xxx STILL FULL OF LABOUR 379 



the foundation of Ackworth School. Towards the end of 

 1778 illness came upon him, and confined him for two 

 or three weeks to his bed. 1 Faced by the uncertainty of 

 recovery he was calm and peaceful, saying that " if he had 

 left anything undone which he wished to have done, it 

 was the perfecting of the plan of Ackworth School ; and 

 likewise the complete arrangement of the rules of our 

 religious society." Both these tasks he lived to accom- 

 plish in the two years of arduous life that were yet before 

 him. During his short retirement about 600 callers 

 enquired at his house, and his recovery gave to the public 

 and to his friends the liveliest satisfaction. He made 

 some efforts to lessen his work after this illness, but with 

 little success. 



In 1779, besides his work on the codification of the 

 Discipline, Fothergill acted for the third time as clerk 

 to London Yearly Meeting of Friends ; an assembly not 

 then so large as it is to-day, nor with so wide an outlook 

 on spiritual needs. In July, in company with his sister, 

 he paid his first visit to Ackworth, attending the General 

 Meeting, at which the arrangements were made for the 

 opening of the school. Afterwards the brother and 

 sister went to Knaresborough, that they might see once 

 more their father's grave, in the old burial plot at Scotton 

 upon the hill. As they rode away through the green 

 woodland their hearts were full, writes the doctor, " of 

 reverent thankfulness that such was our father." This 

 year also saw Fothergill busy in prison reform, and chosen 

 by parliament as a commissioner to carry out the new 

 act. 



The last year of his life, 1780, found his energies still 

 fully employed, if his strength was less. He attended 

 the Yearly Meeting in London for the last time. There 

 was a satisfactory report from Ackworth School. At 

 one sitting Fothergill brought up a concession he had 

 obtained from the Archbishop of Canterbury that Friends 

 should not be required to use the ecclesiastical titles in 

 their applications to the Court of Probate ; but the 



1 The trouble was vesical, requiring systematic catheterism. 



