Background
Fox became a partner in his father’s firm, James Fox and Sons, in 1882.
Fox became a partner in his father’s firm, James Fox and Sons, in 1882.
Fox was the first person elected to the assembly under a new system under Prime Minister Sir William Whiteway legislation extending the right to vote in elections for the House of Assembly to all males 21 years of age and older. Such as it was, Fox was exposed at an early age and it was something in which he developed a keen interest. Consisted of seven members: five members elected on a ward system and two members appointed by the Newfoundland Government, Fox, along with James Goodfellow, who was the first chair of the council, was one of the government appointees.
At 30 years old, Fox left municipal council in 1890 when he was appointed to the Legislative Council by Prime Minister Sir William Whiteway.
He then resigned Legislative Council to run in a by-election to fill a seat after Doctor John Dearin had died suddenly. He was again reelected in Saint John's East in the general election of November 6, 1893.
Fox was named as Receiver General, the chief financial officer in the administration. On January 6, 1894, the Conservatives filed petitions under the Corrupt Practices Acting charging 15 Liberals and Independent Master of Health Administration James Murray with bribery and corruption.
Fox was one of those charged.
On May 5, the court found Fox guilty as charged. His seat was declared vacant along with James Murphy and they were disqualified from running for election to the House of Assembly in future elections. Fox had married Isabelle Langrishe LeGallais, a great-granddaughter of Doctor William Carson on September 21, 1882.
John, one of Isabelle and James" six children was Newfoundland’s Rhodes Scholar for 1911 and served with distinction in the Newfoundland Regiment in the First World War.
He participated in Newfoundland"s earliest recorded hockey game in February 1896 on Quidi Vidi lake. Fox was the first president of the Saint John"s Hockey Association that formed in 1897 that subsequently became the Newfoundland Hockey Association.
James died at the age of 38 of a massive heart attack at his Saint John"s home on February 27, 1899. He was manager of the Prince of Wale"s Rink and had just returned home after helping prepare the ice for a planned hockey match that evening.
Fox Senior had been a member of the Legislative Council, the upper house in the bicameral system of government under which Newfoundland operated in the period between 1855 and 1934. In 1888, he became a member of the first Saint John's municipal council. Fox was one of the pioneers of organized hockey in Newfoundland as a member of the first Saint John"s Hockey Club.