in assisting the escape of Charles to Normandy. When the prince was obliged to leave France in 1654, Clarendon persuaded him to entrust the management of his household affairs unreservedly to Fox, ‘a young man bred under the severe discipline of the Lord Peircy, … very well qualified with languages, and all other parts of clerkship, honesty, and discretion, that were necessary for the discharge of such a trust’ (Hist. of the Rebellion, Oxf. edit. bk. xiv. par. 89). Under Fox's discreet stewardship the prince, wherever he might choose to fix his court, was never without the means of living in comfort. ‘Mr. Fox,’ writes Ormonde to Charles from Breda, 9 Aug. 1658, ‘knows to a stiver what money you can depend upon’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1658–9, p. 104). At Spa he won the favour of the king's sister, the widowed Princess of Orange, and was employed subsequently in several important missions to her, as well as to other great persons in Holland. He was able to procure frequent and regular supplies of money for the royal household. Charles intended rewarding him by a grant of the place of cofferer of the household, but finding William Ashburnham held already the reversion, he granted Fox, by a special instrument dated at Brussels 23 Nov. 1658, an honourable augmentation to his arms out of the royal ensigns and devices, to wit, ‘in a canton Azure, a Fleur de Lis, Or’ (Addit. MS. 15856, f. 89 b). Fox was the first to bring his master the news of Cromwell's death, and to salute him as the real king of Great Britain. The king afterwards employed Fox on various secret missions to England, as one the royalists could thoroughly rely on. With Sir Edward Walker, Garter king at arms, he was sent to the Hague in May 1660 to adjust the ceremonies for the king's public reception there. After the Restoration Fox's fortunes rose rapidly. Ormonde, then lord high steward, nominated him first clerk of the board of green cloth. In October 1660 he received a grant of the remainder of the lease of part of the manor of East Meon, Hampshire, to the value of 400l. a year, which had been forfeited by the treason of Francis Allen, goldsmith and alderman of London (ib. 1660–1661, p. 337, 1661–2, p. 131). In March 1661 he became receiver and paymaster of two regiments of guards appointed for the king's safety upon the outbreak of Venner's plot in the preceding January (ib. 1660–1, p. 556). During the same year he was constituted paymaster-general, an enormously lucrative office. He deigned, however, to accept the receivership of the garrison at Portsmouth, 20 Feb. 1662, with the nominal fee of 100l. a year (ib. 1661–2, p. 279). The people of Salisbury, ‘for the love they bore to a gentleman who did them the honour of owing his birth to their neighbourhood,’ chose him as their member, 30 Nov. 1661, in succession to Francis Swanton, deceased. He was knighted 1 July 1665. Despite his position at court he contrived to maintain his independence. He strenuously asserted the integrity of Clarendon, and voted against his impeachment, 12 Nov. 1667, ‘although he was in a manner commanded by the king to act in a contrary part.’ On 27 Feb. 1678–9 he was elected for Westminster. In November 1679 he became one of the lords commissioners of the treasury, and his name appeared in every subsequent commission except that of July 1684, when Laurence, earl of Rochester, was lord treasurer. He was, however, reinstated in the following September. In December 1680, having been gazetted first commissioner of horse, he resigned his office of paymaster-general, but contrived that his eldest son, Charles Fox, should share it along with Nicholas Johnson. On Johnson's death in April 1682 Fox made interest to have it solely conferred on his son, who three years afterwards was independent enough to vote with the opposition against granting money to James II until grievances had been redressed. On 18 Feb. 1684 Fox was made sole commissioner of horse.
Fox's places brought him enormous profits. In 1680 his friend Evelyn computed him to be worth at least 200,000l., ‘honestly got and unenvied, which is next to a miracle.’ Evelyn himself tells how Fox contrived to escape the jealousy of his colleagues. At the height of his prosperity he continued ‘as humble and ready to do a courtesy as ever he was’ (Diary, ed. 1850–2, ii. 147–8). He made an intelligible use of his riches. He showed his regard to his birthplace, Farley, by building a church, and in 1678 a set of almshouses and a charity school, there. ‘In the North Part of Wilts he built a Chancel intirely new.’ He built almshouses at Broome, Suffolk, and at Ashby, Northamptonshire. He also erected the church of Culford in Suffolk. At Redlinch in Somersetshire he founded a charity school, in addition to repairing the church. Canon Richard Eyre, who preached his funeral sermon, tells us that ‘he pew'd the body of the cathedral church of Sarum in a very neat manner, suitable to the neatness of that church, to which he was many other ways a great benefactor’ (p. 18 n.). After twenty years at the pay office he thought of a magnificent device for restoring to the army some part of the fortune which he had got by it. He inspired Charles in 1681 with that
