Ancestor Profile: The Fox Family

45 Ballybough Road in the the present day

Currently for sale, and yours to own for €260,000, 45 Ballybough Road was once the home of the Fox Family. William Fox, aka Granna's maternal Grandmother's Father, lived here with his wife Anne (nee Brennan) at the time of his daughter Mary Anne's wedding to Laurence Gunning in 1882 (Granna's Grandparents).

The records suggest that Mary Anne (b.1856) was the Foxes only daughter. However they also had six sons; Jacob (birth date unknown), Francis (b.1830), Thomas (b.1847), William (b. 1872), James (b. 1858), and Robert (b. 1853).

Family Origins

The surname 'Fox' originally appeared in Gaelic as 'O'Sionnaigh', derived from the Irish word for Fox; 'Sionnach'. Unlike many other Irish surnames the Fox name can be divided into two distinct origins;

1. Foxes of Cambro-Norman (Welsh Norman) origins who settled in the Limerick and Tipperary area in the 12th century. These invaders integrated with the natives and eventually turned against the English crown in support of the Irish.

and

2. Foxes of Celtic origin, who originated in Ireland's Midlands (Offaly, Meath, Westmeath, Longford). This clan's lineage can be traced back to before the use of surnames in Ireland, which didn't commence until the 11th century.

Numerous baptismal and marriage records show members of William Fox and family acting as witnesses or sponsors for other Foxes and Brennan's, so it is very likely that they had extended family living nearby. Several Foxes living in the surrounding area, of William Seniors generation, state their place of birth as being county Meath in the 1901 census. This suggests that William may have originated from here (to be confirmed). If this is true it may indicate he originated from the Celtic Fox clan however it is impossible to know for certain. William could have come to Dublin from the countryside prior to the Famine in search of employment, as so may others did. We know that he and Anne were based in Dublin by the time of their first born Francis's birth in 1830, and throughout the subsequent Famine years. Ballybough was not unaffected; 217 people from this area were admitted to the North Dublin Union Workhouse during the Famine (1844-1852).

Employment 

According to Mary Anne and Laurence's marriage certificate from their wedding in St.Agatha's Church, North William Street; Mary Anne's father William Fox was a carriage maker. Indeed, the renowned carriage makers responsible for making Queen Victoria's Irish State carriage in 1851, John Hutton and sons (1799-1926) were located down the road at 115 Summerhill Parade. It is likely William worked for this firm, although according to his burial record he was a landscape gardener, so he must have left the carriage making trade at some point. Approximately 180 men were employed by Huttons, as well as a number of women. The labourers employed in the yard received  8 shillings per week whilst the highest wage was 3 pounds per week. William's son William's occupation as stated in the 1911 census was a carriage painter, so he must have followed in his Father's footsteps. 

Mary Anne was a milliner (hat maker) according to her marriage certificate, while as you may know her husband Laurence Gunning was a silversmith. Mary Anne's brother Robert had several changes of career. According to his wife's death certificate he was a shopkeeper, while his own death certificate stated that he was a cook. Another record again lists his occupation as a cooper, while another says he was a commission agent. Perhaps these were all casual short term jobs, and he had to keep looking for alternative work to survive.

Housing

45 Ballybough Road is described in the 1911 census as being a second class dwelling. It had four rooms, three front windows, two sheds and a store house. We do not know whether or not the Foxe's owned the house while they lived there, but most likely they rented it from a landlord. It appears that the family were the sole occupants.

Mary Anne and Laurence lived there with Mary Anne's parents following their marriage in 1882, and were still there in 1884 when their daughter Theresa was born. However by the birth of their daughter Anne in 1885 they had moved to their own home at 60 Lower Dorset Street. Mary Anne's brother Robert had also left home and lived just down the road from Mary Anne and Laurence with his wife Anne Kinsella at 36 Lower Dorset Street, while her other brother William junior lived with his wife Catherine Graves at 14 Horseman's Row (where the Illac Centre is now). William and Catherine were still living there by the time of the 1911 census. From the records we know that the family rented two rooms in the second class building, which they shared with two other families and a shop. Another brother, Jacob, married an Emily Ford of Dominick Street but their address thereafter is unknown.

Marianne Fox with her children

Social Conditions

Ballybough gets it's name from the Irish words 'Baile' (town) and 'Bocht' (poor). It started as a village called Mud Island or in Irish 'Crinan' when members of the McDonnell clan settled here after fleeing from Ulster following the Plantation in 1605. In its early days the area was home to robbers and smugglers and acted as a sanctuary for highwaymen. Ballybough until 1700 had been a quite rural and sparsely populated area, but in the middle of the eighteenth century houses and intersecting streets were added to Summerhill and Ballybough Road. As the eighteenth century drew to an end, trade, commerce and industry became centred to the north of the city.  More working class people began settling in Ballybough and the surrounding areas to be close to work. As the northside became less fashionable for high society due to the influx of the working class, the upper classes abandoned their northside Georgian homes. These were taken over by the working classes, and quickly fell into disrepair, with many becoming tenement slums. Ballybough had less tenement slums than other areas, mainly due to its lack of older high value houses. However there were many slums nearby, such as those located in Summerhill. It became the case in Ballybough that respectable first class houses lay beside nearby tenement slums and backstreet third class dwellings.

Disease and poor sanitation would have been ongoing issues in this area, and infant mortality rates
were high . Certainly Dublin was recognised as being one of the unhealthiest and worst housed cities in the United Kingdom at the time.  Cesspools, manure heaps and pigs would have been common sites in Ballybough and the surrounding locale. It is probably unsurprising then that the Fox story is a partly tragic one. Within a five year period, William's son Robert Fox, his wife Anne, and two of their four young children had all died. Their little son William died of measles at the age of 7 months in 1882, while another son James died of whooping cough the following year at the age of 2. Anne died of tuberculosis in 1885 at the age of 30, with Robert succumbing to the same disease in 1888 at the age of 34 at 4 Richmond Road, with his sister Mary Anne at his side.

Mary Anne Fox with her daughter Mary (May), who was Granna's mother.

Endings and New Beginnings

By the time of the 1901 census, none of the Fox family remained at 45 Ballybough Road. William Fox senior died in 1894 at the grand age of 84. His burial record lists his address at the time of death as 30 Belvedere Road, which is located off Dorset Street. His wife Anne's date of death is currently unknown. William is buried with his son Robert, his daughter in law Anne, and his two little Grandsons William and James in an unmarked grave which I have visited in Glasnevin Cemetary ( St. Brigid's FI 251.5)

There was, however, a happy ending for William's daughter Mary Anne; my Great Great Grandmother. Her husband Laurence's success as a master silversmith allowed for a move out of 'Poor Town' and the surrounding areas, first to Cabra (23.1 Cabra Road), and subsequently 72 St.Laurence's Road, Clontarf, where he and Mary Anne lived to the end of their days. They both reached old age, with Laurence dying at the age of 82 on the 5th November 1936, and Marianne dying several months later at the age of 81 on the 16th March 1937. They are buried together in Glasnevin Cemetary (St.Patrick's YK249) not too far from Mary Anne's father William Fox.

Please see William Fox's descendant chart here: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9qsV59jYoREbHBqaXNhSE5pQ0JmZTFENDZZOEt6d243aDVJ/view?usp=sharing

Due to limited space, and the fact that I still have some names to add I have not included my generation or the previous generation; however Granna is listed so you can see where you fit in!

                                      

Another image of Mary Anne Fox. Who else thinks she bears a strong resemblance to my mum in this photograph?

The photograph above was taken on the occasion of Mary Anne and Laurence's 50th wedding anniversary outside their home on St. Laurence's Road. Their granddaughter Dymphna Scott (Granna) is located third from the right in the top row.

                               

More information on the Gunning Family will be available in an upcoming post.

Sources:

www.findmypast.ie

www.irishgeneaology.ie

www.irishroots.ie

www.michaelfox.ie

'Mud Island, A History of Ballybough', The Allen Library FAS Project

www.census.nationalarchives.ie

The General Register Office