John Foxe - Martyrologist (4 of 9)

An account of his life taken from The History and Antiquities of Boston by Pishey Thompson (1856) [continued].

Thus destitute of the means of subsistence, but qualified by his long and severe studies to instruct others in the higher branches of classical learning, we find him engaged, according to the son’s account, as tutor to the family of Sir THOMAS LUCY, of Charlecote in Warwickshire, though this fact is very vaguely treated by his biographers.1 It does not appear, indeed, with any certainty, how he employed his time after his retirement from Oxford in 1545, until he became tutor to the Earl of Surrey’s children. It is known, however, that within this period he married AGNES RANDALL, who was, the memoir says, a friend or visitor of Sir Thomas Lucy, and of a Warwickshire family; this last is, however, doubtful, since we find no trace of any family of the name in that county.2 The memoir states, that John Fox continued with Sir Thomas Lucy until the read of religious persecution drove him to seek assistance from his wife’s father, a citizen of Coventry. His step-father offered him an asylum, "if he would alter his opinion;" his mother wrote to him to come to them, without enforcing this arbitrary condition. He then lived alternately with his step father and his wife’s father, and by this means “avoided the diligence of those who inquired after him.”3 When Fox was ordained by Bishop Ridley, June 24th, 1550, he was described as living with the Duchess of Suffolk.4 The circumstances under which he laboured to obtain the means of subsistence from 1545, till he was appointed tutor to the Earl of Surrey’s children (about 1552), must have been sufficiently distressing, and his engagement in that capacity was preceded by a very romantic incident. We are told by his son, that he was sitting one day in St. Paul’s Church, almost spent with long fasting, when there came to him a person whom he did not remember to have seen before, who sat down by him, and accosting him very familiarly, put into his hands an untold sum of money, bidding him be of good cheer, for that in a few days new hopes were at hand, and new means of subsistence. Fox tried all means to find out the person by whom he had been so seasonably relieved, but in vain. The prediction, however, was fulfilled; for within three days he was taken into the service of the Duchess of Richmond, to be tutor to the children of the celebrated Earl of Surrey.5 The family then resided at Winchester House, Southwark. These children, Thomas, Henry, and the Lady Jane, benefited much by Fox’s instructions; and he continued in the family during the remainder of the reign of Henry VIII., the whole of Edward VI.’s, and as long in that of Queen Mary as the persecution then commenced permitted him to do with safety. It appears, that the Earl of Surrey, his late pupil, used all the means in his power to protect him; and offered, if Fox would stop with him, “to

1 Dr. MAITLAND denies the tutorship in the Lucy family, and we find that it is only a “tradition” in that family that he was tutor to Sir Thomas’ children. The only paper in the possession of the family relating to the subject is a copy of a passage from the life of John Fox, prefixed to the first volume of the edition of the Acts and Monu ments, published in folio in 1684. 2 Everything which has been stated respecting JOHN FOX’s residence at Charlecote, and the family of his wife, appears to be entirely inferential, and based upon the solitary fact that he was married in that village. The following is a literal transcript from the Parish Register of Charlecote :—“ weddings, anno 1547; JOHN FOX and Agnes Randall were married the 3d of February, anno ut prtaescripto.” Nothing is known of the Randall family

at Charlecote. They certainly were not relatives of the Lucy family. It has been stated that Agnes Randall was a cousin of JOHN FOX. We know of no authority for this assertion. The name of Randall is not in any way connected with Boston, nor, so far as we know, with Lincolnshire. Dr. MAITLAND thinks it was a Suffolk famlly. 3 The preceding note has reference to much of this statement. 4 STRYPE in Eccl. Memoirs, vol. ii. pp. 1, 413. This is probably correct, and Dr. MATTLAND considers the authority of the Register as far greater than that of the Memoir, which places him in the family of the Duchess of Norfolk at this time.—B. 5 This is the account given by CHALMERS, but Dr. MAITLAND ignores the whole tale.—B.

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