Statue of John Fothergill Photo: Photo courtesy Ackworth School
Fothergill remembered
Ackworth School remembers founder
An eighteenth-century Quaker physician has been remembered in a series of events at the school he founded. A celebration on 8 March marked three hundred years since the birth of John Fothergill, who founded Ackworth School near Pontefract in 1779. He died the following year.
John Fothergill pioneered scientific treatments for sore throats and developed the understanding of neuralgia. He is thought to have given the first known lecture on the practice of mouth-to-mouth ventilation.
In 1764, he sponsored a fresh translation of the Bible into English, carried out by Anthony Purver. It became known as the Quaker Bible. This was considered a radical step at a time when the King James Bible was used almost exclusively.
John Fothergill was described as ‘an amazing man’ in a statement from Ackworth School to mark the anniversary.
‘The most prominent Friend who acted as clerk [of London Yearly Meeting] prior to 1807 was Dr. John Fothergill… who found time amid the pressing claims of a popular London physician to serve the Society thrice in this way as well as in many other capacities.’ He was clerk to London YM in 1749, 1764 and 1779.
In his Records and Recollections, James Jenkins remarks on John Fothergill’s clerkship of 1779:
‘…what he said and wrote was indeed, multum in parvo. I never knew any man (Lord Mansfield excepted) who expressed so much meaning in so few words…’
