Colonel John Fox - A Brief Biography

Colonel John Fox, the historical commander of the regiment which we represent through our hobby, was baptised on 1 April 1610 at St Matthew's parish church, Walsall, Staffordshire. His father was Renold Fox. He married Emma, sister of Humphrey Tudman of Walsall in June 1634 in the same church he was baptised. Marriage at a young age was quite normal in this period. His social status before the civil war is uncertain, but he was not listed in Walsall's ship money papers.

John Fox was the captain of a troop of horse under Lord Brooke from February 1643. There is, however no record of him being present at Prince Rupert's sack of Birmingham on 3 April. The accounts of his garrison at nearby Edgbaston House (now the clubhouse of Edgbaston Golf Club) commenced on 12 October. The wealthy and Catholic Middlemore family owned this house. The rents were confiscated and Fox's men destroyed the heraldic monuments in the nearby Edgbaston church. It is quite likely that Fox took part in the assault on the Royalist garrison at nearby Aston Hall on 28 December. Perhaps due to the extensive metal working industry in the area, the Royalists gave Fox the nickname of “Tinker” and this was used in their propaganda. He was also referred to as “Jovial” because of his supposed dour countenance. By mocking Fox as 'the Jovial Tinker', the royalists presented an image of a social subversive.

Denbigh granted Fox a colonel's commission in March 1644 and as a result he raised a regiment of horse and dragoons chiefly from the Parliamentarian Black Country and Arden regions. The industrious Colonel Fox soon created a garrison at Stourton Castle (now a garden centre), about three miles from Stourbridge. The Royalists threatened this stronghold on 24 March. Fox tried to relieve his besieged men but was soundly beaten at Stourbridge Heath on 27 March. The Royalists claimed in Mercurius Aulicus that the first to flee was John Fox himself.

Financial difficulty was a burden that Fox had to bear throughout the war as the local Parliamentarians continually failed to give him any money for the upkeep of his men. Sharp letters to Denbigh show us that Fox even feared mutiny amongst his men. The result of this want of funds meant that the regiment relied on scavenging, plundering and even surprise raids.

On 3 May 1644, in a coup worthy of a Boys Own comic, Fox disguised himself and his men as a lost troop of Rupert's horse. With this cunning ruse Fox bluffed his way into Royalist Bewdley and captured the governor, Sir Thomas Littleton. Despite his financial problems Fox had by June established a sizeable garrison of over 200 men at Edgbaston. He used his limited resources well and in another amazing coup he raided Dudley in December only two hours after its garrison had left on other business. This is a good example of Fox's mastery of military intelligence. Perhaps having learnt much from his bloody nose at Stourbridge, Fox avoided open battle. Instead he developed superb intelligence networks and provided his superiors with excellent reports of enemy activity. Sometimes though he could do nothing when the odds were stacked against him and in May 1645 his garrison at Hawkesley House fell to Charles I's main field army. Edgbaston managed to hold out perhaps because such armies were large and cumbersome and were unable to settle in one place for long before local supplies were exhausted.

Despite all his hard work Fox was disliked by the aristocratic Denbigh and also by the Warwick County Committee. He was a man whose chief concerns were of a local nature and his views were seen as militant. His money problems continually haunted him and in 1647 he was involved in a dispute with Robert Porter, his former treasurer. The subject of the quarrel was the Edgbaston rents and Fox claimed that arrears of £4,000 were owed to him. With accusation of corruption being levelled at him, Fox resisted the disbanding of his power base at Edgbaston until May 1648. Poor Fox might have believed his fortunes had improved when he was appointed as the commander of the Lord President's guard during the trial of Charles I. Any such hopes were dashed as he was imprisoned for debt whilst fulfilling his duties. He was only released by a special order of the court. A number of Royalist reports claim he was the executioner of Charles I, but these have been shown to be completely false rumours.

Perhaps seeking a change of fortune by moving as far away from his troubles as he could, he went on some sort of mission to Scotland for the fledgling republic. There the wretched Fox was imprisoned in May 1650. Needless to say his imprisonment had a devastating effect on his health and when the Council of State secured his release in July 1650 he was physically a broken man.

By October the Council of State noted that Fox was debt-ridden and in a state of starvation. He died shortly afterwards, before 9 November 1650, and his second wife Lady Hasteville was the unhappy recipient of £10 from the Council of State for her husband's funeral expenses. Undoubtedly a brave and clever soldier, the war both made and destroyed John Fox. He had neither the reputation or the resources to ward off the financial demons that brought about his ultimate demise. But the impression we have of him today is far removed from those of the romantic antiquarians of the Nineteenth-Century, who represented him as little more than a terrorist and a religious radical who used the wars to raise himself above his proper station in life. But perhaps the most interesting legacy of John Fox, rather than his interesting but minor military significance, is his importance as an ideal example of the Roundhead bogeyman illustrated in Royalist propaganda.

• Roy Sherwood - The Civil War in the Midlands (Sutton 1992)
• Malcolm Atkin - Civil War in Worcestershire (Sutton 1995)
• Andrew Polkey - Civil War in the Trent Valley (Hall 1992)