Person:Sarah Fox (55)

Sarah Fox's origins are unclear. She generally claimed to have been born around 1825 in Derby, although on one occasion she gave her place of birth as Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, over 100 miles from Derby. When she married she said that her father was a paper maker called John Fox. There was a Fox family of paper makers from the Rickmansworth area who had moved to Derby by 1851, although no obvious Sarah belonging to that family has been found.^[9]

Sarah's first confirmed sighting is on 3rd October 1856, when she was married at St Mellion in Cornwall (three hundred miles from Derby) to John Cox, a gamekeeper originally from Barnack in Northamptonshire - also a long way from Cornwall. They both lived at Newton, a large estate in the west of the parish.

After their marriage, Sarah and John continued living at St Mellion, where they had six children between 1857 and 1867. In 1864 they lost two of their children in quick succession; their baby daughter Hannah was buried on 24th June 1864 and their three year old daughter Mary was buried six days later.

Some time between 1867 and 1869 the family left St Mellion and moved to the parish of St Ewe, where their youngest child was born in 1869. In St Ewe they lived at the hamlet of Pengrugla, adjoining the Heligan estate, where John was employed as a gamekeeper.

John died on Christmas Eve 1891, aged 64. On 14th January 1892, Sarah obtained a grant of administration from the probate court in Bodmin to allow her to take over her late husband's estate, which was valued at £1151 11s 11d.

By 1901, Sarah had left Pengrugla, and was living with her son William at Reskivers in the parish of Veryan, about five miles west of Pengrugla. Both she and William described themselves as 'living on own means', showing that they did not need to work, although they were not ostentatiously wealthy - their home was fairly modest, only having four rooms.

In 1911, Sarah was living with her eldest daughter Catherine and her family at Tregain, a farm in the parish of St Ewe.

Sarah later moved again, to St Keverne in the far south-west of Cornwall, where she died in 1919. She was said to be 95 years old. She was buried back at St Ewe on 7th March 1919.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 England. 1861 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class RG9; Piece 1525; Folio 51; Page 9, 7 Apr 1861.

   Address: Newton, St Mellion, Cornwall
   John Cox, head, married, male, 33 [1827/8], Gamekeeper, b. Barnack, Northamptonshire
   Sarah Cox, wife, married, female, 35 [1825/6], b. Derby
   Catherine Cox, daughter, unmarried, female, 3 [1857/8], b. St Mellion, Cornwall
   Lucy Cox, daughter, unmarried, female, 2 [1858/9], b. St Mellion, Cornwall
   Mary Cox, daughter, female, 2mo [1861], b. St Mellion, Cornwall

2. ↑ England. England and Wales. 1871 Census Schedules. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class RG10; Piece 2269; Folio 10; Page 12, 2 Apr 1871.

   Address: Pengruglar, St Ewe, Cornwall
   John Cox, head, married, male, 42 [1828/9], Gamekeeper, b. Barnack, Northamptonshire
   Sarrah [sic] Cox, wife, married, female, 45 [1825/6], b. Derby, Derbyshire
   Catherine Cox, daughter, female, 13 [1857/8], Scholar, b. St Mellion, Cornwall
   Lucy Cox, daughter, female, 11 [1859/60], Scholar, b. St Mellion, Cornwall
   William Cox, son, male, 8 [1862/3], Scholar, b. St Mellion, Cornwall
   Sarrah [sic] Cox, daughter, female, 4 [1866/7], Scholar, b. St Mellion, Cornwall
   Elizabeth Cox, daughter, female, 2 [1868/9], b. St Ewe, Cornwall

3. ↑ England. 1881 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands: . (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class RG11; Piece 2304; Folio 76; Page 10, 3 Apr 1881.

   Address: Pengruglar, St Ewe, Cornwall
   John Cox, head, married, male, 52 [1828/9], Gamekeeper, b. Barnack, Northamptonshire
   Sarah Cox, wife, married, female, 56 [1824/5], b. Derby, Derbyshire
   William Cox, son, unmarried, male, 18 [1862/3], Gamekeeper, b. St Mellion, Cornwall
   Sarah Cox, daughter, female, 14 [1866/7], Scholar, b. St Mellion, Cornwall
   Elizabeth Cox, daughter, female, 12 [1868/9], Scholar, b. St Ewe, Cornwall

4. ↑ England. 1891 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class RG12; Piece 1824; Folio 62; Page 10, 5 Apr 1891.

   Address: Pengrugla, St Ewe, Cornwall
   John Cox, head, married, male, 61 [1829/30], Gamekeeper, employed, b. Barnack, Northamptonshire
   Sarah Cox, wife, married, female, 63 [1827/8], b. Derby
   Elizabeth Cox, daughter, single, female, 22 [1868/9], b. St Ewe, Cornwall

5. ↑ England. England. 1901 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   RG13; Piece 2217; Folio 109; Page 6, 31 Mar 1901.

   Address: Reskivers, Veryan, Cornwall
   4 rooms occupied
   Sarah Cox, head, widow, female, 77 [1823/4], Living on own means, b. Derby, Derbyshire
   William Cox, son, single, male, 38 [1862/3], on own means, b. St Mellion, Cornwall

6. ↑ England. 1911 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom: The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), (formerly the UK General Register Office.))
   Class RG14; Piece 13788; Schedule 39, 2 Apr 1911.

   Address: Tregain, St Ewe, Cornwall
   8 rooms occupied
   Richard Chenoweth, head, male, 52 [1858/9], Farmer, b. St Just in Roseland, Cornwall
   Catherine Chenoweth, wife, female, 53 [1857/8], married 25 years, 4 children born alive, 4 children still living, b. Newton St Mellion, Cornwall
   Emma Chenoweth, daughter, female, 24 [1886/7], single, House work, b. Tregain Pentewan, Cornwall
   Sarah Chenoweth, daughter, female, 23 [1887/8], single, House Work, b. Tregain, Pentewan, Cornwall
   John Chenoweth, son, male, 20 [1890/1], single, Son working on Farm, b. Tregain, Pentewan, Cornwall
   William Chenoweth, son, male, 14 [1896/7], single, School, b. Tregain, Pentewan, Cornwall
   Sarah Cox, mother, female, 87 [1823/4], Boarder, b. Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire

7. ↑ Deaths index, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

   d. Sarah COX, March Quarter 1919, Helston Registration District, Volume 5c, page 274, aged 95 [1823/4]

8. ↑ ^8.0 8.1 Cornwall, England. Online Parish Clerks.

   bur. 7 Mar 1919, St Ewe, Cornwall: Sarah Cox / 95 / Telan?, St Keverne

   Place name could be Trelan - a farm in the parish of St Keverne.

9. ↑ England. 1851 Census Returns for England and Wales. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class HO107; Piece 2142; Folio 110; Page 31, 30 Mar 1851.

   Address: 12 Bath Street, Derby, Derbyshire
   George Fox, head, married, male, 51 [1799/1800], Paper Maker, b. High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
   Letitia Fox, wife, married, female, 57 [1793/4], Home, b. Sarratt, Hertfordshire
   George Fox, son, unmarried, male, 25 [1825/6], Joiner Journeyman, b. Chesham, Buckinghamshire
   James Fox, son, unmarried, male, 18 [1832/3], Fitter, b. Topham, Devon
   Hannah Fox, daughter, unmarried, female, 14 [1836/7], Home, b. Topham, Devon

   Could Sarah have had a connection to this family? She said when she married that her father was a paper maker called John Fox, and she generally gave her place of birth as Derby, except on one occasion when she gave it as Rickmansworth, over 100 miles from Derby. This Fox family living in Derby in 1851 had connections to the Rickmansworth area, with the mother giving her place of birth as Sarratt, immediately north of Rickmansworth, whilst the father worked as a paper maker.