# Henry Watson Fox

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{{Short description|Church of England missionary (1817–1848)}}
'''Henry Watson Fox''' (1817–1848) was a [Church of England](/source/Church_of_England) missionary to the [Telugu people](/source/Telugu_people) of south India.

{{Infobox person
| image              = Henry Watson Fox.jpg
| birth_date         = 1817
| death_date         = 1848
| alma_mater         = [Wadham College, Oxford](/source/Wadham_College%2C_Oxford)
}}

==Early life== 
The son of George Townshend Fox (died 1848) of Durham and his wife Ann Stote Crofton, he was born at [Westoe](/source/Westoe) in 1817. [William Fox](/source/William_Fox_(New_Zealand_politician)), Prime Minister of New Zealand, was an elder brother.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=10037|first=Katherine|last=Prior|title=Fox, Henry Watson (1817–1848)}}</ref><ref>{{cite ODNB|id=10046|first=Raewyn|last=Dalziel|title=Fox, Sir William (1812–1893)}}</ref> His father was a rope maker and merchant; his mother, daughter of a shipowner, was heiress to property at [Harton, South Shields](/source/Harton%2C_South_Shields).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hodgson |first1=George B. |title=The borough of South Shields : from the earliest period to the close of the nineteenth century |date=1903 |publisher=A. Reid |location=Newcastle-upon-Tyne |page=471 |url=https://archive.org/details/boroughsouthshi00hodggoog/page/471/mode/1up}}</ref>

Fox was sent to [Durham grammar school](/source/Durham_School), and then to [Rugby School](/source/Rugby_School), where he was in the house of [Bonamy Price](/source/Bonamy_Price).<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Fox, Henry Watson|volume=20}}</ref> In 1836 Fox gained one of the university [exhibition](/source/exhibition_(scholarship))s, and matriculated at [Wadham College, Oxford](/source/Wadham_College%2C_Oxford) in March. He came into residence at Wadham in October of that year. He graduated B.A. in December 1839.<ref name="DNB"/><ref>{{alox2|title=Fox, Rev. Henry Watson}}</ref>

==Vocation==
At school, Fox had been impressed by a lecture delivered by his housemaster Price in 1833; and the religious content of weekly sermons of [Thomas Arnold](/source/Thomas_Arnold), the headmaster.<ref name="DNB"/> In 1835 he was reading the tract ''[The Dairyman's Daughter](/source/The_Dairyman's_Daughter)'' by [Legh Richmond](/source/Legh_Richmond).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fox |first1=George Townshend |title=A Memoir of the Rev. Henry Watson Fox |date=1850 |publisher=Seeleys |page=29 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b8tNAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA29 |language=en}}</ref>

Fox spent the winter of 1839 in [Brighton](/source/Brighton) with [Henry Venn Elliott](/source/Henry_Venn_Elliott), an [evangelical](/source/evangelical) pastor and supporter of the [Church Missionary Society](/source/Church_Missionary_Society) (CMS).<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=8676|first=Stephen|last=Gregory|title=Elliott, Henry Venn (1792–1865)}}</ref><ref name="CMI">{{cite book |title=1866 The Church Missionary Intelligencer |date=1866 |page=76 |url=https://archive.org/details/1866TheChurchMissionaryIntelligencer/page/76/mode/1up}}</ref> In discussing the possibility of mission work, Elliott mentioned the appeal issued in 1839 by the Rev. John Tucker, a Fellow of [Corpus Christi College, Oxford](/source/Corpus_Christi_College%2C_Oxford). Tucker was in [Madras](/source/Madras), as secretary of the CMS committee there, and asked for Protestant missionaries to the Telugu people. Fox was struck with the idea of this missionary work. He consulted friends, and after prayer and consideration adopted it.<ref name="CMI"/><ref>{{alox2|title=Tucker, John (4)}}</ref>

==Missionary==
Fox was ordained deacon in December 1840. Early in 1841 the CMS appointed him a missionary to the Telugu people, inhabiting the northeastern districts of the [Madras Presidency](/source/Madras_Presidency).<ref name="DNB"/> Administratively the mission was to the [Northern Circars](/source/Northern_Circars) subdivision of the Presidency. It included [Masulipatam](/source/Masulipatam) (now more correctly known as Machilipatnam), which became British territory through the [siege of Masulipatam](/source/siege_of_Masulipatam). While Tucker had referred to the "Telugu country" having been under British government "for eighty years",<ref name="CMI"/> that applied to Masulipatam, rather than the subdivision as a whole. The [Nizam of Hyderabad](/source/Nizam_of_Hyderabad) had formal possession of the Northern Circars until 1823.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Swarnalatha |first1=P. |title=The World of the Weaver in Northern Coromandel, c.1750-c.1850 |date=2005 |publisher=Orient Blackswan |isbn=978-81-250-2868-0 |page=11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t5XlI91kP3YC&pg=PA11 |language=en}}</ref> Masulipatam, also known as Bunder, was in Kistna district, now the [Krishna district](/source/Krishna_district) of [Andhra Pradesh](/source/Andhra_Pradesh).

In July 1841 Fox reached Madras with his wife Elizabeth and a colleague, the Rev. [Robert Turlington Noble](/source/Robert_Turlington_Noble).<ref name="DNB"/> Noble (1810–1864) was a Cambridge graduate, ordained priest in 1840.<ref>{{acad|id=NBL828RT|name=Noble, Robert Turlington}}</ref> He ran an exclusive school at Masulipatam for Indians, which became Noble College, Machilipatnam. Fox, as soon as he had mastered the language, became a peripatetic preacher to the people in Masulipatam and the adjoining district.<ref name="DNB"/> 

Poor health compelled Fox to reside at [Ootacamund](/source/Ootacamund) in the [Nilgiri hills](/source/Nilgiri_hills) for much of the period from 1843 to October 1844, with the exception of some time spent on a tour among the mission stations of [Travancore](/source/Travancore) and [Tinnivelly](/source/Tinnivelly).<ref name="ODNB"/> His wife became ill with [hepatitis](/source/hepatitis). She died off Madras in November 1845, shortly before beginning a return journey to the United Kingdom. The practical needs of his young children, one of whom (Johnny), already ill at Masulipatam, died shortly after his mother, required Fox to make the return journey himself.<ref name="DNB"/><ref>{{cite book |title=The Spirit of Missions |date=1851 |publisher=J. L. Powell |page=263|volume=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1do-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA263 |language=en}}</ref>

Fox was in the United Kingdom from March to October 1846. He then returned to Masulipatam and his itinerant preaching, for about a year.<ref name="ODNB"/>

==Last year and death==
In 1848 Fox was obliged by his own health finally to return to England. He was able a few months later to accept the appointment of assistant secretary to the Church Missionary Society. On 14 October 1848, after a severe attack of the [dysentery](/source/dysentery) which afflicted him, he died in his mother's house at Durham.<ref name="DNB"/><ref name="ODNB"/>

A [funeral sermon](/source/funeral_sermon) for Fox was preached by John Tucker on 22 October 1848.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tucket |first1=John |title=Substance of a Sermon [on Luke xii. 35-37] preached at Hampstead Chapel, Oct. 22, 1848, on the death of the Rev. H. W. Fox, with particulars of his last days. With an Appendix |date=1849 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IHG9mgEACAAJ |language=en}}</ref> A memoir was published in 1850 by his eldest brother George, with a preface by Henry Venn Elliott. George Townshend Fox the younger had matriculated at [Trinity College, Cambridge](/source/Trinity_College%2C_Cambridge) in 1844, as a mature student, and was ordained in the Church of England in 1848.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>{{acad|id=FS843GT|name=Fox, George Townshend}}</ref>
[[File:Residence of the Rev. H. W. Fox.jpg|thumb|Illustration from ''A Memoir of the Rev. Henry Watson Fox'', residence of Henry Watson Fox in [Masulipatam](/source/Masulipatam) (engraved after a [talbotype](/source/talbotype))|358x358px]]

==Works==
In 1846, while in England, Fox wrote a short book, ''Chapters on Missions in South India''. It was published a few months before his death, giving a popular account of mission life in India, and of his observations of Hindu religion and manners.<ref name="DNB"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fox |first1=Henry Watson |title=Chapters on Missions in South India |date=1848 |publisher=Seeleys |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VCAEAAAAQAAJ |language=en}}</ref> He wrote a hymn "I hear a thousand voices singing" in 1848, for the 50th anniversary the following year of the Church Missionary Society.<ref>{{cite web |title=I hear ten thousand voices singing |url=https://hymnary.org/text/i_hear_ten_thousand_voices_singing |website=Hymnary.org |language=en}}</ref>

==Legacy==
Fox's letters and journals show his commitment to missionary work and the spread of missions.<ref name="DNB"/>

Shortly after Fox's death subscriptions were raised by his friends at Rugby and elsewhere, which resulted in the endowment of a Rugby-Fox mastership in the Church Mission School, now called the Noble College, at Masulipatam. It was at the same time arranged that an annual sermon should be preached in the Rugby School chapel at Rugby, to raise funds for the endowment of the Masulipatam school.<ref name="DNB"/>.The Rugby Fox Memorial Fund was a charity, in existence to 2003.<ref>{{cite web |title=Rugby Fox Memorial Fund - Charity 1131655-204 |url=https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/about-the-register-of-charities/-/charity-details/11640 |website=prd-ds-register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk}}</ref> Its initial committee<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fox |first1=George Townshend |title=A Memoir of the Rev. Henry Watson Fox |date=1850 |publisher=Seeleys |page=378 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b8tNAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA378 |language=en}}</ref> included [Valpy French](/source/Valpy_French), who encountered Fox as a speaker in 1846 at a breakfast meeting in [Trinity College, Oxford](/source/Trinity_College%2C_Oxford), and to whom Fox then wrote from India;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stock |first1=Eugene |title=An heroic bishop; the life story of French of Lahore |date=1914 |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton |location=London |pages=4–5 |url=https://archive.org/details/heroicbishoplife00stoc/page/4/mode/2up}}</ref> and [Henry Hayne](/source/Henry_Hayne_(diarist)) who in 1846 married at Durham, as his second wife, Isabella Paine Fox (died 1859), Fox's elder sister.<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry and Mary Hayne papers, 1797-1828 |url=https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/haynehenry |website=archives.lib.duke.edu |publisher=Duke University}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Marriages |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000267/18460808/059/0003 |work=Exeter and Plymouth Gazette |date=8 August 1846|page=3}}</ref>

The first "Rugby-Fox sermon" was given on 1 November 1848, by [Archibald Campbell Tait](/source/Archibald_Campbell_Tait). It was attended by John Sharp, then a pupil at Rugby School. He was later a master at the Masulipatam school, and then from 1865 to 1870, and 1872 to 1878, Noble's successor as its principal.<ref name="CMA">{{cite book |last1=Church Missionary Society |title=The Church Missionary Atlas: Containing an Account of the Various Countries in which the Church Missionary Society Labours, and of the Missionary Operations |date=1896 |publisher=Church Missionary Society |location=London |page=143 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5VENAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA143 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="alox">{{alox2|title=Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886/Sharp, Rev. John}}</ref> He was succeeded by [Noel Hodges](/source/Noel_Hodges), and went on to be a [Telugu language](/source/Telugu_language) lecturer at the [University of Cambridge](/source/University_of_Cambridge).<ref name="CMA"/><ref name="alox"/> 

In 1872 the Rugby-Fox preacher was Fox's son, the Rev. [Henry Elliott Fox](/source/Henry_Elliott_Fox).<ref name="DNB"/>

A pamphlet from 1852, ''Posthumous Fragment'', consisting of an unpublished article by Fox, with a "Notice of the Extent of His Influence", mentions R. Marsh Hughes, a military officer with the East India Company, later manager of the [Strangers' Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders](/source/Strangers'_Home_for_Asiatics%2C_Africans_and_South_Sea_Islanders) in London, and the convert James White from [Sierra Leone](/source/Sierra_Leone).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fox |first1=Henry Watson |title=Posthumous Fragment by ... H. W. F. ... With a notice of the extent of his influence [by W. K.] |date=1852 |publisher=Seeleys |location=London |pages=12–13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6EvVWd-NbloC&pg=PA12 |language=en}}</ref>

==Family==
In 1840 Fox married Elizabeth James (died 1845), daughter of G. H. James of Wolverhampton.<ref name="ODNB"/> Their son Henry Elliott Fox (1841–1926) was born at [Masulipatam](/source/Masulipatam).<ref>{{Who's Who|title=Fox, Rev. Henry Elliott|id=U196571}}</ref> Fox returned to England in 1846,  to place his surviving son Henry and daughter with his parents.<ref name="ODNB"/> Mary Isabella Fox, the daughter, also born at Masulipatam, married in 1887 as the second wife of Rev. Edward Lombe (died 1909).<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Frederick Arthur |editor-last=Crisp |title=Visitation of England and Wales |volume=19 |url=https://archive.org/details/visitationofengl19howa/page/87/mode/1up|year=1906 |page=87|publisher=Privately printed |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{acad|id=EVNS842E|name=Evans [afterwards Lombe], Edward}}</ref> She died in [Torquay](/source/Torquay) in 1942, at age 99.<ref>{{cite news |title=In Her 100th Year |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000329/19420406/079/0004 |work=Western Morning News |date=6 April 1942|page=4}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
'''Attribution'''

{{DNB|wstitle=Fox, Henry Watson|volume=20}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Henry Watson}}
Category:1817 births
Category:1848 deaths
Category:English Anglican priests
Category:English Anglican missionaries
Category:Anglican missionaries in India
Category:People educated at Durham School
Category:People educated at Rugby School
Category:Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford
Category:People from County Durham
Category:British missionaries in India

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Henry Watson Fox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Watson_Fox) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Watson_Fox?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.