Author: Fox, Henry Richard
Biography:
FOX, Henry Richard, 3rd Baron Holland, later Vassall Holland (1773-1840: ODNB)
The celebrated Whig politician Lord Holland spent much of his life writing but his verses were few and mostly occasional (for example, four pages of 1770, With a China Chamberpot, to the Countess of Hillsborough); his contribution to Vol. 5 of William Stewart Rose's (q.v.) translation of Ariosto is an exception. The attribution to him of the imitations of Juvenal--probably printed for private circulation--is based on a note in ms on one copy. The only son of Stephen Fox, the 2nd Baron (1745-74), and his wife Mary Fitzpatrick (1746/7-78), he was born at Winterslow House, Wiltshire, on 21 Nov. 1773. Since both parents died when he was very young, two uncles became his guardians, one of them the politician Charles James Fox (1749-1806), in whose footsteps he followed. He attended Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (matric. 1790, MA 1792), and travelled in France, Spain, and Italy 1792-6. In Italy he formed a liaison with Elizabeth (Vassall) Webster (1771-1845), a plantation heiress and wife of Sir Godfrey Webster, with whom she had had five children. They had one child together in 1796 before her divorce and five more after their marriage on 6 Jul. 1797. Holland took his seat in the House of Lords in 1796 and their London home, Holland House, became renowned as a brilliant gathering-place for a large social circle. In 1800, Webster committed suicide. In order to recover Lady Holland's family fortune, Fox added the name "Vassall" to his own, although he was in principle strongly opposed to slavery. He was committed also to other liberal causes, such as Catholic Emancipation and parliamentary Reform. Although a leader of his party in the Lords and an influential speaker, he held government office for only a few months in 1806-7. He was chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1830 until his death. He remained actively involved in politics, especially foreign affairs, to the end but died suddenly at home on 22 Oct. 1840. His wife left Holland House but continued to entertain from other London houses. She died on 17 Nov. 1845. Both are buried at Millbrook, near Ampthill, Bedfordshire, an estate he had inherited from his second uncle-guardian in 1818. (ODNB 21 Oct. 2021: Fox, Henry Richard and Fox, Elizabeth Vassall) HJ
Other Names:
- Lord Holland