Samuel Middleton Fox was an amateur writer and dramatist, who also charmingly documented the life of the wealthy, QuakerFox family of Falmouth during the latter years of the 19th century.
Birth and parental families
Samuel Middleton Fox was born 16 March 1856, the son of Rachel, daughter of Sarah and Alfred Fox, of Falmouth and Samuel Lindoe Fox, son of Maria Fox and Samuel Fox of Tottenham and of the Wellington branch of the Fox family. The two Quaker Fox family branches has separated in the 18th century. He was the first of many grandsons of his maternal grandparents. His sister, Charlotte Maria was born in December 1857. His father died in November 1862 and his mother, Rachel Fox married again to Phillip Debell Tuckett, and they had three further sons, the first given the same name as his father, the second, was Percival Fox Tuckett and the third, Ivor Lloyd Tuckett.
Childhood
Two homes
S.M. Fox describes his happy childhood visits to his relations in Falmouth and legends about their family history in Two homes, by a grandson. The two homes belonged to his Falmouth grandparents, Sarah and Alfred Fox, who had a house in Falmouth called Woodhouse Place and a coastal residence and garden called Glendurgan. His grandfather's brothers also had houses and gardens nearby at Trebah and Penjerrick. His aunt, Lucy Anna Hodgkin, objected strongly to his negative account of Uncle Joshua Fox of Tregedna, in Chapter 11 of Two homes.
Helen Juliet Rachel Fox, born at Reading, 1 June 1890 and married Roger Ernle Money-Kyrle
Frederick Middleton Fox, OBE, 1962, born at Albury, Surrey 7 May 1892 and married Helen Case, whose father Howard Brown Case was a 1st class passenger on the Titanic. He died in the disaster.
Viola Constance Fox, born at Albury, Surrey 22 July 1894, died 29 October 1918
Cyril Spencer Fox, born at Albury, Surrey 10 June 1896 died 31 May 1948
Adelaide Fox inherited Fawe Park, after her parents and brother's death and passed it to her son, Frederick in the 20th Century. In 1877, the family closed the footpath's on the Fawe Park estate. There was mass public opposition to the closure and the protestors won a court case, declaring the footpaths open to the public.
Military service
In 1899, a Samuel Middleton Fox was reported as promoted to Second Lieutenant in the First Cumberland Volunteer Battalion of the Border Regiment and in 1908 as Lieutenant in the Fourth Battalion of the Border Regiment. This activity would not have pleased his local Quaker Meeting, if he was still a member of the Religious Society of Friends.
Publications
Our Own Pompeii: a romance of to-morrow, Edinburgh : W. Blackwood & Sons, 1887. Published anonymously, in 2 volumes
George: A story in drab and scarlet, London : D. Stott, 1890. 3 volumes, published anonymously "By the author of Our own Pompeii".
Verses for Granny: Suggested by the children... Illustrated by Dorothea A. H. Drew. London : T. Burleigh, 1899.
A Child of the Shore: a Cornish romance. London & New York : John Lane, 1905. 307 p. ; 8º.
"Some lessons from Japan" in Transactions and proceedings of the Japan Society, Vol.VII, Part 1,, p. 60–79
The waters of bitterness; a play in three acts and The clodhopper; an incredible comedy, Series: Plays of To-day and To-morrow, London, T.F. Unwin Review: " I am inclined to think that we shall hear a great deal of Mr. Fox supposing that Mr. Fox writes other plays as clever as The Waters of Bitterness, and supposing that managers think the public clever enough to appreciate them. Anyhow his is a strong and bold debut." Max Beerbohm in The Saturday Review.
This generation : a play New York, Duffield and London, T F Unwin
A Barca Boy: a story of Venice London, Heath Cranton: London,
Two homes, by a grandson, Plymouth, William Brendon and son, Ltd, Printers – printed for private circulation – copies obtainable from the Friends Bookshop, Bishopsgate, London
Goethe: a play in four acts by S. M. and C. S. Fox, London, Rich and Cowan,
Theatrical performances
Performed at Stockport Garrick The Waters of Bitterness première of three-act version S M Fox The Clodhopper première S M Fox
Death
Middleton Fox died 12 March 1941. His executors were his half-brother Phillip Debell Tuckett and his son, Frederick Middleton Fox
