George William Cox

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George William Cox (born January 10, 1827 in Benares , India , † February 10, 1902 in Walmer , Kent ) was a British historian .

life and work

George William Cox was the eldest son of the six children of Captain George Hamilton Cox († 1841), who was in the service of the British East India Company , and of Eliza Kearton, daughter of the plantation owner John Horne of St. Vincent , an island in the West Indies . A brother, Colonel Edmund Henry Cox, who served in the artillery of the Royal Navy, fired the first shot against Sevastopol in the Crimean War .

In 1836 Cox was sent to England, where he first attended a preschool in Bath and a grammar school in Ilminster . From 1842 he received lessons in rugby school , then studied from 1845 theology at Trinity College (Oxford) and graduated there in 1850 as a Master of Arts . He was ordained a minister in 1850 by the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce , and then held the position of vicar at Salcombe Regis , Devon , but soon had to give up this post for health reasons.

In 1850, Cox married Emily Maria, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel W. Stirling († 1888) employed by the British East India Company, and had five sons and two daughters. In 1851 he went to Gibraltar as an English chaplain , but got into conflict with his superior Bishop George Tomlinson because of his views on the high church and therefore accompanied John William Colenso on his inaugural visit to South Africa as Bishop of Natal in 1853 . On his return to England, Cox was appointed vicar of Saint Paul's Church in Exeter in 1854 and then worked from 1859 to 1860 as a teacher at Cheltenham College . He then worked again as a clergyman in Kent and Yorkshire .

Meanwhile, due to his historical studies, Cox's religious principles had changed radically. He eagerly supported Bishop Colenso in his frank criticism of the Holy Scriptures and in his struggle for his episcopal status in South Africa. He defended Colenso in an extensive correspondence with the Anglican theologian Frederick Denison Maurice and helped the bishop 1863-65 during his stay in England. Because of his acquaintance with Colenso, Cox had sufficient material to write a biography of the bishop ( The life of JW Colenso, bishop of Natal , 2 vols., 1888).

In literary terms, Cox first emerged with the Werl Poems, legendary and historical (1850), which he wrote together with his friend Edward Freeman . He was very well versed in ancient history and wrote popular scientific historical works as well as writings on mythology in which he gave priority to cosmic ideas. This subheading includes:

  • Life of St. Boniface , 1853
  • Tales from Greek mythology , 1861
  • The great Persian was , 1861
  • Tales of the gods and heroes , 1862
  • Tales of Thebes and Argos , 1863
  • A Manual of mythology in the form of question and answer , 1867
  • Tales of ancient Greece , 1868, 3rd ed. 1877
  • Latin and Teutonic christendom , 1870

Cox made the best known mythology of the Aryan nations (2 vols., 1870; 3rd ed. 1882), a work in which the author laid down the results of his research on comparative mythology, which was mainly inspired by Friedrich Max Müller, in a clear and comprehensible manner.

Later Cox wrote among others:

  • History of Greece , 2 vols., 1874; 3rd ed. 1878
  • The Crusades , 1874
  • A general history of Greece from the earliest period to the death of Alexander the Great , with a sketch of the subsequent history to the present time , 1876, new edition 1883
  • The Greeks and the Persians , 1876
  • The Athenian empire , 1876
  • History of the establishment of British rule in India , 1881
  • Introduction to the science of comparative mythology and folklore , 1881; 2nd ed. 1883
  • Lives of the Greek statesmen , 2 vols., 1886
  • A concise history of England and the English people , 1887

With Jones, Cox published Popular romances of the Middle Ages in 1871 and with William Thomas Brande a dictionary of science, literature, and art (3 vols., 1865–67; 2nd ed. 1875).

Cox succeeded his uncle Sir Edmund Cox as the 15th baronet after his death in 1877 . In 1880 he was appointed Vicar of Bekesbourne in Kent by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archibald Campbell Tait . From 1881 to 1897 he served as pastor of the royal benefice Scrayingham in Yorkshire. In 1886 he was elected Bishop of Natal by supporters of the late Colenso, but not consecrated by Archbishop Edward White Benson because the high church party rejected him. On May 18, 1896, he was granted a pension of £ 120. He died on February 10, 1902, at the age of 75 at Ivy House in Walmer, Kent. After his cremation, his ashes were buried at Long Cross, Chertsey .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Cox, George William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1827
PLACE OF BIRTH Benares , India
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1902
Place of death Walmer , Kent