Albert Ebenezer Fox (1857 – 20 May 1937) and Ebenezer Albert Fox (1857 – 2 October 1926) were infamous English

poachers Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

who lived in Stevenage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were identical

twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

and were also known as the Twin Foxes.

Biography

They were born in 1857 in Symonds Green and named after the Ebenezer Chapel ( Baptist Church) on Albert Street, of which their father, Henry Fox, was a devout supporter. Their mother, Charlotte Fox, was a straw-plait worker and their father farmed of land. Despite their respectable background, the twins turned to a life of

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

. They made sure never to go poaching together, and often escaped their frequent encounters with the

constabulary Constabulary may have several definitions: *A civil, non-paramilitary (police) force consisting of police officers called constables. This is the usual definition in the United Kingdom, in which all county police forces once bore the title (and som ...

by providing alibis for each other. Despite this, they did spend time in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

where they attracted the attention of Sir

Edward Henry Sir Edward Richard Henry, 1st Baronet, (26 July 1850 – 19 February 1931) was the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (head of the Metropolitan Police of London) from 1903 to 1918. His commission saw the introduction of police dogs to ...

who used twins, including the Foxes, to prove that an individual could be identified by his

fingerprint A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...

s. Their crimes made national and international news. Both twins ended their days in Chalkdell House (the Poor Law Union workhouse) in Hitchin. Ebenezer died on 2 October 1926, aged 68, and Albert died on 20 May 1937, aged 79. Both are buried in the churchyard of St Nicholas' Church, Stevenage.

Legacy

In 1952, the Twin Foxes public house, named after the brothers, opened in the Bedwell area of Stevenage, but it closed in 2012. More recently in 1998, an estate of 59 properties in Woolmer Green, the other side of

Knebworth Knebworth is a village and civil parish in the north of Hertfordshire, England, immediately south of Stevenage. The civil parish covers an area between the villages of Datchworth, Woolmer Green, Codicote, Kimpton, Whitwell, St Paul's Walden ...

from Stevenage was named Twin Foxes after Albert and Ebenezer Fox. Busts of both men rest on top of pillars at the entrance to the estate with years of birth and death.

References

*Ashby, Margaret (1995) ''Stevenage Past''. Phillimore & Co Ltd. 20th-century English criminals British identical twins 1857 births 1926 deaths 1936 deaths People from Stevenage Poachers English twins 19th-century English criminals Burials in Hertfordshire {{crime-bio-stub