8 FOTHERGILL'S BIRTH AND TRAINING CHAP. 



John Fothergill, the builder of Carr End, was con- 

 vinced as a Friend, perhaps as early as the time of George 

 Fox's first visit : he died in 1684. To the house and 

 farm succeeded Alexander Fothergill, a faithful witness 

 to Quaker faith : he lay in prison at York for six months 

 on account of his testimony against tithes. His eldest 

 son, John Fothergill, the father of the doctor, was then 

 but eighteen years of age, and thus while still a youth 

 had to take sole charge of a motherless family, and to 

 manage the farm and servants : his father, too, died a 

 year later. This John Fothergill, who was born in 1675, 

 was deeply exercised in spiritual things from his boyhood, 

 and early took part in the ministry of the meeting at 

 Countersett. Amid searchings of heart and humbling of 

 soul, his call to this service sounded yet clearer. Soon 

 after his twentieth year he found means to be released 

 from much worldly cares, and gave most of his time, with 

 the approval of his friends, to religious visits, at first 

 near home and then farther away. He thus travelled 

 often and widely, returning to work in his own and his 

 neighbours' fields, until such time as duty led him forth 

 again. Three times between 1706 and 1737 he visited 

 the American colonies, spending several years in laborious 

 journeys through the sparsely settled regions, and gather- 

 ing the Friends and others together to wait reverently 

 on the Lord and to learn of Him. At Mattocks in 

 Virginia, in the seventh month, 1721, a meeting was 

 held, so he tells us, " at Justice Washington's, a friendly 

 man, where the love of God opened my heart towards 

 the people." This was Lawrence Washington, the 

 grandfather of George Washington, who was born eleven 

 years later. John Fothergill the elder had a tall, well- 

 shaped frame and a powerful voice ; he was a man of 

 authority, upright, inflexible, severe, even to a " faithful 

 son." His ministry was deep and searching, rebuking 



inheritance. John Fothergill, J.P., of Brownber, High Sheriff of Westmorland 

 in 1911, Dr. E. Rowland Fothergill of Brighton, Dr. Claud F. Fothergill of 

 London, and Gerald Fothergill, one of the founders of the Society of Genea- 

 logists of London, are among the present representatives of the family. 



