Dr. John Fothergill and the American Colonies

DR. JOHN FOTHERGILL AND THE AMERICAN COLONIES By Betsy Copping Corner1 Dr. Fothergill's interest in the American colonies had an early start. His father, John Fothergill, Sr., was a Quaker preacher who made three visits to America representing the Society of Friends. The first of these prolonged religious visits started in 1705, the second in 1721, and the third in 1736.* The stories he told his children of voyages across the Atlantic, taking ten or twelve weeks, and his horseback rides through the American wilderness to remote Quaker settlements held them spellbound. Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, William Penn's City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, were names that sang themselves into childhood dreams of faraway lands. Grown to manhood, Dr. Fothergill was never able to tear himself away from his practice long enough to visit America. Instead he opened his hospitable London home to American visitors. He had inherited his father's American friends. These friendships formed in Philadelphia were extended by the next generation of prosperous Quaker merchants, who came to London at regular intervals on business. In 1743, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting named Dr. Fothergill its official correspondent from LondonYearly Meeting. He welcomed the opportunity to become, as he put it, "a part of the canal of communication betwixt the two most eonsiderable parts of the Society . . . wherein our very Essence consists ."3 From 1743 until 1780—the year of his death—Dr. Fother1 Mrs. Corner is the author of a biography of Dr. William Shippen, Jr. At present she is editing, with a collaborator, the letters of Dr. John Fothergill for publication. This paper, printed by courtesy of The Osier Club of London, was presented at a symposium held at the British Postgraduate School of Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, 16 October 1962, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Dr. John Fothergill's birth. Certain paragraphs based upon Mrs. Corner's article, "Dr. Fothergul's Friendship with Benjamin Franklin," published in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. CII, no. 5 (October 1958), are included by permission. 2 An Account of the Life and Travels in the Ministry of John Fothergill, Sr. (London, 1753; Philadelphia, 1754). sDr. Fothergill to Israel Pemberton, 14 May 1743, Pemberton Papers, XXXIV, 4, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 77 78Quaker History gill was consultant and adviser to Pennsylvania Quakers during years of trial, which saw giving up their Holy Experiment of peaceful government of the province. All too soon came years of rebellious warfare which finally brought to an end the era of colonial dependence upon Great Britain. In years of peace, Dr. Fothergill had backed the Philadelphia Friends in strengthening the Penn Charter School, founded in the seventeenth century by William Penn and still flourishing today. He found teachers to send to Philadelphia,4 notably Robert Proud, of Yorkshire, who spent his mature lifetime in the City of Brotherly Love5 and wrote a twovolume history which is still a source book for early events in this Quaker colony. Pennsylvania's Abolition Society, when advocated by James Pemberton, a leader among Philadelphia Friends, and by philanthropic Anthony Benezet, with the aim of stopping the transportation of that "wickedest of cargoes" from Africa, and ending the disgrace of human slavery, put into action Dr. Fothergill 's strong belief in human brotherhood. Israel Pemberton's "Friendly Association," formed earlier to increase understanding with neighboring Red Indian tribes, had demonstrated the same ideals. Dr. Fothergill saw to it that copies of a series of Indian treaties—remarkable documents—undertaken to establish lasting peace between white men and red in Pennsylvania, got wide circulation in London among Parliamentary leaders. The colonial project dearest to his heart as a physician was naturally the establishment of the Pennsylvania Hospital. This first hospital in the colonies actually owed its start to Pennsylvania 's Quaker physician, Dr. Thomas Bond, who was supported by Benjamin Franklin's well-managed campaign for its establishment .6 A modest beginning in 1752, utilizing a large dwelling house, was followed in 1756 by a move into a fine new building of native stone, which is still part of a greatly extended institution known for excellence today throughout the world. Stocks of drugs needed to run the Hospital were...