FOX, RICHARD, bishop of Winchester, an eminent statesman, and minister of Henry VII. and VIII., was born of poor parents, towards the middle of the 15th century, at Ropesley, near Grantham, in Lincolnshire, studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, and Pembroke College, Cambridge, and finally went to the University of Paris for his further improvement in divinity and the canon law. There be laid the-foundation of his fortunes, by gaining the friendship of Morton, bishop of Ely, a zealous Lancastriau, who had fled from England in 1483 upon the failure of the Duke of Buckingham's insur rection against Richard III. Through Morton's introduction, Fox Was taken into the Earl of Richmond's service; and having been of material use in the negociatious with the French court preparatory to the descent upon England, continued to enjoy the earl's confidence after his accession to the throne by the title of Henry VII. He was successively made privy councillor, bishop of Exeter, keeper of the privy seal, secretary of state, bishop of Bath and Wells, Durham, and Winchester, and was frequently employed in important embassies. Indeed no one stood higher in favour, or had more weight with the king, who appointed him one of the executors of his will, and recom mended him strongly to the notice and confidence of Henry VIII. He was also executor to Margaret countess of Richmond [BEsueonfl, and in that capacity had a great share in settling the feundation of St. John's College, Cambridge. Henry VIII. no doubt appreciated his
talents and integrity, for he continued him in his offices ; but the habits of the aged minister, trained to frugality under a most parsi monious master, were ill suited to retain the favour of a young, gay, ostentatious monarch, and he was thrown into the back-ground by the Earl of Surrey, lord treasurer. In hope of supplanting that nobleman by one qualified to win Henry's regard as a companion, yet too humble to aspire to the first place in the state, Fox introduced Wolsey, then his chaplain, to the king's society, in 1513. The result is well known. Wolsey soon engrossed the king's confidence ; and in 1515 the bishop of Winchester, disappointed and disgusted, retired to his diocese, and spent the rest of his life in works of munificence and piety, and the discharge of the duties of his office. Corpus College, Oxford, and the free-schools of Grantham and Taunton, in Somersetshire, are of his foundation. He became blind about ten years before his death, which took place September 14, 1528. He was buried in a chapel of his own building, on the south side of the high altar of Winchester cathedral.