Charles James Fox - Henry Offley Wakeman

Charles James Fox (1749-1806) was a prominent British Whig member of Parliament and the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger. A staunch opponent of George III, he supported the American colonists throughout the War of Independence. He was a leading parliamentary advocate of religious tolerance, individual liberty, and the anti-slavery cause. A notorious gambler and womanizer, Fox fell in love with and married Elizabeth Armistead, the former mistress of the Prince of Wales, and found happiness and tranquility in their home, St. Anne's Hill. He was most famous for his oratory, of which Wakeman writes that in "the whole range of Fox's speeches there is not to be found a mean thought or an affectation...The very openness and complete absence of reserve, with which he poured out his whole heart to his audience took them by storm." (Pamela Nagami, M.D.)