Quaker Alphabet Blog 2014 - F for Ann Fothergill and family

Carr End Farm

Ann Fothergill was born in 1718 in her family home, Carr End Farm, in Ryedale, North Yorkshire. She was the only daughter and youngest surviving child after her mother died in childbirth when Ann was a year old. Ann had four older brothers - Alexander the eldest who was destined to inherit the farm, John who became a famous doctor, Joseph who went into business in Warrington and Samuel who, while also in business, was one of the most famous Quaker ministers of his age.

Countersett Meeting House

Ann's father John travelled extensively in the ministry and the children were brought up at first by a family friend and later by a stepmother who their father married in 1729 when Ann was eleven. They attended the nearby Countersett Meeting and mixed mainly with other local Quaker families.  Ann remained unmarried and took on the role of 'daughter at home', looking after her father until he died in 1744 and then her stepmother until her death two years later. At this point, when her brother Alexander and his family took over the farm, Ann moved out and went to stay with her brother Joseph in Warrington. She had inherited very little from her father and so had to rely on the support of her family. While Joseph gave her a roof over her head her brother John, who was doing well as a doctor with a growing practice in London, settled £100 on her to fulfill what he believed to be their father's wishes.

Dr John Fothergill in 1740

By the end of the 1740s, although there had been talk of at least one suitor, Ann was still single and, turning thirty, seemed set to remain so. At the same time her brother John was also single, in spite of a few half-hearted attempts to change his station, and felt himself increasingly in need of a good housekeeper. He was established as a leading medical figure in London and had published his classic work on sore throat in 1748. He had just taken over the house in Gracechurch Street where he had previously been a tenant, had servants and, as he told his brother Samuel, was 'determined to know as little of housekeeping as possible.' In 1749 he was seriously ill and it may have been that experience which led him to suggest to Ann that she should join him and take over the running of his household.

Ann arrived in Gracechurch Street in 1750 and although she found life in London a great contrast to what she was used to she also found her brother a kind companion. She wrote to her eldest brother that John 'often orders some little thing or other to recruit my constitution, and endeavours to inspire with cheerfulness and ease, as he apprehends, and not without grounds, my spirits has long been borne down with various causes to my, he thinks, great disadvantage.'

The circles in which her brother moved were cosmopolitan and quite different to those Ann had been used to and although wishing to please him she was determined not to change too much. As she wrote to Alexander, 'Singular I am and so I hope to continue in my dress. The antic folly I observe does not excite me to imitate. Brother's extensive acquaintance and esteem exposes me at present to a pretty deal of company.'

Ann soon settled down and took charge of her brother's comfort, cooking Yorkshire oatbread and other dishes, looking after the running of the house and entertaining his many visitors, both Quakers and others. She also kept up an extensive correspondence with her family and friends from which it is evident that, as her spelling reflected her speech, she retained her Yorkshire accent even after many years in London.

Silhouette of Samuel preaching

One of her most constant correspondents was her brother Samuel. He had been so wayward in his youth that his father had almost despaired of him but he underwent a religious experience which convinced him of the truth of the faith in which he had been brought up and became a travelling Quaker minister. In 1754 he felt moved to make a religious visit to America and travelled from Warrington to stay with his brother John. In Gracechurch Street he met John Churchman, an American Quaker who had agreed to travel with him, and Ann accompanied the two of them to Gravesend and saw them embark. In the two years that followed Samuel's travels were long and arduous and the correspondence between the brothers and sister was extensive. It was with relief that they welcomed him back to London in 1756.

Upton House

Dr John Fothergill's practice was increasing and his household was becoming more prosperous as well as much busier. The doctor found it difficult to refuse a patient and although some unkindly said that he worked in pursuit of wealth others knew that his main motive was the good of others. Ann too was increasingly busy and complained that she could hardly find one uninterrupted quarter hour. They decided that a change was needed and in 1763 moved to a property at Upton in Essex where Dr Fothergill created a botanical garden with an unrivalled collection of American plants, many of them medicinal. Ann created a peaceful home at Upton but it was still too near London for the Doctor to be able entirely to escape the demands of his patients. They looked for somewhere further away and nearer to the rest of their family and in 1765 found it in Lea Hall, a small country house near Middlewich in Cheshire, 150 from London and within easy reach of Warrington. For the rest of their lives together John and Ann spent two months each summer here in order to rest and, as the Doctor put it 'to recover the power of recollection.'

Lea Hall, Middlewich

After another two years Ann and the Doctor made another move, from Gracechurch Street to Harpur Street in Bloomsbury. They hoped that this would allow John to take a greater part in the business of Friends than he had been able to before but fitting out and decorating a new house meant a lot of work for Ann. She wrote to Samuel that nothing was finished when they moved in and 'we share our house and is long like to do so with different classes of workmen, joiners, carpenters, painters, plumbers, smiths &c.' However Ann was happy with the move and content with her lot, grounded in calm stillness which allowed her, as she told Samuel, to 'be in solitude in the streets of London'.

Ann needed her inner calm as the daily life of the Fothergill household remained frenetically busy with visits from family, friends and visiting dignitaries such as Benjamin Franklin. The Doctor found it impossible to rest or to work less as he grew older. As the years went by both he and Ann became more prone to illnesses and family difficulties such as Alexander's debts and Samuel's death in 1772 hit them hard.

Winchmore Hill Meeting House

In 1779 Doctor Fothergill fell seriously ill and needed surgery. He recovered from this and was soon back in his usual hectic routine, as described by Ann. 'He is embarked as much as ever from early to very late as usual. Sometime home to a hasty dinner betwixt 4 and 5 o'clock and out again 'til 9 or near 10 at night and some days without any dinner out as late - and of consequence up writing 'til betwixt 11 and 12.' Ann too became ill and spent two weeks at the spa at Buxton. It was a pleasant surprise to her that for once her brother put his business on hold to stay with her. They had one more quiet summer together at Lea Hall but at the end of 1780 Doctor John became ill again and died just after Christmas at the age of 68. He was buried at Winchmore Hill Quaker burial ground and Ann's circumstances changed once more.

Ann took charge of her brother's considerable estate and arranged for Upton and Harpur Street to be sold as well as the Doctor's extensive collection of books. She was also concerned to settle her 'family' of servants into new employment. Ann herself was comfortably provided for and moved into a smaller house, 68 Great Russell Street, just opposite the British Museum. Here she had the companionship of her nieces and also kept up her tradition of hospitality, providing dinner twice a week for strangers who attended Westminster Meeting. In 1790 she was one of the subscribers to the new Meeting House at Winchmore Hill and when she died in 1802 at the age of 84 she was buried there beside her brother.

The story of the Fothergill family has been told through their correspondence in the aptly titled book 'Chain of Friendship' and Ann's place in it has been fully researched in an article by Christopher C Booth on which I have drawn extensively for this blog post. Ann and her brother were mutually dependent and allowed one another to live fuller lives than might have been possible had they remained alone. Ann's extensive surviving correspondence and references to her in the writings of others are witness to the lasting value of her life.

Quaker Alphabet Blog Week 23 - L for Benjamin Lay

Benjamin Lay in America

Benjamin Lay was born in Colchester in Essex in 1683 to poor Quaker parents. There was no money for education and Benjamin was apprenticed to a glove maker but before he was eighteen he went to work on his brother's farm. When he came of age Benjamin decided to become a sailor, a surprising choice given his physical difficulties. He was only four feet seven inches (1.40 m) tall and was a hunchback, with a projecting chest and legs so slender that they seemed hardly able to bear his weight. However for the next seven years he went to sea and visited many parts of the world. He returned to England in 1710, moved to London and in 1718 married Sarah Smith of Deptford.

Benjamin was troublesome to Friends in London because of his practice of interrupting any ministry which he felt went beyond the guidance of God and used the minister's own words. When remonstrated with he said that he would prefer not to disturb meetings but had to be true to his own discernment. Eventually he was disowned in 1720. Benjamin took his wife back to Colchester and opened a shop, but he continued to disturb meetings and also other denominations' services. As he was already disowned Colchester Friends could do little but issued a public condemnation of him in 1723. Eventually Benjamin and Sarah left England for America in 1731.

They went first to Barbados where Benjamin obtained land and built a cottage. It was here that an incident occurred which made a great impression on Benjamin and which also illustrates the extremes of his character. One day Benjamin was furious to discover that a wild hog had got into his newly planted garden and uprooted everything. He killed the hog but then went further, dismembering it and nailing the pieces to his gate. Later, when his temper cooled, he was so stricken with remorse that he vowed never again to eat food or wear clothes that involved the death of any animal. He became a vegetarian and refused to wear leather.

John Woolman

Benjamin was horrified by the treatment of slaves in the island and his choice of food and clothing was further restricted by his refusal to use anything that was the product of slave labour. He grew flax and made his own clothes, refusing to wear cotton or to use indigo to dye cloth as both were produced by slaves. This practice was later followed by other Friends including John Woolman who were called 'White Quakers' because of their appearance. Benjamin spoke out against the slave owners and made himself so unpopular that he was soon on the move again, this time to Philadelphia. He had thought to escpe from slave owners there but was disappointed to find the practice widespread even among Friends. Benjamin built a house in the country where he grew vegetables and kept bees and devoted himself to campaigning against slavery and for other causes such as temperance and penal reform. As Benjamin's wife was in poor health the couple moved from their own house to stay with a Friend living near Abington Meeting. Here Benjamin built a 'grotto' in which he kept his library. Sarah died in 1735 but Benjamin continued his campaigning although his direct, dramatic methods made him very unpopular among Friends.

In 1738 during a Yearly Meeting session in Burlington, New Jersey, Benjamin entered dressed in a long white overcoat with a large book under his arm. He exclaimed against the hypocrisy of Quaker slave owners saying that they 'might as well throw off the plain coat as I do.' At this he took off his overcoat and revealed himself dressed in a bright military coat with a sword at his side. Saying that owning a slave was like thrusting a sword through his heart, 'as I do this book', Benjamin drew his weapon and plunged it into the book, piercing a bladder full of red poke-berry juice which he had concealed within its hollowed-out centre. People next to him were splashed with the scarlet liquid and several women fainted.

This disturbance proved the last straw for Philadelphia Friends. They had already been offended in the previous year by Benjamin's publication, without going through the proper channels to gain the Yearly Meeting's approval, of his book All Slave-Keepers That keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates... The book, printed by Benjamin's friend and namesake Benjamin Franklin, made many accusations against individual Friends and the Society as a whole for being complicit in the slave system. The Yearly Meeting was so displeased that they put advertisements in various newspapers distancing themselves from Benjamin's book and his views. In 1738 they went a step further and formally disowned him, claiming that he had never truly been a Friend and that he had obtained a travelling minute from Colchester under irregular circumstances.

Benjamin Franklin

Of course Benjamin took no notice and continued to consider himself a Quaker, He also continued to make dramatic gestures. Once he stood outside a meeting house in the snow without a coat and in bare feet to remind Friends of the hardship experienced by slaves. Eventually his campaigning, together with the more moderate stand taken by John Woolman and Benjamin Franklin among others, had an effect and the tide of public opinion turned against slavery. Not long before he died Pennsylvania decided to disown slave-holding Quakers. When Benjamin heard the news he rose from his chair and gave thanks to God adding, 'I can now die in peace.'

Eccentric to the last Benjamin wanted to be cremated and offered a friend £100 if he would burn his body and throw the ashes into the sea. But his friend refused, recoiling in horror at such an unheard-of request. So when he died, on 3 April 1759 at the age of seventy-six, Benjamin Lay was buried at Abington, Pennsylvania. Today we may associate the struggle against slavery with the name of Woolman rather than Lay but Benjamin's legacy continued to inspire the movement for generations and throughout the first half of the 19th century it was common for abolitionist Quakers to keep pictures of him in their homes.