New England Families Genealogical and Memorial: Third Series, Volume III, by William Richard Cutter, 1915

The Fox Family

Thomas Fox, the immigrant ancestor, known to genealogists as Thomas of Cambridge to distinguish him from Thomas Fox, of Concord, was born in England about 1608, and admitted a freeman March, 1637-38, when he was living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He probably came over in 1634 or 1635, and it is said that he was from London and that he was the son of Dr. Thomas Fox, a physician of that city. A tradition that has more than usual claim for belief states that he emigrated in anger and disgust because of injustice done him in a law suit which he believed was decided against him because he was a grandson of John Fox, the author. This suit concerned a lease for three lives, on seventeen houses in London. As this occurred in the reign of Charles I., when the Puritans found little favor from men in authority, it is quite probable that Fox had good reason to think the decision unjust. John Fox was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1517; was graduated at Oxford in 1537 with the degree of S. A., and took the degree of M. A. in 1543; was made a fellow of Magdalen College, July 25, 1539; in July, 1543, with five
others, left the college; was a tutor while writing Protestant documents. During the reign of Catholic Queen Mary he found it prudent to leave the country. In 1559 he returned to his home, and about that time published his most famous work, the "Book of Martyrs," a copy of which by royal command was placed in the hall of every Episcopal palace in the land, and he was granted a coat-of-arms and other honors.

Thomas Fox was one of the original proprietors of Cambridge, then New Town, and dealt extensively in real estate; was executor and administrator of many estates, a selectman in 1658, and repeatedly afterwards. He was an esteemed and enterprising citizen, and was referred to in the church records as a beloved brother of the church. The house at Cambridge where he lived, later called the Holmes house,
stood on the north side of the college grounds. In the early days of the colony the place belonged to Mrs. Ellen Green, and became by her second marriage the property of her husband, Mr. Fox. Their grandson, Jabez Fox, the merchant tailor, made extensive additions and repairs to the house in 1707, bequeathing it at his death to his son, Thomas Fox, of Woodstock, who sold it to his uncle, Rev. John Fox, of Woburn,
and it eventually came to be owned by Harvard College. General Ward made the house his headquarters while in command of the American forces that invested Boston, and was there at the time of the battle of Bunker Hill. Dr. Holmes, while chaplain of the college, resided there, and his son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, the poet, was born there. The name of the first wife of Thomas Fox, the immigrant, is not known; she probably died in England. He married (second) Ellen Green, widow of Percival Green, who came from England to Boston in 1635, and died December 25, 1639. By her first marriage she had two children: John and Elizabeth Green, both baptized in infancy at Cambridge. She died May 27, 1682, aged eighty-two, her death being caused by a fall which broke her thigh. Mr. Fox married (third) Elizabeth, widow of Charles Chadwick. She died in 1685, aged seventy-one years. He married (fourth) December 16, 1685, Rebecca Wyeth, who survived him. He died April 25, 1693, aged eighty-five years. A pathetic letter written by Mrs. Rebecca Fox appealing for justice and mercy for her daughters who
suffered imprisonment on a charge of witchcraft is to be found in the state archives. The daughter was finally tried and acquitted, after enduring incredible suffering at the hands of her deluded persecutors.

(II) Rev. Jabez Fox, only child of Thomas and Ellen (Green) Fox, was born in Cambridge or Concord, in 1646, and was baptized at Concord. He was educated at Harvard College, being graduated in 1663. On taking his second degree of M. A. three years later, his public address consisted of a few lines of Latin verse. While residing in Cambridge he was invited in 1678 to serve for one year as an assistant of Rev.
Mr. Carter, the minister at Woburn. He accepted, and November 5, 1679, the parish voted to call him as their minister, and he was ordained soon afterward. The town agreed to build him a suitable house. It was located on Pleasant street, near the site of the public library, and was occupied by him and his son and successor for a period of seventy-six years. Mr. Fox appears to have had the confidence and affection of his parishioners through life, though they sometimes occasioned him disquietude by allowing his salary to fall in arrears. At one time about œ70 were thus due him, some of which was not paid at the time of his death. Doubtless this seeming neglect was due to the pressure of the times. He died of smallpox, February 26, 1702, at Boston, and was buried at Woburn. His gravestone bears this inscription: "Memento mori. Fugit hora. Here Lyes ye Body of ye Reverend Mr. Jabez Fox, Pastour of ye Church of Christ in Woburn 23 years, and aged 56 years deceased Feb. ye 28th 1702-3." He married Judith, daughter of Rev. John Rayner, minister of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Dover, New Hampshire. She married (second) Colonel Jonathan Tyng. of Boston, formerly a member of the council of Governor Andros. Colonel Tyng, died January 19, 1723, and she died June 3, 1736, in her ninety-ninth year. Her epitaph in Alden's collection states: "A woman of most exemplary virtue and piety. Rich in Grace. Ripe for Glory." Children of Jabez and Judith Fox: Rev. John, born at Woburn, May 10, 1678; Thomas, November 6, 1680; Thomas, November 13, 1681; Jabez, mentioned below; Judith, June 19, 1690, died 1703.

(III) Jabez (2), son of Rev. Jabez (1) Fox, was born at Woburn, December 2, 1684. He was a manufacturer of woolen goods, and also a merchant tailor. It is said that he was engaged in all parts of the business from the purchase of the wool to fitting the cloth into garments for his customers. He lived in Boston. He married, March 8, 1705, Hannah, daughter of Rev. George Burroughs. Children, born in Boston: Thomas, mentioned below; Hannah, June 27, 1708; Judith, August 19, 1711; Rebecca, 1714.

(IV) Thomas (2), son of Jabez (2) Fox, was born in Boston, December 7, 1706. He settled in Woodstock, Connecticut, then part of Massachusetts, among the early settlers, and established himself as a clothier, manufacturing and dressing cloth. He resided in a two-story red house not far from the wolf cave which owes its fame to General Putnam. This house was burned in 1850. He died in 1796. He married Mercy (???). Children: Hannah, born April 27, 1731; Thomas, September 7, 1732; Maria, April 23, 1735; John, mentioned below; Mary, March 10, 1740; Jabez, May 6, 1745; Fanny, November 17, 1749; Rebecca, July 9, 1753. He is said to have had two more daughters, names unknown, however.

(V) John, son of Thomas (2) Fox, was born at Woodstock, March 10, 1737, died probably in 1761. in Newburg, New York, where he lived. He married Eleanor Lovett, born 1740, died November 12, 1822. When her husband died she made the journey from Newburg to Woodstock, one hundred miles through wild country, leading her oldest boy and carrying William. Her goods were sent on a coasting vessel which was wrecked. She married (second) September 17, 1764, Nathaniel Child, as his second wife, and about 1785 she journeyed alone from Connecticut to Rutland county, Vermont, to visit her son William. She is said to have been tall and finely formed, and handsome. Children: John, born August 7, 1758; William, mentioned below.

(VI) William, son of John Fox, was born June 28, 1760, probably at Newburg, New York. His father died when the son was but two years old, and the mother returned with her two sons to her home at Woodstock. When a little over sixteen years old he enlisted in the revolution, in the same company with his brother John. William was in the service three years and ten months, acting as a scout part of the time. Afterward he went to Rutland county, Vermont. He married, in 1780, Philena White, born October, 1762, died July 3, 1817, at Wallingford, daughter of one of the first settlers who cleared a farm in Tinmouth. A few years later he exchanged his farm for one in Wallingford, Vermont, where he lived the remainder of his days. He was elected town clerk and justice of the peace and served thirty years. He died at Wallingford, February 17, 1822. Children: John, mentioned below; William, born June 10, 1784; Eleanor, March 20, 1786; Fanny, January 21, 1788; Mary, February 8, 1790; George M., February 16, 1792; Marvin, December 25, 1794; Laura, January 26, 1797, died 1820, unmarried; Philena, July 7, 1799; Priscilla, May 16, 1808, died unmarried.

(VII) Dr. John (2) Fox, son of William Fox, was born in Tinmouth, Vermont, August 4, 1781, died in Wallingford, June 17, 1853. He studied medicine under Dr. Z. Hamilton for three years, surgery under Dr. Ezekiel Porter, of Rutland, and was licensed to practice by the first Vermont State Medical Society in 1807. He located at Wallingford. He received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Vermont
Academy in 1829, at Castleton. He was a prominent physician and surgeon, and his practice extensive. He was in the state legislature in 1822-23-24-38-40-41-42; state senator in 1847-48-49. He married, May 12, 1807, Mary Crary, born July 30, 1788, died August 19, 1876, daughter of Elias Crary, of Wallingford. Children: Harriet, born October 13, 1809; William C., July 4, 1811; Elizabeth, November 11,
1813; Mary M., May 28, 1817; John M., April 2, 1825: George H., mentioned below.

(VIII) Dr. George Herbert Fox, son of Dr. John (2) Fox, was born March 22, 1830.

After attending the public schools he went to Troy Conference Academy at Poultney in 1846 and to the Castleton Academy in 1847. In 1848 he began to study medicine under his father's instruction. He entered Castleton Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1851 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. After further study in 1852-53 in Philadelphia and at the New York Medical College, he returned to Wallingford and practiced until late in 1863, when he came to Rutland. He was a partner of E. C. Lewis in the drug business from 1861 to 1865 and from 1868 to 1870. After a long and highly distinguished career he died in 1911. He was a member of the Vermont State Medical Society, the Rutland County Medical and Surgical Society and the American Medical Association; one of the founders of the Rutland Medical Club, and for two years its president; member of the medical board of pension examiners; consulting physician of the Rutland Hospital. He married, January 12, 1859, Pamelia Harris, born July 12, 1838, daughter of Howard Harris, of Wallingford. Children: Mary E., born April 8,
1860, at Wallingford, married Herman William Vaughan (see Vaughan IX); Edwin H., born May 3, 1865, in Rutland; Mattie P., August 25, 1870; John C., October 10, 1875; Hattie R., August 6, 1882.