William Johnson Fox (1 March 1786 – 3 June 1864) was an English Unitarian minister, politician, and political orator.

Early life

Fox was born at Uggeshall Farm, Wrentham, near

Southwold Southwold is a seaside town and civil parish on the English North Sea coast in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk. It lies at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is ...

, Suffolk on 1 March 1786. His parents were strict

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Cal ...

s. When he was still young, his father quit farming. After time at a chapel school, Fox became a weaver's boy, an errand-boy, and in 1799, a bank clerk. An autodidact, he entered prize competitions. From September 1806 Fox trained for the Independent ministry, at

Homerton College Homerton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Its first premises were acquired in Homerton, London in 1768, by an informal gathering of Protestant dissenters with origins in the seventeenth century. In 1894, the co ...

. His tutor there was

John Pye Smith John Pye-Smith (25 May 1774 – 5 February 1851) was a Congregational minister, theologian and tutor, associated with reconciling geological sciences with the Bible, repealing the Corn Laws and abolishing slavery. He was the author of many ...

, the

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs it ...

theologian. Early in 1810 he took charge of a congregation at Fareham in Hampshire. Failing to make a small seceding congregation there viable, he left within two years to become minister of the Unitarian chapel at Chichester.

South Place Chapel circle

In 1817 Fox moved to London, becoming minister of Parliament Court Chapel. In 1824 he moved the congregation to

South Place Chapel The Conway Hall Ethical Society, formerly the South Place Ethical Society, based in London at Conway Hall, is thought to be the oldest surviving freethought organisation in the world and is the only remaining ethical society in the United Kin ...

, in

Finsbury Finsbury is a district of Central London, forming the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Islington. It borders the City of London. The Manor of Finsbury is first recorded as ''Vinisbir'' (1231) and means "manor of a man called Finn" ...

on the edge of the City of London, which had been built specifically for him. Around Fox and the chapel there gathered a group of progressive thinkers, including

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

s and, through

William Lovett William Lovett (8 May 1800 – 8 August 1877) was a British activist and leader of the Chartist political movement. He was one of the leading London-based artisan radicals of his generation. A proponent of the idea that political rights could ...

, some adherents of

Chartism Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of 1838 and was a national protest movement, w ...

. The circle included

Sophia Dobson Collet Sophia Dobson Collet (1 February 1822 – 27 March 1894) was a 19th-century English feminist freethinker. She wrote under the pen name ''Panthea'' in George Holyoake's ''Reasoner'', wrote for ''The Spectator'' and was a friend of the leading fe ...

, who saw some of Fox's sermons into print;

Mary Leman Gillies Mary Leman Grimstone (12 June 1796 – 4 November 1869) was a British poet and novelist. She wrote about women's rights and one of the first Australian novels, ''Louise Egerton''. Life Born in Beccles in Suffolk as Mary Rede, her father was ...

, who wrote on women's rights; and

Caroline Ashurst Stansfeld Caroline Ashurst Stansfeld (; 28 January 181629 March 1885) was a member of an important family of radical activists in mid-nineteenth-century England who supported causes ranging from women's suffrage to Italian unification. In 1844, she mar ...

, whose marriage to

James Stansfeld Sir James Stansfeld, (; 5 March 182017 February 1898) was a British Radical and Liberal politician and social reformer who served as Under-Secretary of State for India (1866), Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1869–71) and President of ...

was conducted by Fox. Fox's position as a leading Unitarian minister was jeopardized in 1834 when he left his wife for one of his wards, and became an advocate of freer divorce. The Chapel's committee, led by

Thomas Field Gibson Thomas Field Gibson FGS (3 March 1803 – 12 December 1889) was a Unitarian silk manufacturer and philanthropist. He supported several novel initiatives to enhance British manufacturing quality and international trade while improving life fo ...

's father Thomas Gibson, accepted Fox's resignation, which led to Fox's removal from the

British Unitarian The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GAUFCC or colloquially British Unitarians) is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christians, and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom and Irelan ...

ministry and a secession of fifty families from the Chapel. He set up a new household in the

Craven Hill Craven Hill Gardens is a classical, Victorian, residential garden estate which has two small garden squares, the green subset of squares in London. It is in Bayswater, in its Lancaster Gate neighbourhood, south-west of contemporary Paddington ...

area of

Bayswater Bayswater is an area within the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and ...

and re-established himself as a preacher of

rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy'' ...

. Charles Hardwick grouped Fox with

Theodore Parker Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810 – May 10, 1860) was an American transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church. A reformer and abolitionist, his words and popular quotations would later inspire speeches by Abraham Lincol ...

and Robert William Mackay as proponents of "absolute religion". Fox's public presence became increasingly that of a commentator on social and political matters. The South Place chapel itself eventually lost its identification with Unitarianism, becoming the South Place Ethical Society.

Politician

As a supporter of the Anti- Corn-Law movement, Fox won celebrity as an impassioned orator and journalist, and from 1847 to 1862 he intermittently represented Oldham in Parliament as a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and ...

Death

Fox died 3 June 1864, in London.

Works

He was editor of the ''

Monthly Repository The ''Monthly Repository'' was a British monthly Unitarian periodical which ran between 1806 and 1838. In terms of editorial policy on theology, the ''Repository'' was largely concerned with rational dissent. Considered as a political journal, i ...

'', and a frequent contributor to the ''

Westminster Review The ''Westminster Review'' was a quarterly British publication. Established in 1823 as the official organ of the Philosophical Radicals, it was published from 1824 to 1914. James Mill was one of the driving forces behind the liberal journal unti ...

'', and published works on political and religious topics. An edition of his ''Works'' was edited by

William Ballantyne Hodgson William Ballantyne Hodgson (6 October 1815 – 24 August 1880) was a Scottish educational reformer and political economist. Life The son of William Hodgson, a printer, he was born in Edinburgh on 6 October 1815. In 1820 the family were living ...

and Henry James Slack, and appeared from 1865.

Family

Fox was a friend of radical journalist Benjamin Flower. On Flower's death in 1829, his two daughters, Eliza Flower and Sarah Fuller Flower Adams, became Fox's wards. Fox separated from his wife in the 1830s, and, causing much scandal, apparently set up home with Eliza Flower and his children. Following the separation from his wife, Fox brought up his ward himself, living first in

Stamford Hill Stamford Hill is an area in Inner London, England, about 5.5 miles north-east of Charing Cross. The neighbourhood is a sub-district of Hackney, the major component of the London Borough of Hackney, and is known for its Hasidic community, the l ...

and later

.Frederick Lee Bridell 1830-63, C Aitchison Hull - One of Fox's daughters, also named Eliza, married Frederick Lee Bridell. Both were accomplished artists.

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, William Johnson 1786 births 1864 deaths Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1847–1852 UK MPs 1852–1857 UK MPs 1857–1859 UK MPs 1859–1865 Politics of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham Alumni of Homerton College, Cambridge People associated with Conway Hall Ethical Society English Unitarian ministers People from Wrentham, Suffolk