240 SAMUEL FOTHERGILL CHAP. 



whom he afterwards married (in 1738) ; and he wrote to 

 his Monthly Meeting a letter of confession and repentance, 

 telling them that Christ in his kindness had unstopped his 

 ears and opened his eyes, had shown him the precipice at 

 whose brink he stood, and had set his sins in order before 

 him and breathed into him the breath of life. He had 

 tasted of his mercy and of his love. Samuel Fothergill 

 was not long in hearing the call to proclaim that love, that 

 he might win others from evil ways. As with so many 

 of the world's preachers, the passage of his own fervent 

 soul from darkness to light helped mightily to equip him 

 for this spiritual campaign. He knew what was in the 

 hearts of other men ; he had gone through it all. By the 

 time his father returned from America in 1738 the son 

 was preaching the faith of which he once made havoc. 

 Tradition tells that, after landing, John Fothergill came 

 late to a meeting at York, where he stood up and spoke, 

 but presently stopped, saying that what he had to impart 

 was given to another ; on this followed a powerful address 

 from a younger Friend, and when Fothergill afterwards 

 inquired who it was, he was told that it was his son 

 Samuel. 



Samuel Fothergill settled in the business of a tea-dealer 

 and American merchant at Warrington, which in the 

 course of years brought him a competency, but he gave 

 up much time, as did also his wife, to visiting meetings 

 and Friends in England and Ireland. He had now the 

 full confidence of his friends ; his character was matured 

 and his gifts developed. His brother, the doctor, between 

 whom and himself there was a very close bond of friend- 

 ship, was of no little help to him, affording the support of 

 a firm and steady mind to one in which imagination and 

 fervency of spirit brought the liability to despondency 

 as well as to exaltation. Self-condemnation dwelt long 

 with him ; he passed through the deeps ; his lot was one 

 of poverty ; he felt himself a monument of mercy ; and 

 the power of evil was very real to him. His safety was in 

 a " steady feeling after God " ; there he found light and 

 grace, and a spring of abundant love rose in his soul. He 



