Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/138

Fox  Islands. Thence he proceeded to the south of Coates Island until 19 July, when he commenced his search for the undiscovered passage by the north-west. On 27 July he reached the furthest point of Button, on 'Sir T. Roe's Welcome' Island, where he found traces of native sepulture, which he carefully examined. Being prohibited by his instructions from proceeding to a higher latitude than 63° N. in this direction, he turned southward along the west shore of Hudson's Bay until 27 Aug., when he entered the mouth of the Nelson River, where he found the remaining half of an inscribed board erected by Button, which he replaced by a new one of his own. Hence he sailed E.S.E. sixty-one leagues until 30 Aug., when he met his rival, Captain James, in the Maria of Bristol, with whom, after some trouble in getting on board, he dined and spent seventeen hours. Fox bluntly tells us that he found his host 'no seaman.' After adieux, Fox proceeded on his course down to 55° 14’, or Wolstenholme's ultima vale, now known as Cape Henrietta Maria, at the head of James Bay. On 3 Sept. he turned the head of his ship northward until he reached Cape Pembroke on Coates Island five days later. From 15 to 20 Sept. Fox was employed in making the remarkable series of observations on the channel that bears his name on the west shore of what is now known as Baffin Land. On 22 Sept., after reaching 'Fox his farthest,' Fox turned the head of his ship homeward, continuing his observations among the numerous islands and sounds off the north shore of Hudson's Strait, which have never been marked in our admiralty charts. On 28 Sept. Fox found himself, with nearly half his crew worn out with cold and fatigue, once more off Resolution Island, at the entrance to the strait. On 5 Oct. he made Cape Chidley; two days later he writes that they were 'revived by warmth in open sea, most of us ready to fall down with the rest who were down already.' On account of the absence of the moon he directed his course homeward south-east to the English Channel instead of the shorter, but more dangerous one by way of the North Sea. On 31 Oct. he concludes: 'Came into the Downs with all my men recovered and sound, not having lost one man or boy, nor any manner of tackling, having been forth neere six months.' Fox is best known by the following work, which contains the results of his voyage: ' North-west Fox, or Fox from the Northwest Passage. . . with briefe Abstracts of the Voyages of Cabot, Frobisher, Davis, Weymouth, Knight, Hudson, Button, Gibbons, Bylot, Baffin, Hawkridge. . . Mr. James Hall's three Voyages to Groynland. . . with the Author his owne Voyage, being the xvith . . . T. Fawcett and B. Alsop, imp. London,' 1635, 4to. This curious book was entered for the Stationers' Company 15 Dec. 1634 (, iv. 331). It was accompanied by a large folded map of the Arctic regions, now rarely found in the book, but which is one of the most interesting and important documents in the history of Arctic exploration. References to two other journals of the voyage will be found below. It would appear that Fox was allowed to pass the closing years of his life in neglect. Towards the end of his book he says that he had 'wash't the Blackmore these five yeares, having yet received neither sallery, wages, or reward, except what some few gentlemen hath, I know not whether in curtesse or charity, bestowed upon me, having before had my meanes taken from me in the time of warres, betwixt France, Spain, and us ' (p. 268). Fox, who was a younger brother of the Trinity House, died at Whitby in July 1635.

[Arber's Reg. Stat. Company, iv. 331-2; Charlton's Hist. of Whitby. 1779, p. 315; Corlass's Hull Authors, 1879 (Captain Luke Fox (N. W. Fox), London, 1635, &c.); Rundell's Voyages toward the North-West, 1849 (Hakluyt Soc.); Sheahan's Hist. of Hull, 1864; Sainsbury's State Papers, Col. Ser., America and West Indies, 1574-1660, 8vo, p. 105; Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 19302 (two Journals, one by Captain Luke Fox, the other by the master of the Charles, eighteenth-century copies, more or less perfect).]  FOX, RICHARD (1448?–1528), bishop of Winchester. [See ]  FOX, ROBERT (1798?–1843), antiquary, was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, 5 March 1819, and practised in Huntingdon and the neighbourhood. He was the founder of the Literary and Scientific Institution of Huntingdon in 1841, and was himself an able lecturer on subjects connected with antiquities, geology, natural history, and philosophy. His only publication, 'The History of Godmanchester, in the county of Huntingdon,' 8vo, London, 1831, one of the best of its class, gained him admission to the Society of Antiquaries. He was also a member of the Numismatic Society. In 1826 and 1831 he served as a bailiff of Godmanchester, and died there on 8 June 1843, aged forty-five, greatly esteemed for his benevolence. He left a small but choice collection of coins and antiquities, mostly local 'finds.' This, together with his philosophical apparatus, was purchased by subscription after his death, and placed in the Huntingdon Literary and Scientific Institution as a testimonial to his memory.