William Fox arrived in Wellington in 1842 and become editor of New Zealand Gazette and Britannia Spectator, before being appointed Resident Agent at Nelson for the New Zealand Company in 1843. He subsequently played a leading part in politics and held the office of Premier on four occasions. He was knighted in 1879. In his early years in New Zealand Fox carried out much exploration in the Wairarapa and in the South Island.

Fox's greatest contribution to New Zealand history after the struggle for self-government in the 1850s, was his work in Taranaki in the early 1880s as a member of the West Coast Commission, which consisted of Francis Dillon Bell and himself. A third commissioner, Hone Mohi Tawhai, declined to serve when he heard that his colleagues were to be Fox and Bell. No doubt he questioned the propriety of their appointments. The Commission was charged with the duty of inquiring into the numerous promises and engagements allegedly made by successive government officials to the Taranaki Maori, and into all the disputed land claims in that province.

Fox Glacier was named to commemorate Fox's visit to the region as Prime Minister of New Zealand in 1872. The Wairarapa town of Foxton, founded in 1885, was also named after him. In his later years Fox continued to undertake considerable physical exercise, climbing Mount Taranaki in 1892, aged 80. He died in Auckland in 1893.