Samuel Foxe MP (1561 - bef. 1630)

Born 24 Mar 1561 in Norwich, Norfolk, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died before 16 Jan 1630 before age 68 in Waltham Abbey, Essex, England

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Biography

Samuel was born in 1560. He was the son of John Foxe and Agnes Randall.

An extract from his diary supplemented by the Dictionary of national biography gives the following information:-^[1][2]

He was born in Norwich on new year’s eve 1560 (24 Mar 1561) where he remained until three years old then removed to London with his father living in the Dukes House ( duke of Norfolk's mansion in Aldgate).

1572 He was admitted to Merchant Taylors' School, London, on 20 Oct. (School Register). His teachers Mr. Ruddoke, Gisborn, Heron and Muncaster.

At 14 years old 1574 sent to Oxford, elected Demy in Magdalen College and remained 7 years.

In 1576 he left for France without permission of his tutors or knowledge of his father but readmitted.

1581 Chosen probationer in Magdalen College.

He was expelled in 1581 for extreme religious views meanwhile he spent more than three years in foreign travel, visiting the universities of Leipzig, Padua, and Basle. He returned to England in 1586, and was restored to his fellowship. after which he was restored.

1587 The year his father died gave him the lease of Shipton-under-Wichwood. He erected his monument in a wall of the chancel at St. Giles cripplegate. In the same year he obtained his MA at Oxford and entered the service of Sir Thomas Heneage of Copt Hall, Essex, and became custodian of Havering-atte-Bower and clerk of Epping.

1589 15th Aug Married to Anne Leveson at Estwell in Kent, their daughter Ann was born 24th March 1590/9. They had three sons, Thomas, John, and Robert.

MP for Midhurst 1589 Knaresborough 1593^[3]

He was chosen burgess for the university of Oxford in 1590 and c1594 he removed to Warlies, near Waltham Abbey, and died there in January 1629–30. He was buried at Waltham Abbey 16 Jan. His will was dated 22 June 1629. His wife Anne, was buried by her husband 18 May 1630

Legacy

On his father’s he inherited his library and his papers. At least some, perhaps all, of John Foxe's printed books were either sold or given to Archbishop Whitgift. An important collection of John Foxe's manuscripts, source materials for Acts and Monuments, and Bull's Letters of the Martyrs was given to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Other manuscripts were sold by Samuel to Lord William Howard of Naworth. Samuel retained and conserved the greatest part of his father's papers, however, including all of his father's extant correspondence. These manuscripts remained in the hands of Samuel Foxe's descendants until the historian John Strype acquired them from Sir Thomas Willis, Samuel Foxe's great-grandson. Strype sold most of these manuscripts to Edward Harley, earl of Oxford; the remainder passed into the Lansdowne collection. Both sets of these manuscripts are now in the British Library.^[4]

Research Notes

His birth on new year’s eve has been taken to mean 31st Dec. This date has been constructed in the Leslie Dictionary of National Biography and reproduced in many other places. New year’s eve at the time wold have been 24th March.

The Biography of his father, prefixed to the second volume of the Book of Martyrs in the edition of 1641, has been repeatedly ascribed to him. This is generally dismissed as untrue.

Sources

1. ↑ Winters, William. John Foxe the Martyrologist and His Family. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 5, 1877, pp. 28–424 Lansd. MSS., 679 Pages 28-82 See page 43
2. ↑ Dictionary of national biography by Stephen, Leslie, Sir, 1832-1904 Vol 20 Page 156
3. ↑ FOXE, Samuel (1560-1630), of Shipton-under-Wychwood, Oxon. and Warlies, Essex. Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981 Available from Boydell and Brewer
4. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Foxe, John (1516/17–1587) Thomas S. Freeman (Subscription)

See also

• "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NR8S-DWB : 20 March 2020), Samuell Foxe, 1560.
• Wikipedia contributors, "Samuel Foxe," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Samuel_Foxe&oldid=954421528 (accessed February 1, 2021).