Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/410

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Cox
404
Cox


when it was forbidden, joined in writing a declaration on the subject. He signed his name as Benjamin Cockes to the second edition of the ‘Declaration of Faith of the Seven Congregations in London,’ published in 1647. He conformed in 1662, but afterwards renounced his living, and continued a baptist until his death at an advanced age. He wrote: 1. A treatise answered by ‘The great question … touching scandalous Christians, as yet not legally convicted, whether or no they may be admitted … at the Lord's Table,’ by M. Blake, B.D., 1645. 2. According to Wood, a treatise on ‘Infant Baptism.’ 3. Also according to Wood, ‘A True and Sober Answer.’ 4. With Hansard Knollys and others, ‘A Declaration concerning the Publicke Dispute which should have been in the Meeting House of Aldermanbury, Dec. 3 [1645], concerning Infant Baptism.’ 5. ‘An Appendix to a Confession of Faith. … Occasioned by the inquiry of persons in the County,’ 1646; republished by the Hansard Knollys Society in ‘Confessions of Faith,’ 49. 6. ‘God's Ordinance … the Saint's Priviledge,’ 1646. 7. ‘Some mistaken Scriptures sincerely explained,’ 1646.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 208, 209; Crosby's History of the English Baptists, i. 353; Brook's Puritans, iii. 417; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, v. 196; Confessions of Faith (Hansard Knollys Soc.), pref., 23, 49; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

W. H.

COX, DANIEL (d. 1750), physician, proceeded M.D. at St. Andrews on 8 Nov. 1742, was admitted licentiate of the College of Physicians on 26 June 1749, elected physician to the Middlesex Hospital on 16 Oct. 1746, resigned 23 May 1749, and died in January 1750. He wrote ‘Observations on the Epidemic Fever of 1741, … with Remarks on the use of Cortex,’ published anonymously 1741; ‘with new cases, and on the benefit of the cool method,’ 1742; third edition, ‘with … the benefit of bleeding and purging,’ 1742. Cox is said by Munk to have died in January 1750; if so, he cannot have written, as Munk says, ‘An Appeal to the Public on behalf of Elizabeth Canning’ [q. v.], 1st and 2nd editions 1753; the introduction to L. Heister's ‘Medical and Anatomical Cases,’ 1755; letter on the subject of inoculation, 1757, 1758; and ‘Observations on the Intermittent Pulse,’ 1758. To this Daniel Cox, Munk and the compilers of the catalogue of the Library of the Royal Medical Society attribute ‘Family Medical Compendium,’ published at Gloucester. This appears to be an error; for the ‘Medical Compendium’ seems to have been first published about 1690, and an enlarged and improved edition in 1808, by D. Cox, chemist and druggist, of Gloucester. It is dedicated to Sir Walter Farquhar, and the 1808 edition ends with advertisements of the author's wares.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 171; Cat. of Royal Medical Society's Library, i. 287; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Cox's New Medical Compendium, 1808.]

W. H.

COX, DAVID (1783–1859), landscape painter, was born in Heath Mill Lane at Deritend, a suburb of Birmingham, 29 April 1783. His father, Joseph Cox, was a blacksmith and whitesmith, and his mother (whose maiden name was Frances Walford) was the daughter of a farmer and miller. She had had a better education than his father, and was a woman of superior intelligence and force of character. She died in 1810, and his father married again, and died about twenty years afterwards, having received an annuity from his son for many years. Joseph and Frances Cox had only one other child, Maryanne, older than David, who married an organist of Manchester, named Ward. After her husband's death she resided at Sale, where her brother used frequently to stay with her.

When about six or seven years old, Cox was sent to a day school. His first box of colours was given to amuse him when confined to his bed with a broken leg. He used them first to paint kites for his schoolfellows, but when he got better he copied engravings and coloured them. Then came a short period at the free school at Birmingham, after which he worked for a little while in his father's smithy. As he was not a strong boy, they proposed to apprentice him to one of the so-called ‘toy trades’ originated by Mr. John Taylor of Birmingham, the toys consisting of buttons, gilt and lacquered buckles, snuff-boxes, lockets, &c., mounted in metal work and painted. One workman is said to have earned 3l. 10s. a week by painting tops of snuff-boxes at one farthing each. To qualify him for this employment, Cox was sent to the drawing school of Joseph Barber [q. v.], where he made much progress. Joseph Barber was the father of the artists Charles [q. v.] and John Vincent Barber [see Barber, Joseph]. Both were at that time studying under their father, and Cox formed a lasting friendship with Charles.

At the age of fifteen Cox was apprenticed to a locket and miniature painter in Birmingham, named Fielder. He attained to considerable efficiency in the art, as is plain from a photograph of a locket painted with a boy's head which is contained in Solly's ‘Memoir.’ His engagement was terminated in about eighteen months by the suicide of Fielder, whose