FOX
FOX
more perfectly exempt from the taint of
malevolence, vanity, or falsehood " (Mis- >
cell. Works, i, 168). His nephew and !
intimate, Lord Holland (who was present
at his death), told Greville that Fox was
" no believer in religion," and that, while
he allowed his wife to have prayers said
at his death-bed, he " paid little attention
to the ceremony," as he " did not like to
pretend any sentiments he did not enter
tain " (Greville s Memoirs, iv, 159). Lord
Holland says much the same in his
Memoirs of the Whig Party (1852). D.
Sep. 13, 1806.
FOX, Elizabeth Yassall, Lady Holland. B. 1770. She married Sir G. Webster, but the union was dissolved in 1797, and she married H. B. Fox, the third Baron Holland. At Holland House she presided over the most brilliant gatherings in Lon don, which continued after the death of Lord Holland. She was one of the most remarkable women of the time, " a social light which illuminated and adorned Eng land, and even Europe, for half a century " (Greville s Memoirs, v, 313). She was, Greville says, "known to be \vholly destitute of religious opinions " (p. 314), and her calmness at death puzzled the orthodox. The Hon. H. J. Coke, who knew her in her later years, confirms that she disbelieved in immortality (Tracks of a Boiling Stone, 1905, p. 13). D. Nov. 16, 1845.
FOX, Henry, first Baron Holland, statesman. B. Sep. 28, 1705. Ed. Eton. He was elected M.P. for Hindon in 1735, and was Survey or- General of Works 1737-42, Lord of the Treasury in 1743, Secretary of War and Privy Councillor in 1746, Secretary of War and leader of the House of Commons 1755-56, and again leader of the House of Commons in 1762. In the following year he retired from public life, and was created Baron Holland. Lord Chesterfield says in his Characters that Fox had "no fixed principles either of religion or morality " ; but in the latter
263
respect we read (Chalmers s Biog. Diet.)
that he was " an excellent husband " and
" possessed in abundance the milk of
human kindness." He was the father of
Charles James Fox. D. July 1, 1774.
FOX, Henry Richard Yassall, M.A. r third Baron Holland. B. Nov. 21, 1773. Ed. Eton and Oxford (Christ s Church). He took his seat in the House of Lords in 1796 and supported his uncle, C. J. Fox, advocating the same Liberal reforms. The- name of Vassall was adopted on account of an inheritance acquired by Lady Hol land [SEE] . In 1816 he opposed the- detention of Napoleon, and he supported the Greek and Spanish insurgents. In 1830 he was named Chancellor of the- Duchy of Lancaster. Holland House was the brilliant centre of English heterodoxy- in his time, and Greville, who frequented it, often reproduces Lord Holland s hereti cal opinions. Sydney Smith, another frequent visitor, says of Lord Holland : " There never existed in any human being, a better heart, or one more purified from all the bad passions, more abounding in charity and compassion, and which seemed to be so created as a refuge to the helpless and oppressed." D. Oct. 22,, 1840.
FOX, William Johnson, preacher and politician. B. Mar. 1, 1786. Ed. chapel school, Norwich. He had to earn his- living as a boy, but he privately studied Greek, Latin, and mathematics, and in_ 1810 he became a Congregationalist minister. He exchanged that body for the Unitarians two years later, and in 1824 became minister of South Place Chapel, which was built for him. Accept ing the moral philosophy of Bentham, he threw himself into the reform movements of the time " he was the bravest of us all," Francis Place said and was recog nized as one of the finest orators in Lon don. Mill, Harriet Martineau, and others contributed to his Monthly Eepository. Before his retirement from South Place,. 264
