Anna Fox

1562 – 1601

✓ Validated against records · 2026-07-02

Anna Fox was, in all probability, the “Ann Fox, daughter of Robert” baptised at Crowle, across the Isle of Axholme, on 15 November 1562 — the first entry under the christenings of that November, in a parish book so young it was still finding its form, and kept, unlike Belton's Latin, in plain English. Her family were of Crowle, and her father was Robert Fox.

On 25 November 1583, a few days past twenty-one, she married Robert Brocke of Belton, a yeoman's son nearly twice her age, and made her life in his parish. Seven children were baptised there across fourteen years — Francis, Isabella, Richard, Anna, Ellina, Susanna and Elizabeth — and she buried the little Anna, dead at six, in 1597. It is through Francis, her eldest, that this whole line descends.

She did not live to see any of them married. On 16 May 1601 the Belton register records, in its Latin, the burial of “Anna Brocke, uxor Roberti” — Anna, wife of Robert; she was about thirty-eight. Her husband outlived her by ten years; her name went on: a granddaughter Anna, and a great-granddaughter Susanna, carried the sounds of her household down the century.

Composed from validated records · 2026-07-02

Family

Marriage

RBSpouseRobert Brocke1544–1611

Children

FBChild · the line continuesFrancis Brockemain line1585–1638

Life

Confirmed — anchored to a recordEstimated — inferred

1562

Baptised

15 November 1562 at Crowle

Ann Fox, daughter of Rob[er]t — bap. the 15th day [of November], 1562.— Baptism register, Crowle (1562)

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Baptism register, Crowle (1562) — Crowle — Lincolnshire Archives (findmypast image CROWLE_PAR_1_1 f.0682), read from the original: the parish's earliest surviving book, kept in English, her entry the first of the November christenings. The only Ann Fox baptism in or near the parish; the father's name matches Janet Brock's independent note. In all probability her. read at the image

1583

Married Robert Brocke

25 November 1583

Nupti: Robertus Brock et Anna Fox — 25 [November], 1583.— Marriage register, Belton (1583)

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research, cited — not yet re-verified at the image:

Marriage register, Belton (1583) — Belton — Lincolnshire Archives. The register page is shown on Robert's page. from Mum’s research
Marriage register, Belton (1583) — Belton — Lincolnshire Archives. Anna Fox was of Crowle, across the Isle; the wedding was at Belton. from Mum’s research

1601

Buried

1601 at Belton

Sepulta: Anna Brocke, uxor Roberti — the 16th day [of May], 1601.— Burial register, Belton (1601)

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Burial register, Belton (1601) — Belton — Lincolnshire Archives (findmypast image BELTON_IN_AXHOLME_PAR_1_2 f.0317), read from the original. The register reads the 16th of May; Janet Brock's note gave the 15th — a one-day slip. Indexed in Lincolnshire Burials and the National Burial Index. read at the image

Our research

The Fox line behind her

Open research · Crowle & Belton, Isle of Axholme

Anna is the top-rung wife of this tree, and her people are the last family the registers can still name.

What is established

Her identification rests on a rare double: the only Ann Fox baptism in or near Crowle for the plausible years (15 November 1562), whose father's name — Robert — matches what Janet Brock's research had independently recorded (“daughter of Robert Fox, and lived in Crowle”). In all probability her.
Robert Fox of Crowle therefore stands one name behind her — the earliest maternal-line name on this branch.

The threads

A “Robertus Fox, yeoman” was buried at Belton in April 1612 — on the very page that records her son Francis's marriage. If her father, he died an old man of about eighty, near his grandchildren, the year after his son-in-law. Possible, not proven: Fox households existed at Belton too (an Elizabeth Fox, daughter of Francis Fox, baptised 1612; a Jane Fox, daughter of John, in 1645).
A will of Robert Fox — Crowle or Belton, c.1590–1615 — would be the record that settles both her parentage and the Belton burial. The Lincoln consistory index is the place to look.