Joseph Fox the younger
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Joseph Fox (1758 – 25 February 1832) was an English apothecary and medical doctor.
He was the son of Joseph Fox the elder, and his wife Elizabeth Hingston; and the brother of Edward Long Fox.[1] Another brother, Richard Fox M.D. of Falmouth (1764–1841), was another physician, and he had a physician son Joseph Fox M.D. of Falmouth, who is therefore possible to confuse with the Joseph Fox who died in 1832.[2]
Fox, after practicing in Falmouth for some years as an apothecary, "acquired by marriage and his profession a small independence" and decided to try his fortune in London as a physician. He studied at Edinburgh and in 1783 graduated M.D. at St. Andrews. Settling in London, he was admitted L.R.C.P. in 1788, and in 1789 was elected physician to the London Hospital. In 1792 the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh made him a fellow.[3][4]
When Fox settled among them, Londoners of the Society of Friends were helpful. It was through the influence of Thomas Smith, a banker, of Lombard Street, London, a relative through the Tregelles family (see also Edwin Octavius Tregelles),[5] and other wealthy men, that he became Physician to the London Hospital. This was a period of acrimony at the hospital, in its elections, and both Fox, in post for 11 years, and his successor were regarded as "of no particular election", owing their position to non-medical influence; medical merit was only rewarded, according to the staff view, with the election of John Yelloly, after that of Isaac Buxton.[6]
In 1800 Fox resigned his post at the London Hospital, in favour of his private practice. Having made a fortune enough to retire on, he left London, having disposed of the practice to Dr. Frampton. He went to Falmouth.[3] In retirement, he lived first in his cottage at Mylor, across the water from Falmouth. "But there he was soon found out and drawn into practice, working very hard as a country doctor".
Fox was doctor to a merchant ship's Captain, Christopher Buckingham, and to his wife, Thorazine, who lived in Flushing. He brought all their children into the world, and one of them later wrote that at the age of six he was sent to Trevissome Farm "to be' inoculated for the small-pox". If he is correct this would be 1792. He continues "the operation was performed by a worthy Quaker, Dr Fox of Falmouth, and I was for the puncture, which was so suddenly and unexpectedly made that I was saved all the pain of apprehension which is generally greater than that of the wound itself."
In 1798 Captain Yescombe of the Packet Service advertised Wood cottage at Greatwood for sale, a property which lay near the ferry crossing at Mylor Creek. Joseph purchased the house, living there for many years.[7] His last years were spent in Plymouth. He was buried in Charles Church Yard, Plymouth.
Conversion
"From the Devonshire House monthly meeting minutes Joseph's wife Eizabeth Peeters had transferred her Friends' Membership from London to Cornwall but there was no mention of Joseph, although he appeared in these minutes in the early 1790s. In autumn 1798, Joseph asked to be disowned by the Society of Friends when he "acknowledged his being convicted in his own mind of the inconsistency of his conduct with the religious principles" and denounced his moral conduct in being the father of an illegitimate child.[8]
