William Darwin Fox

William Darwin Fox (23 April 1805 – 8 April 1880) was an English clergyman, naturalist, and a second cousin of Charles Darwin.

Early life

Fox was born in 1805 and initially raised at Thurleston Grange near Elvaston, Derbyshire and from 1814 at Osmaston Hall, Osmaston about 2.5 miles (4 km) south of Derby. Fox was the son of Samuel Fox (1765–1851) and his second wife, Ann Darwin (1777–1859). Ann was the daughter of William Alvey Darwin (1726–1783) and Jane Brown (1746–1835), and niece of Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802).

Fox attended Repton School from 1816 to 1823, when the headmaster was William Boultbee Sleath. Like his second cousin Charles Darwin, Fox prepared for the church at Christ's College, Cambridge. He was also a naturalist and entomologist, particularly collecting butterflies. At Cambridge, Fox and Darwin became friends, and Fox tutored his younger cousin on natural history. Darwin noted in his autobiography:

I was introduced to entomology by my second cousin W. Darwin Fox, a clever and most pleasant man, who was then at Christ's College, and with whom I became extremely intimate.

Fox introduced Darwin to another parson-naturalist, John Stevens Henslow, who held a weekly open house which undergraduates and some older members of the University interested in science attended in the evenings. Darwin spent three weeks with Fox at Osmaston Hall in the summer of 1829. Throughout his life, Fox remained in regular contact with Charles Darwin, and many of the letters exchanged discussed Darwin's work.

Country vicar

Fox graduated from Cambridge in the winter of 1829 and took up a curacy at Epperstone, near Nottingham. He was forced to take sick leave in 1833 and convalesced at Sandown on the Isle of Wight. It was here that he met his first wife Harriet Fletcher and they were married in 1834. Fox returned to Epperstone for a short time but was appointed vicar of Delamere, Cheshire in 1838; he remained the incumbent there until he retired through ill health in 1873. Fox was active in the local community at Delamere, especially the local school where he taught, which is now called Fox's school.