick Garden and Alfred Fox of Glendurgan. Their daughter, Mariana Fox (1807-1863), married Francis Tuckett of Frenchay and became the mother of the mountaineer Francis Fox Tuckett. [cite web | title = Mariana Tuckett | url = http://www.frenchaymuseumarchives.co.uk/Archives/PagesBiogy/Tuckett/Tuckett_Mariana.htm | accessdate = 2008-07-11] [cite web | title = Francis Fox Tuckett | url = http://www.frenchaymuseumarchives.co.uk/Archives/PagesBiogy/Tuckett/Tuckett_FF.htm | accessdate = 2008-07-11]

The family were Quakers, descended from George Fox of Fowey and his wife, Anna Debell. Robert Were Fox was the son of their son, George Croker Fox, and his wife, Mary Were. [Pages 26/27 of Barclay Fox's Journal] It was George Croker Fox who founded a Falmouth ship-brokering business, which survived into the 21st century.

During the time Robert Were Fox ran the family's ship-brokering business, family business interests expanded into copper-mining, tin-smelting and foundry-work in partnership with the Williams family. In 1794 R. W. Fox was appointed Consul (Diplomatic Representative) by the United States of America for the port of Falmouth.

In 1811, Fox was one of four delegates sent to negotiate with the Post Office headquarters in Lombard Street for the return of the Packet Service station to Falmouth from Plymouth. [Arthur H. Norway (1895), "The Post-Office Packet service: between the years 1793 and 1815, complied from records, chiefly official" (London, Macmillan) pp. 197-221]

Notes and references

Further reading

* Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article by Philip Payton "Fox, Robert Were (1754–1818)"
* ODNB article by Denise Crook, "Fox, Robert Were (1789–1877)" accessed 3 Aug 2006
* ODNB article by G. C. Boase, "Fox, Charles (1797–1878)", revised by Justin Brooke, accessed 6 Aug 2006]
* cite book
last = Fox
first = Robert Barclay
authorlink = Barclay Fox
title = Barclay Fox's journal
editor = ed. by Raymond Brett
publisher = Bell and Hyman
date = 1979
location = London
id = ISBN 0-7135-1865-0and U.S. edition::cite book
last = Fox
first = Robert Barclay
authorlink = Barclay Fox
title = Barclay Fox's journal
editor = ed. by Raymond Brett
publisher = Rowman & Littlefield
date = 1979
location = Totowa, N.J.
id = ISBN 0-8476-6187-3 Barclay Fox was R. W. Fox the Elder's grandson. Pages cited above are from the Introductory essay by R. L. Brett
Persondata
NAME= Fox, Robert Were
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Robert Were Fox the Elder (His son bore the same name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Businessman
DATE OF BIRTH=July 5,1754
PLACE OF BIRTH= Fowey, Cornwall, U.K.
DATE OF DEATH= 1818
PLACE OF DEATH=