The Cox Line

The Ancestral Home of John Cox

John Cox was the only son of Thomas Cox and Charlotte Clarke, a labouring family. Charlotte was born in Paxford, where the Clarkes appear to have lived for at least two generations, and was baptised at Blockley, the church where the television show “Father Brown” is filmed.

John and his sister Elizabeth were baptised at St James Church, Chipping Campden. In 1829 the family were issued a removal order and sent to Fulbrook, Oxfordshire, where their father, Thomas Cox, was born. By 1841 the children were scattered: Annie working for a London tobacconist, Elizabeth with her grandparents at Fulbrook, and John, family history suggests, in Wiltshire. John married Elizabeth Lloyd in 1849 and sailed from London on the Susannah seventeen days later.

Photographs Narrative Research Report Fanny & Hermann · Travel Years Fanny & Hermann · Later Years ← John Cox ← All Emigrants
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A terrace of honey-coloured stone cottages with brick chimneys and a pale green front door, behind a small garden of shrubs and stone steps, under a blue sky with white clouds. Click to enlarge
Near Pye Mill Lane, Station Road, Paxford, Gloucestershire 15 September 2026
Charlotte Clarke was born in Paxford and lived there with her family. Paxford is a tiny village and had no church at the time.
A golden stone church tower with pinnacles and a clock face rises above a grassy churchyard with old gravestones, under a blue sky with white clouds. Click to enlarge
St Peter and St Paul Church, Blockley, Gloucestershire 15 September 2026
As Paxford had no church, all the life events of the Clarke family occurred at St Peter and St Paul Church at Blockley. This is the church that the BBC television show “Father Brown” is filmed at.
A carved octagonal stone font with flower designs on its sides and a wooden lid, standing on a flagstone floor inside a church with wooden pews and an open arched doorway. Click to enlarge
St Peter and St Paul Church, Blockley, Gloucestershire 15 September 2026
Charlotte (1801) and her five siblings were all baptised at St Peter and St Paul, Blockley. Mary Ann (Annie) Cox, the daughter of Charlotte Clarke and Thomas Cox, was baptised here in 1824. The font dates from about 1390.
A church interior looking down a red-carpeted aisle between wooden pews to an altar and a stained glass window beneath a pointed stone arch. Click to enlarge
St Peter and St Paul Church, Blockley, Gloucestershire 15 September 2026
John Clark, Charlotte’s father, married Hannah at St Peter and St Paul Church in 1797. Charlotte’s sisters Harriet and Hannah married here in 1838 and 1821. Charlotte’s parents John (1838) and Hannah (1830) are buried here as well as her sisters Harriet (Hancock, 1875) and Hannah (Bennet, 1856). The chancel arch under which marriages took place dates to the 14th century. The stained glass windows in the chancel were replaced in the 1860s and 1870s.
A tall golden stone church tower with pinnacles rises behind stone gate piers, iron gates and leafy trees, above a flight of stone steps and a path, under a cloudy sky. Click to enlarge
St James Church, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire 15 September 2026
Charlotte Clarke and Thomas Cox were married at St James Church, Chipping Campden in 1824. Charlotte was listed as being of the parish of Blockley and the witnesses were her siblings, William Clarke and Hannah Bennet (née Clarke). Their marriage banns were published in 1823 at Chipping Campden. The avenue of twelve lime trees leading to the South Porch was planted in 1770.
A narrow dirt path runs between tall dry grasses and green fields where sheep graze, towards a distant stone church tower among trees under a large cloudy sky. Click to enlarge
The walk from Broad Campden to Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire 15 September 2026
Charlotte Clarke and Thomas Cox went back to Blockley to baptise Mary Ann (Annie) in 1824. The register says they were living at Paxford at the time. The family moved to Broad Campden where they were recorded as living for John’s (1826) and Elizabeth’s (1829) baptisms. The family would have walked from Broad Campden to Chipping Campden to attend church. St James Church tower is easily seen from Broad Campden as shown in the photo during a walk between the villages. The font at St James Church was installed in 1839 and is a copy of the 15th century font in St Mary Magdalene in Oxford. Neither John nor Elizabeth was baptised at the font.
A cobbled floor beneath a vaulted timber roof supported by stone pillars and arches that open onto a street. Click to enlarge
Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire 14 September 2026
Charlotte and Thomas would have been attendees at the markets at Chipping Campden. The market built in 1627 still stands although it has a new roof. A Removal Order was issued on 21 December 1829 to “Thomas Cox, wife Charlotte and 3 children Ann 5, John 3 and Elizabeth 3 months” to leave Chipping Campden and move to Fulbrook, Oxfordshire. It is a 32km walk between Chipping Campden and Fulbrook.
A round stone font with a dark wooden lid and decorative scrolled ironwork, standing in a church corner with a blue curtain and small colourful paper houses on the wall behind. Click to enlarge
St James the Great, Fulbrook, Oxfordshire 16 September 2026
John Cox’s ancestors have no ties to land found so far. Thomas was baptised in 1802 at St James the Great, Fulbrook, as were his six siblings. The font is thought to date to the 12th century and is made from Purbeck limestone from Dorset.
A stone church with a square tower and arched porch stands behind a gravel path, with old headstones on the grass and a large dark yew tree at right, under a blue sky with white clouds. Click to enlarge
St James the Great, Fulbrook, Oxfordshire 16 September 2026
Thomas and Charlotte returned to Fulbrook with their children. In 1841 Elizabeth was still at Fulbrook with her grandparents, John and Susannah. Annie knew the location. On the 1851 census she said that she was born in Burford, the market town just over the Windrush River from Fulbrook. St James the Great at Fulbrook would have been Elizabeth’s church for many years. The English yew tree is believed to be over 1000 years old and the family would have walked past it every time they went to church.
A stone church with a tall columned front and a clock tower and spire rises above a busy city street with traffic lights, a white van and people on the steps, under a blue sky with white clouds. Click to enlarge
St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, London 2 October 2026
Elizabeth Cox married Richard Kean, a glass engraver, at St Martin-in-the-Fields in 1846, with “J Cox” as a witness. By 1841 Annie had taken employment with Robert Lloyd Evans, a tobacconist. Family history suggests that he was known to the family. The same family history suggests that John Cox had taken up a servant’s role or apprenticeship in Wiltshire. His 1841 census record has not been found. Neither Thomas Cox nor Charlotte Cox, the parents of Annie, Elizabeth and John, has been found and both are assumed to have died, which is why they left Elizabeth with her grandparents at Fulbrook. Susannah Cox died from a fever in 1842 and John, her husband, died from a fever less than a year later. This would have left Elizabeth Cox, aged 13, in Fulbrook with aunts and uncles. The marriage is the next time we see the siblings together.
A teal-wheeled wooden cart filled with green plants stands on a brick-paved arcade in front of shopfronts, with two framed close-ups of the Leicester Square and Drury Lane street signs. Click to enlarge
Covent Garden, London 2 October 2026
Elizabeth states that she resided at Drury Lane on her marriage record. Covent Garden was a structure she would have seen. Annie left a bequest to Elizabeth in her will. Elizabeth was known to Annie to be living on Leicester Square. Annie was still working for Robert Lloyd Evans, now retired in Wales. She still knew where to find her sister.

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