ioo DR. LETTSOM CHAP. 



to the Rawlinsons, Friends at Lancaster, at the age of 

 six years, in order to his education, the boy met Samuel 

 Fothergill, and by his advice entered the Friends' School 

 at Penketh. Here he engaged heartily in country pur- 

 suits. Young Lettsom's father dying, S. Fothergill 

 became one of his guardians, and he was placed by the 

 latter in 1761 with a well-trained apothecary, Abraham 

 Sutcliff, of Settle, a man of high repute in that district. 

 Under his supervision Lettsom acquired the medical art, 

 besides giving attention to botany and the Latin and 

 French languages. Lettsom never forgot what he owed 

 to his old master, and procured for him many years later 

 a Doctor's diploma, that he might retire to a less arduous 

 kind of practice. 



Leaving Settle, Lettsom went up to London with an 

 introduction to Dr. Fothergill, who became his warm and 

 steady patron. He took one year's course at St. Thomas's 

 Hospital, where he entered under Benjamin Cowell. He 

 worked early and late, examining patients, reading up 

 his cases and taking notes. One of the physicians to the 

 hospital was Akenside, a haughty figure in his white wig 

 and long sword ; his harsh manners to his poor patients 

 repelled Lettsom's kindly heart. After this, in 1767, 

 Lettsom returned to Tortola to take possession of what 

 was left of his family property ; this consisted chiefly of 

 negro slaves, to whom he gave their liberty, leaving 

 himself almost penniless. " I could no longer withhold 

 from them," he says, " the natural privilege of freedom, 

 which Heaven had conferred upon me. I never repented, ' ' 

 he adds, " this sacrifice ; indeed Heaven has cancelled it 

 long ago, by refunding innumerable unmerited blessings, 

 and what I estimate still more gratefully, a heart to 

 diffuse them." This was at a period when many even of 

 the Friends were not yet convinced of the evil of slavery. 

 His freed negroes sometimes sent to him in after years 

 some little present, a coral or a shell. In 1784 he received 

 a pot of sweetmeats from Teresa, a beautiful mulatto. 1 



1 J. J. Green possesses the original Deed of Sale, dated July 10, 1768, 

 from Samuel Taine of Tortola, cooper, to J. C. Lettsom, M.D., for 200 



