300 FOTHERGILL AND PENNSYLVANIA CHAP. 



Secretary of State were constantly addressed " to the 

 Island of New England," and that " the Island of Vir- 

 ginia " was spoken of by a learned pleader in a court of 

 judicature. Upon Fothergill's knowledge was founded a 

 sympathetic insight into the progress and difficulties of 

 his American co-religionists, both in their testimony for 

 a spiritual faith, and in their struggle for liberty against 

 oppression. A love of freedom was deeply rooted in 

 Fothergill's character, and probably drew much of its 

 inspiration from Penn, to whose works he contributed a 

 preface, when they were reissued in 1771. 



Governor Thomas had written home in 1740 to the 

 Board of Trade and Plantations, complaining of the 

 obstinacy of the Pennsylvanian Assembly, which would 

 neither establish a militia nor provide arms, and he 

 advised that the Quakers should be disqualified from its 

 membership. Upon this threatened attack on their 

 rights and liberties they asked the help of London Friends, 

 and a committee of the Meeting for Sufferings, including 

 Fothergill, sat long and often upon this matter. Petitions 

 were presented, and Friends appeared in person, thirty 

 or forty at a time, before the Board of Trade in London 

 in 1742, and before the Committee of Council in 1743. 

 We may imagine the company of grave plain-coated 

 Quakers gathering at the Cock-pit Coffeehouse, or the 

 Tennis Court Coffeehouse, at the tenth or the sixth hour. 

 Much pains was taken at these interviews to smooth over 

 the stubborn attitude of the Assembly-men, and a good 

 understanding was at length arrived at with the British 

 government. A letter from the Pennsylvanian Friends is 

 recorded on the minutes, gratefully acknowledging the 

 meeting's care and regard. 



In the meantime James Logan, Penn's old secretary, 

 never himself a strict Friend, had sent a letter to Phila- 

 delphia Yearly Meeting to uphold defensive war. There 

 was much controversy on the subject, and Logan himself 

 subscribed privately to the defences of the colony. Fother- 

 gill writes in 1742 to his friend Israel Pemberton, one 

 of the Assembly-men, commenting upon these events. 



