Author: Cox, James
Biography:
COX, James (1769-1848: ancestry.co.uk)
He was possibly the son of Joseph Cox of Allington, Dorset, and his second wife Jane Tuck, who had married in 1767. His age at death does not match the Oxford register. He was educated at Wadham College Oxford (matric. 1789, BA 1793, MA 1796, DD 1809). He was ordained priest in 1804. He was briefly second master at Hyde Abbey school, Winchester, before becoming master of Queen Elizabeth’s grammar school at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire (1797-1824). Thereafter he was briefly preacher at Belgrave Chapel, London, and rector of Litton Cheney, Dorset, from 1824. He was presented to the livings of Hoxne and Denham, Suffolk, in 1832 and exchanged Hoxne for the rectorship of Palgrave, Suffolk, in 1842. He married Elizabeth (Eliza) Hodges (1770-1812) on 24 Dec. 1794 at St. Augustine the Less, Bristol. They had four sons and four daughters. The poem listed here, The Wanderings of Woe (1813), ostensibly commemorates his wife’s death but also contains several intemperate passages (notes on “The Wrongs of the Academical Clergy,” “The Wrongs of Industry,” and “The Wrongs of Women”). He then married Ann Fisher Green on 3 Jan. 1833 at St. Luke’s, Chelsea, London. There does not appear to have been further issue. He died on 16 Dec. 1848 at Palgrave and was buried at St. Mary’s, Litton Cheney. He left several livings to his sons Joseph and James Septimus Cox, who had also entered the church, together with provision for his unmarried daughters. (ancestry.co.uk 23 Apr. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 23 Apr. 2023; CCEd 23 Apr. 2023; GM Feb. 1849, 214; Drakard’s Stamford News 24 July 1812; Bath Chronicle 17 Jan. 1833; Ipswich Journal 23 Dec. 1848) AA