Fox family
Posted by Laura W on January 07, 1998 at 17:11:36:
In response to Fox Follow-Up, written by Woodhouse on January 07, 1998 at 08:44:39
]
] The Charles Fox story is a good example. Can you tell me how he came to have the surname Fox? Was it Lord Holland's family name? Lady Holland's first husband's name? Her maiden name?
Fox is the family name of the Hollands, and also of the Earls of Ilchester. A very famous member of the family was Charles James Fox, who was the younger son of the 1st Baron Holland.
Lady Holland (wife of the 3rd Lord Holland) was born Elizabeth Vassall, and was the daughter of a wealthy Jamaica plantation owner. Her first husband was Sir Godfrey Webster, by whom she had a couple of children. She ran off with Lord Holland, whom she met in Italy while he was on an extended Grand Tour. They lived together for some time and had their first son, Charles, before her divorce was final and they could marry.
The first Lady Holland was born Lady Caroline Lennox, eldest daughter of the 2nd Duke of Richmond. She eloped with Henry Fox, then merely a politician, and it was several years before her parents forgave her. She was a great-granddaughter of Charles II and had definitely married beneath herself. Curiously, later Lady Caroline was created Baroness Holland in 1761, with a remedy to her children by her husband, Henry Fox. Fox was then created Baron Holland of Foxley in 1762.
The 1st Earl of Ilchester was Henry Fox's older brother, Stephen Fox. Holland House eventually ended up in the hands of his descendants when the Holland line ran out.
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