Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/315

 us. ix. APRIL is, 1911] NOTES AND QUERIES,

311

There is the will of a John Fox the elder <dated 25 Aug., 1699, proved 9 Nov., 1702), styled " Gentleman of Stradbroke." He left

" to Charles Fox my eldest son 201. lent by Rev. William Bed ord to my said son Charles, to be repaid him by my executors. To youngest son John Fox messuages and lands in Stradbroke -and Wingfield, to be used by him to pay my debts. To said son John 250 1. due to me from Newenson Fox, gent., my kinsman, towards paying my debts. To said son John Fox 2001. due to me from Joseph Fox, my kinsman, given me by the will of Simon Fox, gent., my late brother deceased, to be likewise used to pay my debts. To Simon and Elizabeth Fox, son and daughter of the said Charles Fox, my eldest son. To John and Susan, son and daughter of my said son John Fox. My son John Fox to be sole executor and residuary legatee. Witnesses Oiles Carver, Thomas Neale, John Fella."

It should be noted that in 1673 " Nevinson Pox " had a grant of arms (see Add. MSS. Brit. Museum 22,883). It says in an old Peerage, under ' Ilchester,' that Sir Stephen Fox had an augmentation of his paternal arms. It would be interesting to know if this " John Fox the elder " was the " Major John Fox " who loyally behaved himself in the late rebellion, suffering severe im- prisonments (see ante, p. 168).

In the will of Joseph Fox of Stradbroke, Esq. (also at Ipswich, Archdeaconry Court Register, 1 749, f o. 1 65), dated 20 Dec., 1 748, he leaves to his eldest son Joseph Fox his copy- holds in Stradbroke, Hoxne, Weybread, &o. :

" I confirm unto dearly beloved wife Anne all such lands, &c., as were settled on her before her marriage. Also all my freehold messuages, lands, &c., &c., in Stradbroke for term of her natural life (she paying such sums as are due from me to my son Thomas Fox as shall appear to have been given to him by the wills of Frances Fox, his godmother, and Thomas Barker, his godfather, long since deceased). On her death the lands to remain to my eldest son, Joseph Fox, and his heirs, and in default of such unto my son Thomas Fox and his heirs, and in default unto Felix Fox my son."

This will presumably establishes the identity of this Joseph Fox with the Joseph buried at Stradbroke on 31 Dec., 1748. A Thomas, son of Joseph and Anne Fox, was baptized there on 23 Feb., 1717, possibly the " son Thomas Fox " of the will 1748. Also a, Felix was baptized 29 Aug., 1733, buried 4 Aug., 1757. The baptism of Joseph Fox, the testator's eldest son, is not in the Strad- broke registers. It is noteworthy that this last testator leaves

to be appropriated towards the cleaning and repairing of the family tomb of the Foxes which be buried in the churchyard at Stradbroke, and any overplus to be given to the poor on Palm Sunday."
 * ' land and premises in Withersdale, co. Suffolk,

Possibly Joseph Fox, who married Elizabeth Smallpiece at Worlingham in 1756, was Joseph, eldest son of this Joseph and Anne his wife, whose sons were baptized Joseph, Sanford, Simon, and Stephen. The last name is reminiscent of Sir Stephen Fox, knighted by Charles II. for loyalty in 1665. (What relation was he to Major John Fox, who suffered in the rebellion, and to Simon Fox the elder, whose will was proved in 1661, and who left a son Nathaniel Fox, besides his heir Simon Fox?) It is note- worthy that Sir Stephen Fox was twice married: first to Elizabeth, daughter of William WTiittle of Lancashire, by whom he had three children : Charles Fox, Pay- master to the Forces, died s.p. in 1713 ; Elizabeth, married Charles, Lord Corn- wallys ; and Jane, married the Earl of Northampton. By his second marriage, with Christian, daughter of the Rev. Charles Hope (she died 1718), he had Stephen (Earl of Ilchester) and Henry Fox (Baron Holland). Sir Stephen was 89 when he died in 1716. Was his father a brother of. Simon Fox of Stradbroke, living there in 1625, and probably father of Theodore Fox, son of a Simon buried there 11 March, 1624 ? Thomas, son of the same, was buried 23 Jan., 1625. It all becomes very interest- ing, and could surely be discovered through the history of the rebellion, although it is curious that the old Peerages do not attempt to find an ancestry for that \vell-known Cavalier Sir Stephen Fox. X. Y. Z.

Yarmouth.

MILO AS A SURNAME (11 S. ix. 250). This surname is of far greater antiquity than the eighteenth century. In 1291 Milo of Oystergate, in the parish of St. Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge, be- queathed his house, shops, and rents at Oystergate to the said church for the main- tenance of a burning lamp before the great cross at the high altar (Hennessy's ' Eccle- siasticum Repertorium ').

REGINALD JACOBS.

BREAST TACKLE : PUSH-PLOUGH (US. ix. 109, 194, 234). The human plough so dis- tinguished from the horse-plough is still used at the old-fashioned villages of Ilming- ton and Snitterfield, near Stratford-on- Avon. A very old specimen of this curious and laborious instrument of husbandry is in the possession of our local botanist, Mr. F. G. Savage. A leathern apron is worn by the user of such ploughs to mitigate friction on the body. WM. JAGGARD.

Rose Bank, Stratford-on-Avon.