382 FOTHERGILL'S CLOSING YEARS CHAP. 



Fothergill died on the 26th of December 1780 at the 

 age of sixty-eight years. Desirous of avoiding large 

 crowds at the interment, the executors arranged that it 

 should take place at Winchmore Hill, eight miles north 

 of London, where there is a burial-ground of the Friends, 

 long known as a sequestered and beautiful spot. There 

 then they took the remains, and more than seventy 

 coaches and chaises filled with friends followed him to the 

 place. Some came from over 100 miles distance, travelling 

 of course by road. They gathered in silence after the 

 simple Quaker manner, and a sense of great loss was 

 spread over the company. George Dillwyn quoted the 

 words, " For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be 

 removed ; but my kindness shall not depart from .thee," 

 etc. 1 



His faithful sister, Ann Fothergill, retired to a house, 

 No. 68 Great Russell Street, where she lived on for over 

 twenty years a wise, kindly and hospitable old lady 

 whilst strength and intelligence remained, and a woman 

 of unflinching truth and candour. And now upon two 

 small headstones, side by side, in the shaded grassy acre, 

 may be read the plain inscriptions : 



JOHN FOTHERGILL, M.D., ANN FOTHERGILL, 



DIED 12 mo. 26. 1780, aged 68. DIED 7 mo. 8. 1802, aged 84. 



Not far away are the like simple records of David Barclay, 

 son of the Apologist, and of David Barclay his son, the 

 friend of Fothergill. 



Fothergill left no large fortune. J. H. Tuke estimates 

 that it did not much exceed 25,000. Under his will, 

 after his surviving brother's mortgages were paid off, his 



but rejected, an operation which was then most often fatal. An account of 

 the case was given by Lettsom to his Medical Society in May 1784. The 

 specimen is described and figured in Fothergill's Works, iii. 303. The growth 

 was evidently carcinomatous. Fothergill's sufferings lasted fourteen days : 

 the relief afforded by modern science might perhaps have lengthened his life 

 by as many months, still of suffering more or less, but it could not have averted 

 the end. 



1 Isa. liv. 10. Isaac Sharpies and Sarah Prior also spoke, the former 

 quoting 2 Sam. iii. 38. See entry in Ann Fothergill's bible in the possession 

 of John D. Crosfield ; Gent. Mag., 1781, April ; J. Jenkins, op. cit. p. 187. 



