284 ACKWORTH SCHOOL CHAP. 



almost every night. They found 150 boys and 80 girls, 

 " already moulded into excellent order, clean and atten- 

 tive." "Teachers we are making as fast as we can." 

 The boys were taught reading, writing and keeping 

 accounts ; the girls needlework, spinning and housewifery 

 in addition : "a numerous and orderly family " for a 

 family it was to be from the outset, ruled by the law of 

 kindness. 



In a letter to the well-known Dr. Priestley, Fothergill 

 sets forth the object of the training given ; it was to build 

 up Christian lives, " to establish young minds in Truth," 

 not to add to the consequence of a sect, or to reflect upon 

 our fellow-professors ; to teach the children to " act so 

 as to avoid the reproaches of their own minds," and to 

 come " to feel interior approbation." They were to be 

 habituated to silence and attention. " The most ancient 

 schools of philosophy taught and practised " such habits, 

 and the Scriptures were full of the like precepts. He 

 hoped the example of the school might be of use to future 

 generations. The aim of Ackworth, new in the society's 

 history, was to provide a careful elementary education to 

 the rank and file of the membership, those " not in 

 affluence," and to girls as well as boys. 



There was a further idea in Fothergill's mind not 

 realised in his day. He longed for a school or college 

 where advanced training could be given under Friendly 

 auspices, and he thought it possible that this might be 

 included in the new plan : " that in process of time we 

 should have at Ackworth an Academy, in which the first 

 amongst us may receive a more learned education than 

 we now can give." 1 



To aid the teaching of the Bible he had an abstract 

 made of Dean Percy's " Key to the New Testament," 

 with the author's consent, and published it with a preface 



1 George Harrison, afterwards of Wandsworth, relates that as a boy he 

 was leaving Penketh School to become a teacher. Fothergill heard of him 

 from his brother, S. Fothergill, and proposed that he should spend six months 

 at the Academy at Warrington to gain instruction in the method of teaching, 

 himself cheerfully defraying the expense a phrase he often used. G. Harrison, 

 Mem. of W. Cookworthy, 1854, p. 137. 



