George Fox

1759 - 1828  (68 years)    Has more than 100 ancestors and 5 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	George Fox
  Birth	27 Nov 1759
  Gender	Male
  Death	16 Sep 1828
  Siblings	12 Siblings
  + 1. Thomazine Mickle Fox,   b. 15 Jun 1748   d. 7 Nov 1821  (Age 73 years) ▻ George Roberts,  m. 20 Feb 1772   2. Elizabeth Fox,   b. 13 Oct 1749   d. 1836  (Age 86 years)   3. Hannah Fox,   b. 9 Oct 1750   d. 19 Feb 1824  (Age 73 years)   4. Samuel Mickle Fox,   b. 18 Aug 1754   d. 18 Feb 1755  (Age 0 years)   5. Justinian Fox,   b. 12 Aug 1755   d. 25 Feb 1756  (Age 0 years)   6. Joseph Mickle Fox,   b. 15 Sep 1757   d. 18 Jan 1784  (Age 26 years) + 7. George Fox,   b. 27 Nov 1759   d. 16 Sep 1828  (Age 68 years) ▻ Mary Pemberton,  m. 25 Nov 1789 ;   Mary Dickinson,  m. 10 Oct 1808   8. Samuel Mickle Fox,   b. 9 Sep 1761   d. 17 Oct 1762  (Age 1 year) + 9. Samuel Mickle Fox,   b. 2 Oct 1763, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA d. Apr 1808  (Age 44 years) ▻ Sarah Pleasants,  m. 27 Nov 1788   10. Elizabeth Fox,   b. 16 Jul 1765   d. 25 Sep 1765  (Age 0 years)   11. Elizabeth Fox,   b. 13 Apr 1767   d. 18 Jul 1767  (Age 0 years)   12. Elizabeth Fox,   b. 30 Jun 1768   d. 19 Jul 1768  (Age 0 years) + 13. Elizabeth Hill Fox,   b. 14 Oct 1771   d. 23 Jan 1861  (Age 89 years) ▻ Joseph Parker Norris,  m. 20 May 1790
  Person ID	I201780	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	11 Mar 2001

  
  

  Father	Joseph Fox,   b. Abt 1710, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA d. 10 Dec 1779 (Age 69 years)
  Mother	Elizabeth Mickle,   b. 1729   d. 1 Jan 1805 (Age 76 years)
  Marriage	25 Sep 1749
  Family ID	F82722	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Mary Pemberton,   b. 25 Mar 1771   d. 5 Jul 1801 (Age 30 years)
  Marriage	25 Nov 1789
  Children	1. Charles Pemberton Fox,   b. 3 Jul 1792   d. 10 Oct 1866, Champlost (Age 74 years)   2. Eliza Mary Pemberton Fox,   b. 30 May 1794   d. 17 May 1873 (Age 78 years)   3. Esther Pemberton Fox,   b. 25 Oct 1797   d. 24 Jul 1798 (Age 0 years)
  Family ID	F86240	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	11 Mar 2001

  
  

  Family 2	Mary Dickinson,   b. 1768   d. 28 Mar 1822 (Age 54 years)
  Marriage	10 Oct 1808
  Children	1. Joseph Dickinson Fox,   b. 1804   d. 19 Oct 1825 (Age 21 years)   2. Mary Dickinson Fox,   b. 13 Dec 1807   d. 19 Feb 1895, Champlost (Age 87 years)
  Family ID	F86242	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	11 Mar 2001

  
  

• Histories

  Histories (Log in)

  
  

• Notes

  He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, having entered May 21, 1775, though he did not graduate. Inheriting his father's abilities in large measure, he attained prominence in various fields of endeavor. He was made a member of the American Philosophical Society January 16, 1784. From 1789 to 1791, and again from 1812 until his death, he was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1800 he represented the City of Philadelphia in the State Assembly. He was one of the organizers of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal Company, and was one of its first directors. In 1784, upon a second issue of stock made by the Bank of North America, organized three years previously, George Fox subscribed for fifteen shares. From January 12, 1818, until his death, ten years later, he was a director of the Bank. He was a man of large wealth, having had a considerable inheritance, both of personal and real estate, from his father and elder brother, including the Fox country seat, to which the name of "Champlost" was subsequently given by the son. This name he had brought home from Europe, whither he had gone shortly after his father's death. Accompanied by young Dr. John Foulke, he had sailed, May 4, 1780, for Port l'Orient, in the brig Duke of Leinster. They had borne letters of introduction to Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Bond and Joseph Wharton. The former wrote of them as "the sons of our worthy deceased Friends Judah Foulke and Joseph Fox. They have both had a liberal education, and are now in the laudable pursuit of further useful knowledge in Europe." Young Fox spent a considerable time in France. Upon one occasion, while dining at the chateau of the Comte de Champlost, he became suddenly ill. He was removed to Paris, where, after a time, he sank so low that his physicians thought him dead, and he was consigned to the care of the Capuchins for burial. A little warmth being discovered in his hands, restoratives were applied, and he eventually recovered his health and returned to America. Subsequently the name of the estate where he had had so remarkable an experience was given to his own country seat in Philadelphia County, inherited in 1784, from his brother, Joseph Mickle Fox. Many of Franklin's most valuable papers came into the hands of George Fox, the same having been bequeathed to him by his friend, William Temple Franklin, the Philosopher's grandson. Most of these invaluable documents now belong either to the American Philosophical Society or the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Drinker makes mention in her Journal, August 11, 1797, of a visit paid by her son-in-law, Jacob Downing, and her two married daughters,+ Sarah Downing and Mary Rhoads, to Champlost, as follows: Jacob took S. and M. Rhoads out to visit George and Mary Fox, at their place, Champlost. They staid till after night, which I by no means approve of. Townsend Ward, in his "Second Street and Second Street Road and its Associations," gives the following account of "Champlost," home of George Fox, which lies half a mile from the York Road and near the present Fern Rock station on the Reading Railroad: "Half a mile west of our route, is Champlost, a charming place, where the Fox familyhave long lived. In 1722 it became the property of James Portues by whose will, in 1743, it went to Joseph Fox, whose town house, 48 N. Third Street, now bears the two nos. 46 and 48 N. Third Street. In 1782 his son Joseph M. Fox succeeded to the property, and on his death in 1784 it was inherited by his brother George, who held it until his death in 1828, when it went to his children. George Fox was at one time owner of the largest part of the Franklin papers. (See introduction to Smyth's "Life of Benjamin Franklin," from which the following account is taken.) Franklin by his will bequeathed all his manuscripts and papers to William Temple Franklin, his grandson, who had acted as his secretary in Paris, and who was very dear to him. He seems to have entertained an exaggerated notion of William Temple's abilities, and to have believed him capable of properly sorting, arranging and editing these multitudinous papers and giving them permanent literary form. But William Temple Franklin had neither literary faculty or historic sense; he was indolent and timid, and was aghast at the magnitude of the task before him. He culled out what he imagined to be the most important of the manuscripts and carried them to London with the apparent intention of devoting himself to his editorial task. The papers left by him in Philadelphia, by far the greater part of the whole collection, he bequeathed to his friend George Fox, from whose son, Charles P. Fox, they came to The American Philosophical Society, where they are now carefully guarded. The announcement of the intention to make the society custodian of these historical documents was made in a letter from Charles P. Fox to John Vaughan, Librarian, September 17, 1840: "Upon conversing with my sisters respecting the papers of Dr. Franklin, bequeathed by William T. Franklin, Esq., to my father, we have concluded they cannot be better disposed of than by presenting them to the society of which he was the founder. Not all of these papers, however, went to the American Philosophical Society, for after the bulk of them had been delivered some still remained for many years in a garret over the stable at Champlost. About 1862 Miss Fox, who was probably ignorant of their historical importance, gave orders that they should be sold for old paper; but fortunately Mrs. Holbrook, who was visiting Miss Fox at the time, saw the papers being carried out and remonstrated. They were brought back, all but one unlucky barrel, which had already gone to the mill. Miss Fox retained some and gave the rest-a generous trunkfull-to Mrs. Holbrook. From her they descended to her son, George 0. Holbrook, from whom they were purchased, 1903, through the efforts of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, and deposited in the Library of University of Pennsylvania