Fanny Fox’s Cottage is situated in the northern end of the town (fronting on Old Wells Lane, now the top of Duke of Clarence Street). Edward Jones, the colony’s provost marshal, obtained the lot in 1700, but Governor Benjamin Bennett later dismissed him from his post for gross negligence. As keeper of the gaol, he had allowed prisoners to come and go at will and operated a dry goods shop out of the front cell. Jones sued Bennett and the governor countersued; it was 30 years before the case was resolved, by which time both men had returned to England. Given his difficulties, Jones did not have time to build on his lot before 1706 when he sold it to mariner James Burchall. It was Burchall who erected the core of the house that now stands: a two-room, gable-roofed structure facing the road, flanked by external chimneys.

After Burchall’s death in 1738, ownership of the property is unclear. Burchall or his successor enclosed the northern chimney to create a small room, the exterior of which is decorated with a fine example of Flemish gables. The eastern wing of the house was also added around the middle of the 18th century, perhaps to accommodate a larger family.

In 1802 Henry Adams owned the house. When he died six years later he left it to his wife Sophia. She died in 1810, bequeathing it to her husband’s nephew, Benjamin Adams Fox, when he reached the age of 21.

In 1816 Fox married Frances Zuill, the Fanny Fox for whom the house is named. Family tradition holds that the married couple spent only one night together before he went to sea, never to return. She lived in the house while he was off sailing and inherited it when he died in 1830. In 1834 she gave the house to her brother William E Zuill of Orange Grove, Smith’s Parish but continued to live in the cottage in St George’s until she was quite old. In her final years she moved to Orange Grove and died there in 1881 at the age of 85. The Zuill family sold the cottage after William’s death in 1872. It is in 2025 owned by the Bermuda National Trust.