244 SAMUEL FOTHERGILL CHAP. 



peace for nearly a century when S. Fothergill came to 

 Boston, not proscribed as an outlaw but welcomed as a 

 guest. Here he had many open and very large meetings, 

 one notably on the ist August 1755, for which the 

 magistrates cheerfully offered him the use of the town- 

 hall. Two thousand persons were present, including 

 nearly all the magistracy and some of the principal 

 people. " It was a time never to be forgotten ; the 

 power and wisdom of Truth was as a canopy over the 

 meeting." 1 



S. Fothergill's visit coincided with a time of much 

 trouble in Pennsylvania, when, under the pressure of war 

 and the large infusion of persons of other faiths in the 

 once Quaker province, the peaceable Friends could no 

 longer consistently hold their ground in the Assembly. 

 Of this we shall hear more in another chapter. The 

 Indians, egged on by the French, were on the war-path ; 

 Braddock went out against them and was slain ; the 

 frontier settlements reeked of blood. The action of 

 Friends individually and as a body had become extremely 

 difficult. Samuel Fothergill, aided by advice from his 

 brother the doctor at home, applied his mind to the 

 situation, had interviews with the Assembly-men, and 

 in the course of some months, during which he suffered 

 anguish of spirit for the Truth, helped them to arrive at 

 the decision to withdraw from power and responsibility. 

 It was a task which commanded the attention of every 

 faculty of his soul and spirit. The Friends at length 

 retired from public affairs ; and may they, he says, ever 

 remain so ! " Placed in the midst of this world and its 

 commotions, we shall know our situation to be as a 

 garden enclosed." 



Very slowly, and as if with look averted, he entertained 

 the thought of returning home, waiting and watching 

 that he might first fulfil the whole of his duty ; but at 

 length his mind seemed clear, and he was able to leave 



1 Yet another period of a century and a half passed, and on Jan. 29, 1914, 

 a meeting after the manner of Friends was held in St. Paul's Cathedral, 

 Boston. Besides Episcopalians, there were present members of all the three 

 branches of Quakerism. See Friends' Intelligencer, Ixxi. 121. 



