HOLLAND, HENRY FOX, 1ST BARON (I 705-i 7 i 4), Eng lish statesman, second son of Sir Stephen Fox, was born on Sept.
28, 1705. Inheriting a large share of the riches which his father had accumulated, he squandered it soon after attaining his ma jority, and went to the Continent to escape from his creditors. He contracted a wealthy marriage which enabled him, in to enter parliament as member for Hindon, Wiltshire. He became the favourite pupil and devoted supporter of Sir Robert Walpole. He was surveyor-general of works from 5737 to 1742, was mem ber for Windsor from 1741 to 1761; lord of the treasury in secretary at war and member of the privy council in 1746, and in 1755 became leader of the House of Commons, secretary of state and a member of the cabinet under the duke of Newcastle. In 1757, in the rearrangements of the government, Fox was ulti mately excluded from the cabinet, and became paymaster of the forces. During the Seven Years' War, Fox devoted himself mainly to accumulating a vast fortune. In 1762 he again became leader of the House, with a seat in the cabinet, under the earl of Bute, and exercised his skill in cajolery and corruption to induce the House of Commons to countenance the Treaty of Paris of 1763; as a recompense, he was raised to the House of Lords with the title of Baron Holland of Foxley, Wiltshire. In 1765 he was forced to resign the paymaster generalship, and four years later a petition of the livery of the city of London against the ministers referred to him as "the public defaulter of unaccounted millions." The proceedings brought against him in the court of exchequer were stayed by a royal warrant and he justified the delays by appealing to custom. He died at Holland House, Kensington, on July 1, 1774. By his wife, Lady Georgina Caroline Lennox, he had four sons: Stephen, 2nd Lord Holland (d. 1774) ; Henry (d. an infant) ; Charles James (see Fox, CHARLES JAMES) ; and Henry Edward (1755-1811), soldier and diplomatist.