Fox, Anna Maria, 1816-1897

Anna Maria Fox (21 February 1816–18 November 1897) was a promoter of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society and the artistic and cultural development of Falmouth in Cornwall, UK.

Anna Maria Fox was the eldest child of Robert Were Fox FRS (26 April 1789–25 July 1877) and Maria Barclay (1785–1858), his wife. Her father was a member of the Quaker Fox family of Falmouth and her mother of the Quaker Barclay family of Bury Hill, near Dorking. Her maternal grandmother was a first cousin of Elizabeth Fry. Her siblings were Barclay Fox (6 September 1817–10 March 1855) and Caroline Fox (24 May 1819–12 January 1871). The family lived at Rosehill and Penjerrick.

In their teenage years, Robert Were Fox challenged his children to keep journals, offering a guinea reward for the first year completed. All three kept journals for many years. Anna Maria commissioned a relative by marriage, Horace Pym, to edit and publish her sister's journal. The book, Memories of old friends, was published by Smith, Elder & Co. ten years after Caroline Fox's death. It sold well. Before her death, Anna Maria arranged for all the original volumes of Caroline's journals to be burnt. A further selection from Memories of old friends, edited by Wendy Monk, was published in 1972. Barclay Fox's journal, edited by Raymond Brett, was published in 1979. Anna Maria gave instructions that "no word of my journal is to be published".

The idea for the foundation of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society was created by Anna Maria, Barclay, and Caroline Fox, in 1832, when they were 17, 16 and 13, respectively. Their parents, uncles, aunts, and friends took up the idea with enthusiasm. In 1896, Anna Maria Fox was elected as Vice-Patroness of the Poly, sharing this role with the Prince of Wales. The Poly is based in Church Street, Falmouth and operates as a cultural venue.

Anna Maria was a good amateur painter and organised of the art section of the Annual Exhibition at the Poly. The Cornwall Art Union was formed in 1852, associated with the Poly. Art classes run by the Poly were a precursor of the Falmouth School of Art. The first purpose-built building of the school, in Arwenack Street, was given in memory of Anna Maria Fox. The building, officially opened in August 1902, was refurbished in 2007.

Robert Were Fox usually took his children on his journeys out of Cornwall. The family often attended the annual Quaker gathering in London, held in May, and met their relations and friends. Robert also took them to meetings of the British Association, held in towns around the United Kingdom and Ireland. In 1880, Anna Maria visited Palestine. In August, 1884, she visited Canada and the US, with her nephew, Howard Fox, to attend the British Association meeting in Montreal and the meeting of the BAAS with the American Association in Philadelphia, organised by Lord Rayleigh.

Anna Maria never married. With her sister, Caroline, she raised the four sons of her brother, Barclay, after the death of their parents. Anna Maria outlived her sister by sixteen years, which Thomas Hodgkin described as a "widowhood". She died aged 81 on 18 November 1897 and was buried at the Quaker Burial Ground in Budock, in the same plot as her sister, Caroline.