COX, FRANCIS AUGUSTUS (1783–1853), baptist minister, was born at Leighton Buzzard, 7 March 1783. He inherited much property from his grandfather, who was a leading member of the baptist congregation at Leighton Buzzard. After some study under a private tutor at Northampton, Cox went to the baptist college at Bristol, and thence to the University of Edinburgh, where he proceeded M.A. On 4 April 1805 he became baptist minister at Clipstone, Northamptonshire; afterwards occupied for a year the pulpit vacated by Robert Hall at Cambridge, and on 3 Oct. 1811 became minister at Hackney. Cox helped to found the 'Baptist Magazine' in 1809, and wrote largely for it. He was also secretary for three years to the general body of dissenting ministers of the three denominations residing in South London and Westminster. About 1823 he actively promoted the scheme for a London university, and came to know Lord Brougham. When Brougham was lord rector of Glasgow, the degree of LL.D. was conferred on Cox (1824). In 1828, when the London University was founded, it was decided that no minister of religion should sit on the council, and Cox was appointed librarian, but he quickly resigned the post. In 1838 he travelled in America as representative of the baptist union, and received the degree of D.D. from the university of Waterville. He died in South Hackney 5 Sept. 1853, after holding the pastorate of Hackney for forty-two years. Cox was thrice married, and had a family of five sons and two daughters. His works, other than separate sermons, were as follows: 1. 'Essay on the Excellence of Christian Knowledge,' 1806. 2. 'Life of Philip Melancthon,' 1815. 3. 'Female Scripture Biography,' 1817, 2 vols. 4. 'Vindication of the Baptists,' 1824. 5. 'Narrative of the Journey in America,' 1836. 6. 'History of the Baptist Missionary Society,' 1842. Cox contributed an article on Biblical Antiquities connected with Palestine to the ' Encyclopædia Metropolitans,' which he published as a separate volume in 1852.
[ Gent. Mag. 1854, pt. i. 323 ; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
COX, GEORGE VALENTINE (1786–1875), author, born at Oxford in 1786, was educated at Magdalen College school and New College, graduated B. A., and was elected esquire bedel in law in 1806, took the degree of M.A. in 1808, and was elected esquire bedel in medicine and arts in 1815. He held this office until 1866, when he retired on a pension. He was also coroner to the university. He died in March 1875. He published 'Jeannette Isabelle.' a novel in three volumes, London, 1837, 12mo , three translations from the German, viz. F. C. Dahlmann's 'Life of Herodotus,' London, 1845, 8vo; J. A. W. Neander's ' Emperor Julian and his Generation,' London, 1850, 8vo; and C. Ullmann's 'Gregory of Nazianzum,' London, 1851, 8vo; also 'Prayer-Book Epistles,' &c., London, 1846, 8vo; and 'Recollections of Oxford,' London, 1868, 8vo.
[The last-mentioned work contains many interesting personal reminiscences, and is the chief authority for the facts stated above; see also Athenaeum, Jan.-June 1875, p. 425; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
COX, LEONARD (fl. 1572), schoolmaster, was the second son of Laurence Cox of Monmouth, by Elizabeth [Willey] his wife, and received his education in the university of Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. (Cooper, Athenæ Cantab. i. 94). In 1528 he removed to Oxford, where he was incorporated as B.A. on 19 Feb. 1529-30, and he also supplicated that university for the degree of M.A., though whether he was admitted to it does not appear (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 83; Boase, Register of the Univ. of Oxford, i. 159). Soon afterwards Hugh Farringdon, abbot of Reading, appointed him master of the grammar school in that town, which appointment was confirmed by the king by patent on 10 Feb. 1540-1, his salary being 101. per annum charged on the manor of Cholsey, which had been an appendage of the abbey (Rymer, Fœdera, xiv. 714). When John Frith, the martyr, was apprehended as a vagabond at Reading and set in the stocks, Cox 'procured his releasement, refreshed his hungry stomach, and gave him money' (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 74). He was succeeded in the mastership of Reading school by Leonard Bilson in 1546 (Man, Hist. of Reading, p. 196). About this period he travelled on the continent, visiting the universities of Paris, Wittenberg, Prague, and Cracow (Leland, Encomia Illustrium Virorum, p. 50). Afterwards he went to reside at Caerleon in his native county, where he appears to have kept a school. In or about 1572 he became master of the grammar school at Coventry, founded by John Hales. If he held that appointment until his death, he must have died in 1599, when John Tovey succeeded to the mastership (Colvile, Worthies of Warwickshire, p. 883; Tanner, Bibl. Brit. p. 205).
Cox, who was a friend of Erasmus and Melanchthon, was himself eminent as a grammarian, rhetorician, poet, and preacher, and was skilled in the modern as well as the learned languages (Bale, De Scriptoribus,