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 http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924030617538 
 
THE PROCEEDINlG?>|j [if; [• \' 
 
 CELEBRATION"- THE CENTENARY 
 
 OF 
 
 ACKWORTH School, 
 
 26th and 27th of Sixth Month, 1879, 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 JAMES HENRY BARBER. 
 
 ALSO 
 
 By JAMES HACK TUKE ; 
 
 AND 
 
 By JOHN S. ROWNTREE; 
 
 A nearly verbatim report of the Speeches delivered at the 
 two Meetings. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 THE CENTENARY COMMITTEE, ACKWORTH SCHOOL. 
 
 1879. 
 
 SAMUEL HARRIS & CO., 5, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT, 
 LONDON. 
 

 .- ^'glD h 
 
 5 776^5'f 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 BARRETT, SONS AND CO., PRINTERS, 
 
 SEETHING LANE, E.G. 
 
 A^r 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I THINK it is Hugh Miller who records that, when a 
 farmer's boy, he was sent by his master to a pond or 
 stream, with a litter of puppies judged to belong to the 
 superfluous canine multitude. 
 
 Instead of executing his commission, or rather charge, 
 he straightway ran home, explaining his arrival there to 
 his father's household, by exclaiming, " I could na droon 
 the wee doggies." 
 
 I have been reminded of the story whilst tenderly re- 
 garding my superfluous reminiscences of our recent happy 
 festival at Ackworth, and should have been glad to escape 
 from the situation by casting on some one else the task of 
 putting an end to them. 
 
 Alas ! they have been permitted to survive, and hence 
 the prolixity of the following narrative. 
 
 J. H. B. 
 
 12th August, 1879. 
 
THE NARRATIVE. 
 
 The 26th and 27th of Sixth Month, 1879, were joyful 
 and memorable days in the annals of Ackworth School! 
 For Ackworth had collected around her her sons and 
 daughters from far and near, to keep holiday, and com- 
 memorate her Hundredth Anniversary. With the many 
 years of her past, with her future, as we fondly trust, to be 
 still more successful than the past, she met the present 
 with a smile of hope, as she welcomed the throng of her 
 children of every age. And truly they were of almost every 
 age, from the venerable old man in his ninth decade, to the 
 young scholar not yet emerged from the first. Joyous youth, 
 active manhood, womanhood, and grey-headed age were 
 there, all claiming the kindred tie of Ackworth scholarship. 
 Yet, large as were the numbers of those assembled, they were 
 but the few compared with the full muster-roll of her vast 
 peaceful army — nearly 10,000 in all — 100 a-year pouring in 
 ■and out for 100 years. And how many, the vast majority 
 indeed, of Ackworth scholars, have already been gathered 
 to their fathers ! May we not humbly trust that a large 
 proportion of these have realised the full, the eternal, value 
 of the religious lessons, and the Christian training of 
 Ackworth's faithful preceptors ? How many distant Friends 
 were thinking of these days who were unable to form part 
 of the assembly : for Ackworth scholars are scattered over 
 the face of the earth in almost every land where the Apglo- 
 Saxon race has wandered, and its colonists are found. 
 
THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 There had been many months of careful preparation and 
 anxious thought, for it was not easy to foresee the number 
 who would be present, or fitly to provide for their comfort. 
 It was also desired that the Centenary days might be 
 marked with a " white stone," some memento of the love 
 and interest of the old scholars, which should benefit the 
 scholars of to-day, and of the years to come. 
 
 THE GENERAL MEETING GATHERING. 
 
 Ackworth General Meeting is eminently a joyous gather- 
 ing. Occurring at Midsummer, when days are at the 
 longest, attracting as it does so many young people ; the 
 anticipation of the coming holidays giving a bright tone to 
 the scholars ; with not a few happ}' re-unions of parents and 
 children, brothers, sisters, and relatives, some of the last- 
 named reviving the pleasant cousinships of school-days, 
 wherein " distance lends enchantment to the view ; " the 
 General Meeting, despite its formal examinations, is at all 
 times a lively anniversary. But there was a Centenary 
 atmosphere around this General Meeting manifest from 
 the first. It was larger than usual. It also, as a whole, 
 looked younger. Nevertheless its personal appearance had 
 undergone a marked change on the evening of Fifth-day, 
 the 26th. Omnibuses, wagonettes, and carriages of every 
 description, had come pouring in from Normanton, Ponte- 
 fract, Featherstone, and Hemsworth stations, laden with 
 closely-packed passengers — and all available lodgings were 
 at least fully occupied. 
 
THE GENERAL MEETING GATHERING. 3 
 
 There was one circumstance deserving a passing notice. 
 Some disappointment was felt that the new line of railway 
 from Swinton to York, which has a station at Ackworth, had 
 not been opened for general traffic, for it was about to be 
 so in a few days ; but the Company ran trains from York, 
 and one from Sheffield, to this General Meeting, the first 
 passenger trains which had ever reached the village. It 
 was interesting thus to associate with the hundredth anni- 
 versary of the School the direct railway communication so 
 long greatly needed, and pleasant to consider that it would 
 be available to convey the children to their homes at the 
 approaching and future vacations. 
 
 The thoughts of Friends went back to the far-off days 
 
 when the journey of a child from Cornwall, or Scotland, 
 
 was made under circumstances so different. For the early 
 
 days of the school (before those of MacAdam) not only 
 
 long preceded the first railway train, but the first of those 
 
 swift and well-appointed coaches which, though we are apt 
 
 to compare them disparagingly with present facilities, were 
 
 nevertheless a wonderful advance on the lumbering vehicles, 
 
 traversing bad roads, which conveyed the first Ackworth 
 
 scholars from their homes. And not a few of these homes 
 
 were distant ones. The first two scholars on the list came 
 
 from Poole, in Dorsetshire, the fifty-ninth and sixtieth were 
 
 from Montrose, in the far North. Swansea, Redruth, Mara- 
 
 zion, and Aberdeen, each contributed its quota within the 
 
 next three or four years. Fifteen years after this, a traveller 
 
 tells us that he " left the town of Gosport at one o'clock in 
 
 the morning in the 'Telegraph,' then considered a fast 
 
 coach, arriving at the Golden Cross, Charing Cross, at 
 
 eight in the evening, thus occupying nineteen hours in 
 
 B 2 
 
travelling eighty miles, being at the rate of rather more 
 than four miles an hour." Let us imagine our little Quaker 
 boy or girl then travelling the 300 or 400 miles from Scot- 
 land or Cornwall, first by one conveyance and then another. 
 Still, in this world of compensations, the clouds not 
 unfrequently have a silver lining. When a journey took 
 three or four days and nights, how abounding were the 
 hospitalities and the fatherly and motherly love of the good 
 Friends on the route ; how warm the sympathy for the low- 
 spirited boy or girl leaving a far-off home and its dear 
 associations, to enter in amongst a large community of 
 strangers, and to be at school probably for several years 
 without one vacation, sometimes without even a visit from 
 kinsfolk, in many cases with a very rare one. Letters, too, 
 were expensive, and carefully read over by the School 
 authorities. Truly, in many respects, our forefathers were 
 an enduring race compared with this generation. 
 
 We are tempted to glance at the proceedings of the 
 General Meeting, apart from the special anniversary, for 
 we hope this period may have an interest for future scholars, 
 and generations of Friends. 
 
 THE MEETING OF THE FRIENDS PROVIDENT INSTITUTION. 
 
 The prelude to the other meetings is, with some apparent 
 singularity, the annual gathering of the Directors and 
 members of a national business Institution. Friends have 
 always been provident in character, laying up for their 
 children, and minding the proverb about a " rainy day," hence 
 
FRIENDS' PROVIDENT MEETING. 
 
 a Life Assurance Society has grown up in their midst. 
 Solid, steady-going, and quietly prosperous, the Friends' 
 Provident Institution has selected, as its place of annual 
 gathering and yearly report, the General Meeting of Ack- 
 worth School, thus bringing in amongst the religious, 
 academical, and social elements, its contribution of financial 
 interest, and its reminder to young Friends and old, that 
 it is well to make suitable provision in time of health. 
 
 As the Friends are arriving then, on the Third-day after- 
 noon and evening, the Directors of the Friends' Provident 
 Institution are gathering tbo, filling the galleries of the 
 Meeting-house, a somewhat elderly, staid looking set of men, 
 evidently full of facts. Truly anybody having a predisposition 
 to "assure," would be confirmed therein by the demeanour, 
 so quiet and grave, of the Directors, grouped about their 
 Chairman. The constituency this year is more than 
 usually lively, for it has been suggested to change, for once, 
 the locality of the annual meeting; and no bees, whose 
 accustomed hive has had' a shake, could more promptly 
 buzz around the mover, than do the assembled members. 
 They are assuredly a Conservative body. Let them hence- 
 forth be left alone to hold their convocations at Ackworth. 
 
 But we are annalists, and perhaps someone in 1979 — if 
 Dr. Cumming be fallacious — may like to know the high- 
 water mark of the Friends' Provident Institution of the 
 present day. We are informed by the Report, that the 
 accumulated fund (the assured hope of its policy holders) 
 has reached to about £1,400,000. On the 20th of Eleventh 
 Month last the office had in existence 5,330 policies, for 
 assurance on lives, amounting to £4,237,914; 205 endow- 
 ments, amounting to nearly £42,000, and it paid in annuities 
 
THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 more than £16,000. It had issued 354 new policies during 
 the preceding year. Its yearly income was ;f 15 1,927, viz., 
 from premiums ;£"g 1,504, and from investments £60,423, 
 whilst it had increased its accumulated fund in the year 
 by £37,120. Let us now cease to be "figurative," and 
 leave the assured to reappoint their old Directors ; in order 
 to have a look at the Friends still pouring in, who intend to 
 glance round the School before retiring to their lodgings 
 for the night. 
 
 THIRD-DAY EVENING. 
 
 Friends from everywhere are meeting, often after the 
 lapse of years, many for the first .time since they were 
 school-fellows. Birthright membership may be open to 
 some objections, but it undoubtedly adds a charm to the 
 General Meeting at Ackworth. How warm are the greetings, 
 how bright the smiles, of the Friends ! This year the School 
 grounds wear a novel aspect, and one wishes specially to 
 have a view of them. Over the vestibule door, upon the 
 centre and on each wing, some sturdy flag-poles had been 
 erected. From these were flying a dozen large national 
 flags, principally the British ensign and the union jack. 
 Let us hope that Dr. Fothergill, could he have foreseen the 
 result of his labours, would not have forbidden them to 
 wave in glad commemoration. 
 
 Through the afternoon and evening, the refreshment tent 
 in the little field behind the central building has had its 
 streams of peeping visitors. With its grassy carpet, and the 
 
THIRD-DAY EVENING. 
 
 fresh air blowing through it, windowless of course, but 
 light enough this June day, the tent has afforded a pleasantly- 
 novel place for the cup of tea, whilst the wide unoccupied 
 spaces and tables give promise of room when a larger 
 number of visitors arrive to try its full capabilities. More- 
 over it is tolerably water-tight, an evident necessity. 
 
 But there are many other objects of interest. The 
 younger men Friends mingle in the sports of the boys, take 
 a turn at cricket, or try their jumping powers. The older 
 ones, once scholars, wander to every familiar nook and recall 
 their youthful days. A very few perhaps there may be 
 
 ' Who moralise on the decay, 
 Of Ackworth boys in modern day ; ' 
 
 but with most, the pleasant smile and accompanying little 
 group of boys, tell rather of cheery comparisons and plea- 
 sant recollections. One such veteran endeavours to verify 
 the old place as he knew it, and to point out its changes. 
 Let us join him, and listen to his remarks. " The old 
 entrance to the School," he says, "is altered; long and 
 narrow as it was, and flanked by two walls, looking very 
 like the approach to a prison. On the right there was the 
 bakehouse. Didn't we like to be bakers' assistants, and taste 
 the new delightfully smelling bread ? On the left there was 
 a door which opened into the court where were the shoe- 
 makers' and tailors' shops. Sometimes we were shoemakers' 
 and tailors' assistants- too, and we had a sour apple out 
 of the little replaced garden, to be eaten with a piece of 
 bread, as ' pay' when we gave satisfaction. Sour as it was, 
 we liked it, and thought our labours fairly rewarded. The 
 Meeting-house is all new, and the lodge changed. One of 
 
THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 our tallest boys was lodge keeper ; he noted everybody who 
 entered the premises, and rang the bell for meals, and all 
 collectings. They have done away with the cellars as 
 washing-rooms for the boys, I suppose, long ago. Ah ! it 
 was comfortless work running down from our bedrooms 
 every morning into those cellars, half undressed, especially 
 in winter. Now there are comfortable lavatories. The 
 boys must be less hardy, though, than they used to be, and 
 less able to rough it when they go apprentice. The colon- 
 nade has the old pillars ; certainly they are beginning to 
 look older, and, like me, the worse for the summers and 
 winters they have faced. But the schoolroom at the end 
 of the colonnade has been turned into an Art Exhibition ; 
 that was Henry Hawley's reading-class room fifty years 
 ago. The shed-court and the shed, where we played on 
 rainy days, are much as they were. I wonder if the boys 
 are as good at long rope in the shed as we were ? And 
 there is the outlet to the boys' gardens ; methinks they are 
 rather less cared for than of yore, or is it that I have come 
 to look at things with different eyes ? For I well remember 
 how we prized our gardens, and had rewards given us 
 when they were neat, and' specially for the solid ' sides ' we 
 made, of clay, to hold the soil well in. Southernwood, 
 columbine, roses, sweet briar, pinks — were ever flowers in 
 after-life so delightful as these of our own, cultivated by 
 our own hands, and to which we brought the water from 
 the pump across the green? How toothsome were the 
 mustard, cress, and radishes, carried in our check pocket 
 handkerchiefs to the supper of bread, butter, and water, at 
 six o'clock." But our old friend is a little garrulous, and 
 he and we turn in for the night, after looking into the 
 
THE GENERAL MEETING. 
 
 Committee Room — a beautiful room — now furnished so 
 handsomely with its Centenary book-cases, the shelves of 
 which we trust will soon be filled from the Fund and by 
 Contributions. 
 
 THE GENERAL MEETING. 
 
 The weather, that potent influence on days of festival, 
 had been capricious and showery on Third-day, as many 
 who came into the village in open conveyances had expe- 
 rienced. Fourth-day, the 25th, opened brightly, and proved 
 fine throughout. The proceedings of the General Meeting 
 proper began at ten a.m., with the meeting for worship ; 
 ■it was large, and an impressive and interesting occasion, 
 partaking very much of a national character, being attended 
 by ministers from various parts of the kingdom, and one 
 from the United States of America, — the presence of the 
 large number of children in a solid phalanx in the midst of 
 the congregation, fitly symbolizing the care of the Church 
 extended towards and around them. 
 
 The business part of the General Meeting commenced 
 after a short recess : — it included the reading of the Report 
 of the School for 1878. Quoting from the condensation of 
 the Report in the pages of the Friend, we are told that 
 " The number of children in the School had gradually in- 
 creased, and at the close of 1878 there were 169 boys, and 
 114 girls, being only one boy and six girls less than could be 
 accommodated. This improvement was due, in part, to the 
 admission of a somewhat larger number of non-members, 
 of whom there were thirty-eight. The tone of the school 
 
THE AC K WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 was considered high, and the education satisfactory. . . . 
 There had been an increase in salaries of £'1,200 during the 
 last twenty years, and yet the want of well-qualified teachers 
 was more felt than in 1858. As was the case last year, 
 the expenditure exceeded the income considerably, the 
 , deficiency being £54.2. The last winter vacation was 
 reported to have been a success, and in the words of the 
 Superintendent (Frederick Andrews) 'The work of the 
 autumn half-year was conducted with increased vigour and 
 spirit, on the part of both teachers and scholars, in antici- 
 pation of the break at Christmas.' " This vacation was 
 the first regular winter one, there having been an experi- 
 mental one two years before. 
 
 In the discussion which ensued, the excess of the 
 School's expenditure over its income — and, in close con-- 
 nection with this, the difficulty of procuring efficient 
 teachers on moderate terms,— gave rise to much variety 
 of opinion. One or two Friends thought the standard of 
 education higher than it used to be, hence involving a 
 , larger number of teachers, and greater expense; and their 
 opinion was, that the curriculum of the School in earlier 
 periods was sufficient, and in some respects better than 
 now, as a preparation for after-life, being based on a 
 plain and thoroughly good English education in reading, 
 grammar, writing, spelling and arithmetic. But the view 
 that prevailed was, that the standard must be fully main- 
 tained, in order successfully to compete with the educational 
 advance in the country generally ; and that, even financially, 
 it would be a mistake to lower the standard at Ackworth, 
 since it would tend to drive away from the School those 
 children who came in under the highest scale of payment. 
 
THE GENERAL MEETING. 
 
 The higher^ classes having been recently visited by an 
 Examiner from the University of Cambridge, the general 
 result was verbally reported to be, that although the 
 Examiner was not satisfied with the scholars' attainments 
 in languages and mathematics, he approved highly of them 
 as regarded the English branches of education. The 
 Report of the Centenary Committee was also read to the 
 meeting.* . 
 
 Most of the Friends present were distributed to the 
 various classes of boys and girls, in order to superintend, 
 or be present at, their examination during the ensuing 
 afternoon, and the following morning ; the meeting ad- 
 journing till 2.30 p.m. the next day. Not very extended 
 was the period between the conclusion of this meeting 
 and the examination in the various class-rooms, commenc- 
 ing at three p.m., but it afforded the opportunity for a 
 pleasant social recess, and of testing the capabilities of the 
 refreshment tent. To-day, however, the assembly had on its 
 business face. During the examinations. Friends varied in 
 their practice, some constituting themselves the permanent 
 Committee of their class ; others flitting about from room 
 to room, and comparing notes as to the respective classes ; 
 men Friends being restricted to the boys, and women 
 Friends to the girls' schools. Generally, we believe, the 
 teacher of the class conducted the examination, but very 
 frequently this was varied by questions from Friends. In 
 the two hours devoted to this service, the examination was 
 necessarily very cursory ; on these occasions we are merely 
 educational " cheese-tasters." To the children generally 
 
 * This Report is given in full at pages 22-25. 
 
THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 the ordeal did not seem a formidable one, and not a few of 
 them appeared rather to enjoy the occasion. 
 
 The morning sittings with the classes on Fifth-day began 
 at seven o'clock, and lasted an hour; they were confined 
 to examination in Scripture, and seemed satisfactory to 
 Friends ; Scripture facts and truths being evidently care- 
 fully taught to the children. At nine a.m., the most 
 advanced class of boys assembled in the Meeting-house, 
 to be further examined before a considerable concourse of 
 Friends of both sexes. The boys occupied the gallery and 
 the seat immediately below; the Clerk and Assistant of the 
 Committee of this class were at a table under the gallery, the 
 examining teacher at the further end of the room fronting 
 the boys, and by precept and example tried to induce 
 them to " speak up," so as to be heard by all. Very 
 formidable must it have been to any timid boy, were 
 there any such, to sit confronting his numerous and 
 critical, though good-natured and sympathising audience, 
 who, with the list of the names of the boys in hand, the 
 age of each boy being marked opposite his name, filled 
 many of the seats in the body of the room. It came 
 into the mind of one of the audience, that a well known 
 fabulist relates how once upon a time the monkey race 
 assembled to listen to the recital of the wrongs of one of 
 their species, who had escaped from the confinement of 'a 
 menagerie, and described to his brethren the sufferings 
 inflicted on him by mankind. Bringing into play their full 
 powers df imitation and cunning, the monkeys conspired 
 to capture several varieties of human beings, and exhibited 
 them descriptively through Apeland to the mingled admi- 
 ration and ridicule of its inhabitants. And what, thought 
 
THE GENERAL MEETING. 13 
 
 the dreamer, would be the result of a raid, on the part 
 of Ackworth boys, upon their examining spectators, if a 
 well selected number of the latter could be cooped up in 
 that gallery, and made to read, to recite, to give clear 
 definitions ? How many bright wits might be found to be 
 wool-gathering, and if mistakes were received by the audi- 
 ence with a well-bred but perceptible titter, how very likely 
 these mistakes would be to multiply and become intensified. 
 Nevertheless there was many a loving look turned by the 
 elder Friends this morning to these dear boys, and many 
 a cheering word spoken. Moreover, their performances 
 seemed to give general satisfaction to the auditory. 
 
 Women Friends, in addition to the examination of the 
 girls' classes, during these two days, had a Committee 
 thoroughly to oversee the house and the domestic arrange- 
 ments. And now, the Examinations being over, Friends, 
 from the various sections, bring in their reports to the respec- 
 tive men's and women's Committees, and a condensed state- 
 ment is prepared for the adjourned General Meeting, which 
 assembles at 2.30 p.m., this Fifth-day, but little time being 
 allowed either for food or rest. The report is held to be 
 satisfactory by the adjourned meeting, the reading of the 
 first class of the boys considered good ; an old defect — the 
 sing-song tone — being very little apparent ; the arithmetic 
 very fair, the writing creditable, and the sciences alone re- 
 flected on as somewhat wanting in variety. Thus the wishes 
 of some Friends for proficiency in plain English, the funda- 
 mental Rs, seem to be realised, though on this point there 
 is still a little grumbling, we being eminently a practical 
 and commercial people, addicted to solidity in our tastes. 
 
 But lo ! there starts up a grievance. Ought not a father 
 
14 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 coming, no one knows how far) to this General Meeting, 
 to be allowed to see his own dear girl examined ? Yet 
 someone intervenes, and tells him it may not be, and he 
 is aggrieved. Forthwith there is much to be said on 
 both sides. Is there not an unwritten law of courtesy, or 
 chivalry, towards these timid girl-scholars, which would 
 forbid that men should be present in numbers, when they 
 are cross-questioned, lest they should be embarrassed ? 
 We compromise, and permit, as an exceptional privilege 
 to be specially asked for, that a father may be present at 
 the examination of a class of girls, and we do this, with the 
 lighter heart, inasmuch as we know that in other schools 
 of Friends, men are present at the girls' examinations 
 without consciously disturbing their equanimity. We are 
 unanimously of opinion (on the question being raised of an 
 old disused practice) that for Friends to walk about in 
 the dining-rooms to see the children fed is a custom 
 more honoured in the breach than in the observance, 
 especially as the teachers take their meals with the 
 children, and both have a sense of self-respect. Let us 
 cultivate the proprieties of life, and remember that the boys 
 are to be the future men, whom we would have to be 
 courteous and mannerly in feeling and act. And so, with 
 the expression of a watchful care that the literature intro- 
 duced into the School may not be baneful, we made our 
 concluding minute, owning the mercy and goodness of the 
 Lord extended to our School through these hundred years ; 
 and separated to meet again in larger numbers at the 
 farewell gathering of the General Meeting proper, at four 
 o'clock, which proved to be a time of solemn worship, and 
 heartfelt prayer and praise, silent and vocal. 
 
FIRST-DAY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION AND OTHER MEETINGS. 
 
 In order not to break the continuity of the narrative of 
 the General Meeting we have not inserted in exact chrono- 
 logical order the other gatherings of Friends on Fourth and 
 Fifth-days. We must now record briefly the proceedings 
 of one held on Fourth-day evening, always a leading object 
 of interest to Friends, the Annual Meeting of the First-day 
 School Association. Springing from a very slender source, 
 this movement has swollen into a vast stream of varied 
 philanthropy and usefulness and of religious and Scriptural 
 teaching. It may be interesting in the future to know the 
 leading features of the work of the Association as now 
 presented. 
 
 The Report states that there are 132 First-day Schools 
 in existence, in eighty-seven places, with 1,488 teachers, 
 and 22,234 scholars, consisting of — Adult Schools, with 
 563 teachers, and 12,363 scholars : Junior Schools, with 
 925 teachers, and 9,871 scholars. The number of members 
 in the Society of Friends, we may observe in passing, 
 is 14,710. The comparison of these numbers alone 
 shows how wide-spread is the interest felt by Friends 
 in this Sabbath-school work, exercising, as it does, so mate- 
 rial an influence for good on so many members of the 
 Society, and the attenders of its meetings for worship, and 
 in some districts operating usefully upon a considerable 
 number of the working-class outside the regular organisa- 
 tions of Friends. The Birmingham group of schools num- 
 bers seven, with 3,000 scholars. But the mere teaching 
 forms but a part of the good effected. How varied are the 
 
i6 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 branch efforts which spring from the First-day Schools' 
 associations : Mission Meetings, Bible-Classes, Savings 
 Banks, Week-night Schools, Temperance, Band of Hope, 
 Peace Associations, Sick Clubs, Mutual Improvement Meet- 
 ings, Saturday afternoon excursions, and Saturday evening 
 engagements. Flower Missions, Flower Shows, — all with 
 the aim to counteract vice, or aid the religious teaching. 
 
 The discussion disclosed how valuable the teachers had 
 found the regular study of Scripture, preparatory to meet- 
 ing their classes. One of the speakers supposed it ppssible 
 that some of those present at that meeting might live to 
 celebrate the Centenary of the First-day School Association, 
 and asked, "Will they not have to tell of the wonderful 
 influence for good it has exerted?" The latest general 
 movement in connection with the Association has been the 
 sending forth of numerous deputations to visit the schools 
 in various parts of England ; decided testimony was borne 
 to the pleasure and benefit resulting to both visitors and 
 visited. The " call of duty,"— the Christian's " marching 
 orders," ever a leading article of faith amongst Friends, — 
 was markedly dwelt upon. The desire found expression, as 
 it always does in these meetings, for more and more of a 
 bridging over of the once apparently impassable chasm 
 between the scholars and this little church of ours. There 
 was a sympathetic allusion in the Report to the wave of 
 commercial depression passing over us everywhere, and to 
 the distress amongst the poor, aggravated last winter, as it 
 was, by the long-continued severity of the season. 
 
 Another meeting of an interesting character was that for 
 communion and united prayer on Fifth-day, held at six 
 a.m. It was in the Meeting-house, and was a quiet, good 
 
INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION MEETING. 17 
 
 meeting. There was something in the hour, the fresh- 
 ness of the morning, and in the feeling that those who 
 had thus early assembled had come with an earnest desire 
 after good, which contributed to the life of the meeting. 
 The special subject for prayer was the work of dur First- 
 day schools. 
 
 One other meeting of a very enjoyable kind to the children 
 we may allude to, was held on Fourth-day, about five p.m.; 
 to hear the report of the Friends' Public Schools' Industrial 
 Association, and to award the prizes to the successful, 
 Exhibitors. 
 
 The Association sets forth in its printed statement the 
 circumstances leading to its formation, and the objects it 
 has in view, from which we make the following extracts, 
 viz. :—" During the time of the last General Meeting" (that 
 of 1878) " a Public Schools' Industrial Exhibition was held 
 at Ackworth, which attracted a good deal of attention from 
 visitors, and which was in many respects a success. This 
 success has decided the promoters to repeat the experiment 
 on a larger scale. The former Exhibition was limited to 
 the productions — mechanical, artistic, and scientific— of 
 boys only. The proposed second Exhibition will be thrown 
 open to all pupils — boys and girls — at present being edu- 
 cated in the Public Schools of the Society of Friends in 
 Great Britain. and Ireland. .In order further to enhance the 
 main object of the Exhibition, viz., the encouragement of 
 the useful employment of leisure time among the youth of 
 our Schools, by offering inducements to industry in Art, 
 Science, Mechanical Pursuits, Natural History, and other 
 departments of work not included in the School curriculum, 
 the Friends' Public Schools' Industrial Assoeiation has 
 
i8 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 been established. It has been decided that an annual 
 Exhibition be held under its auspices — all articles ex- 
 hibited being the results of work of members of the 
 Association." 
 
 There are four Schools in the Association, Ackworth with 
 ii6 members, Croydon 32, Penketh 34, and Sidcot 85, total 
 267, and there were exhibits from each school. It is in- 
 tended that the Exhibitions shall be annual, rotating from 
 one school to another. A few months ago schedules were 
 issued to the schools, offering prizes for a great variety of 
 articles. As a rule these prizes were los. for the first, 5s. 
 for the second, and 2S. 6d. for the third ; but, in addition, 
 the judges had the option of conferring a medal on any 
 scholar whom they thought deserving of special distinc- 
 tion. Within a very short time 500 entries had been made 
 from the four schools above named, and from that at 
 Rawdon by about 230 boys and girls in all. From distant 
 places these articles arrived at Ackworth, and for some days 
 the Secretary, F. W. Follows, of Manchester, with a 
 number of assistants, had been engaged, early and late, in 
 classifying and ticketing the exhibits, and then arranging 
 them in two of the Schoolrooms. The Exhibition was 
 divided into three chief sections — ist, Workshop Products; 
 2nd, Needlework; 3rd, Drawing and Penmanship, but in 
 addition prizes were offered for maps, also for geological 
 and botanical collections. One boy, aged fifteen, had his 
 name attached to no fewer than seven articles, including a 
 kitchen table, a mahogany writing desk, and a box of chess- 
 men. Another had directed his attention to the making of 
 a telescope, and turned out a really handsome instrument 
 in brass, resting upon a tripod. We must only name a few 
 
VARIOUS EXHIBITIONS. ig 
 
 more of the articles. There was a boat, planked and jointed, 
 and a microphone, — the latter the work of a girl of fourteen. 
 There were specimens of fretwork, of wood turnery, of 
 ornamental carving, also of cabinet making, in the shape of 
 sundry easy chairs, book-cases and workboxes. Staining 
 and polishing of different kinds of wood, basket making, 
 toy making, picture-frame making, and other craftsmanship 
 were represented. There was an abundance of exhibits of 
 every kind of plain and ornamental sewing, some of the 
 girls showing how an old stocking can be so darijed as to 
 appear as good as new, while others showed the stranger 
 little feats at herring-boning, knitting and crewelling. The 
 third section of the Exhibition was that which comprised 
 specimens of drawing in pencil, chalk, sepia, and water- 
 colours ; there were considerably over loo of these on view, 
 some of them were admirable, the water-colours being 
 specially noticeable, as also the drawings from models. 
 The judges were persons practically acquainted with the 
 various kinds of work, and at the close of the meeting 
 their award was read by F. W. Follows, and the prizes 
 distributed by the President of the Association, Samuel 
 Gurney. 
 
 In addition to the Exhibition we have just glanced at, 
 'there was another of much interest to the visitors. In 
 one of the Class-rooms Albert Linney, the teacher of the 
 first-class, arranged a number of relics of bygone times at 
 Ackworth, also a bust of Dr. Fothergill, recently presented 
 to the School, two of the Doctor's portfolios, and two 
 of his tea-caddies. Not less interesting was a pocket Bible 
 (printed in 1653) once the' property of John Fothergill, 
 
 the minister. The birth of his son John, afterwards Dr. 
 
 c 2 
 
THE AC K WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 Fothergill, is entered on the last page of the Old Testa- 
 ment. These were lent by members of the family, now 
 living in Darlington. The walls of the room were hung 
 round with a number of old views of the School, 
 together with letters of Dr. Fothergill ; also Indentures 
 of apprenticeship, under which those who had been 
 inmates of the Ackworth Foundling Hospital were bound . 
 apprentices to tradespeople in the neighbourhood. There 
 were the manuscript register of the names of scholars 
 received into the School, and a memorial album containing 
 the photographs and autographs of a host of worthies who 
 have at various periods been associated with Ackworth. 
 Passing by other mementoes we notice a singular-looking 
 iron dish hung against the wall, a lal^el upon which informs 
 us that in the bygone times it was used for various pur- 
 poses in the kitchen and dining-rooms ; the words throw 
 some light on the mode of living in the days of " lob 
 scouse," and other ancient delicacies. The quaint old dish 
 was flanked with a couple of small wooden plates or 
 trenchers, used up to a period of about fifty years ago, 
 which were remembered by a number of the attenders of 
 this General Meeting ; then a smile was evoked as we 
 examined a pair of the leathern breeches which were in use 
 until about 1820. Among other curiosities was the dial of 
 the original clock erected at Ackworth School in .1779 ; 
 also an illustration of the antique " Ticket system," in the 
 shape of a parchment purse to hold the tickets by means 
 of which rewards and punishments were apportioned to the 
 boys. The Centenary Committee had also solicited the 
 loan of any Works of Art by Old Scholars : and many 
 responded thereto most kindly. The walls of the scholars' 
 
VARIOUS EXHIBITIONS. 
 
 dining-rooms were largely covered with water-colour and 
 pencil drawings, and specimens of penmanship. If these 
 obtained less notice than they deserved it was because the 
 objects of interest on the premises were so numerous, and 
 the attendance at the various meetings so well maintained, 
 that there was not much time available.* 
 
 * .The descriptions of the Industrial Exhibition and of the ancient 
 curiosities are extracted from the copious report of the Centenary pro- 
 ceedings published in the Wakefield Express. 
 
CENTENARY ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 We have lingered, for reasons already stated, amongst 
 the various engagements of the General Meeting. We 
 must' now turn to the proceedings of the Centenary gather- 
 ings, vsfhich gave such special interest to the General 
 Meeting of 1879. We have said that there had been months 
 of preparation. Let us glance at the nature of these pre- 
 parations. At the General Meeting of 1877, the following 
 minute was made, viz. :^— 
 
 " The desirability of preparing for some celebration of 
 the approaching Hundredth Anniversary of the foundation 
 of Ackworth School which shall be worthy of the occasion 
 has been brought before the General Meeting by William 
 Coor Parker. The proposal meets with the hearty approval 
 of the meeting ; and the following Friends are appointed to 
 consider the subject, and report to our next meeting, viz.: — 
 Joseph Simpson, Charles Barnard, Thomas Pumphrey, 
 James Thompson, Thomas Emmott, William Coor Parker, 
 Joseph Dell, John Stansfield, Albert Linney, together with 
 Frederick Andrews, and any other Friends whose services 
 the Committee may feel to require, in order to make the 
 appointment thoroughly representative. 
 
 " Thomas Pumphrey, Clerk." 
 
 .To the General Meeting of 1878, this Committee re- 
 ported progress as follows, viz. : — 
 
 " The Committee appointed at the last General Meeting 
 
CENTENARY ARRANGEMENTS. 23 
 
 report that they have held four meetings, to consider the 
 subject entrusted to them, and have consulted the Ackworth 
 General Committee thereon. 
 
 " As a result of their deliberations, they recommend that 
 the Hundredth Anniversary of the foundation of Ackworth 
 School shall be celebrated at Ackworth, on Sixth-day in the 
 ' General Meeting ' week, 1879. On that day, they propose 
 the old scholars shall be invited to Ackworth, to take part 
 in a meeting at which appropriate papers may be read and 
 addresses delivered. The children to be admitted to this 
 meeting, and to have suitable treats provided for them. 
 Out-door games, &c., to be organised, so that all may join 
 in,— boys, girls, and the old scholars. 
 
 " While some such arrangements as these may serve to 
 commemorate the day in friendly re-union of those more 
 especially interested, the Committee feel that some more 
 permanent memorial of the event should be aimed at ; and 
 to this they have naturally given most of their attention. 
 Many proposals have been considered — among them a very 
 thorough scheme of science teaching — but the Committee 
 have been deterred from recommending it in its entirety, 
 principally because of its great cost. After very careful 
 consideration the Committee have decided to recommend 
 the formation of a ' Centenary Fund,' to be applied to the 
 establishment and maintenance of a Library worthy of the 
 Institution, and that the surplus be applied to the encourage- 
 ment and teaching of Practical and Natural Science. 
 
 " There are at present five libraries in the School; three 
 for scholars, viz., one for girls, one for junior boys, and 
 another for senior boys ; two for the teachers and other 
 officers, available also for the scholars under special circum- 
 
stances. A very large proportion of the books in all these 
 libraries are unsuitable or useless, whilst there is a great 
 deficiency of new and standard works en Science and His- 
 tory, of Books of Reference, and of Voyages and Travels. 
 
 " It is proposed to unite the Teachers' Libraries and 
 form a central one, to be placed in the noble Committee- 
 room, and thoroughly reconstitute this and the Scholars' 
 Libraries. 
 
 " It is suggested that a further sum be invested, and 
 the annual income from it applied to the keeping-up of the 
 Libraries in an efficient state. 
 
 " It is hoped that the sum raised 'Will yield a further 
 annual income, which the Committee recommend should 
 be applied to the carrying out of the scientific teaching 
 above alluded to. 
 
 " The General Meeting will desire to know the probable 
 cost of the proposals now made ; this cannot be stated 
 accurately, but if the Committee-room be utilised as recom- 
 mended, the immediate expenditure on books and fittings 
 may be set down at about £i,ooo, and it is thought the 
 interest of another £i,ooo would keep the Libraries in an 
 efficient state. If a further sum of £i,ooo wei-e raised 
 (making £3,000 in all), it would form the nucleus of a fund 
 for the more complete teaching of Science, which might be 
 increased in the future. 
 
 "The Committee suggest that, in defining the purposes 
 to which the annual income from the Fund be applied, 
 some latitude be given to the General Committee of the 
 Institution, to enable them to meet the varying circum- 
 stances and needs of the School, whilst carrying out, as far 
 as practicable, the main objects of the endowment. 
 
CENTENARY ARRANGEMENTS. 25 
 
 " As contributing to the interest of the occasion, it is 
 recommended that a list of the scholars during the century 
 should be published, accompanied by a Memoir of Dr. 
 Fothergill, and by a short History of the School, written in 
 a lively manner, and illustrated by photographic views. 
 
 " It is suggested that the General Meeting should entrust 
 the carrying out of such plans as it may adopt to a Com- 
 mittee, with power to add to their number, and acting in 
 full harmony with the General Committee of the Institution. 
 
 " The Committee cannot conclude this Report without 
 expressing their own gratitude for the great benefits — 
 temporal, intellectual, and spiritual, — which they personally 
 have derived from Ackworth School ; their earnest desire, 
 that all who have thus been benefited may combine to 
 make the Centennial Anniversary an era, from which a 
 career of still greater usefulness may be dated ; and their 
 fervent prayer that the blessing of the Lord may continue 
 upon the Institution, and abound yet more and more. 
 " For the Committee, 
 
 " Ackworth School, " Wm. Coor Parker. 
 
 Sixth Month 25th, 1878." 
 
 The following Friends were ultimately the members of 
 the Committee, viz. : — 
 
 William Abbatt. '■ Thomas Emmott. 
 
 Frederick Andrews. 
 George Baker. 
 Charles Barnard. 
 John Binks. 
 Joseph F. Clark. 
 Joseph Dell. 
 
 Thomas Harvey. 
 Joseph S. Hodgson. 
 Albert Linney. 
 Wm. Coor Parker. 
 John R. Procter. 
 Thomas Pumphrey. 
 
26 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 James Thompson. 
 Richard Thompson. 
 John Hall Thorp. 
 James Hack Tuke. 
 Edward West. 
 Isaac Grey Wallis. 
 
 James Reckitt. 
 
 William Rowntree. 
 
 John S. Rowntree. 
 
 Joseph Simpson. 
 
 Alfred Simpson. 
 
 Thomas Smithson. 
 
 John Stansfield. 
 
 Treasurer : -Arthur Pease, Darlington. 
 Secretaries; — William Coor Parker, Darlington. 
 
 Alfred Simpson, 49, Major St., Manchester. 
 The Committee, and especially the Secretaries, worked 
 with hearty good will to carry out the objects above indi- 
 cated. Fully 3,000 circulars were issued to old scholars 
 and Friends ; and all over the kingdom local treasurers 
 undertook the duty of canvassing for, and receiving, the 
 subscriptions. At the General Meeting of 1S79 the Com- 
 mittee were able to report the amount of subscriptions then 
 received as ;^3,335 12s. contributed by 1,171 persons, which 
 amount has since been increased. The subscriptions were 
 in sums varying from is. to £100 each. We propose now 
 to indicate the leading arrangements made by the Com- 
 mittee for the Centenary days, and to state the results of 
 their labours so far as these were known at the time of the 
 writing of this account. 
 
 We have already mentioned the Refreshment Tent. This, 
 with the seats therein for 400 persons, and the refresh- 
 ments, were provided by Henry Oliver, of Doncaster, a 
 tariff for meals being arranged beforehand with the Com- 
 mittee. They guaranteed to him at least £100 of total 
 receipts, an amount more than doubled. On the whole he 
 carried out the arrangements satisfactorily. Joseph Firth 
 
CENTENARY ARRANGEMENTS. ty 
 
 Clark, of Doncaster, took the oversight of this department. 
 There was a marquee erected at the end of the girls' wing, 
 and on their playground, on Fifth-day afternoon. It was 
 provided and fixed by Samuel Stone & Co., of Leeds, under 
 the superintendence of a member of the Committee, John 
 Hall Thorp. It was computed to hold 1,500 persons. The 
 visitors to the Centenary were conveyed to and from the 
 various stations round Ackworth by Daniel Watson, the 
 landlord of the School Hotel ; his own staff, horses, and 
 carriages being supplemented from Doncaster, the rate of 
 charge for conveyance being fixed by the Committee. 
 Owing to the very large number of the visitors there was 
 difficulty in providing fully adequate accommodation in 
 this department, and some inconvenience was sustained. 
 As regards lodgings, it may be observed that many of the 
 visitors came to Ackworth and returned during the day ; 
 a large proportion, however, took lodgings in the village. 
 An office was opened opposite the Meeting-house, where 
 John M. Gardner, of Leeds, the Registrar of Lodgings, 
 aided Friends in finding quarters, a small fee being charged 
 to those who availed themselves of his valuable services. 
 In this way about 200 persons found accommodation, but a 
 much larger number were entertained by private friends, 
 or made their own arrangements. The number attending 
 the celebration has been computed at about 1,600, thus 
 composed, viz. : — 
 
 Subscribers to the Fund 800 
 
 Members of the families of subscribers 4°° 
 
 Other friends applying for tickets at is. each ... 427 
 
 Total 1,627 
 
28 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 SO that the meeting consisted largely of those associated 
 with the School. The cost of the celebration, so far as it 
 is yet known, is nearly as follows, viz: — 
 
 Expenses of the Centenary Days — printing, salary, 
 
 &c. — less tickets and fees... ... ;f95 
 
 Furnishing and decorating the Committee Room ... igo 
 
 The intended appropriation of the Centenary funds is 
 about as follows, viz. : — 
 
 , Printing, postage, and incidental expenses ... ... £70 
 
 Expenses of Celebration — less fees and price of 
 
 tickets ... ... ... ... 95 
 
 Advertising ... 25 
 
 Bookcases for Committee Room and 
 
 boys' and girls' wings, paid ... ;£'3o6 9 10 
 
 Dwarf bookcases, &c ... 53 10 2 
 
 360 
 
 Furnishing and decorating the Committee Room .. 190 
 
 Loss on publications, say ... ... ... ... 100 
 
 New books for libraries, say ... ... ... 700 
 
 To be invested on, account of libraries 1,000 
 
 ,, ,, on account of science and teaching . 1,000 
 
 ;£'3.540 
 
 Received and promised ... ... ... ...£3,^20 
 
 This appropriation is of course subject to the ultimate 
 amount of the fund. As respects railway facilities the 
 special trains to the village of Ackworth have already been 
 mentioned; in addition to which the Great Northern Railway 
 Company stopped all their express trains but one at Hems- 
 worth during each of the three days ; and this arrangement 
 proved a great convenience. 
 
CENTENARY ARRANGEMENTS. 29 
 
 CENTENARY MEETING OF FIFTH-DAY. 
 
 Unusually interesting as the proceedings of the General 
 Meeting had been, there was an evidence of deepened 
 interest, amounting almost to enthusiasm, as the time 
 approached for the holding of the first meeting in celebra- 
 tion of the Centenary. It assembled in the Meeting-house 
 at 6.30 p.m., on Fifth-day, the older scholars being present. 
 Very closely were Friends packed in the body of the house ; 
 seats were placed in the centre aisle, and the galleries were 
 well filled. Probably more than 1,000 persons were present. 
 We had lost our business faces, had finished our examina- 
 tions and discussions, and were eager and joyous as became 
 us. Thomas Harvey, of Leeds, at the unanimous and 
 cordial invitation of the Centenary Committee, was called 
 upon .to preside, and was warmly welcomed by the assembly. 
 He said: — 
 
 Although, dear friends, we may feel that the very solemn 
 and interesting meeting which was held in this place an hour 
 or two ago was a fitting introduction to and preparation 
 for this meeting, yet I think it will be best— remembering 
 especially the words, " In all thy ways acknowledge Him," 
 — to read a few verses from the Psalms, followed by a 
 short devotional pause. They shall be passages taken from 
 several of the Psalms, a practice for which we have good 
 authority in the Scriptures themselves : — 
 
 " Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that 
 build it : except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh 
 but in vain." — Ps. cxxvii. I. 
 
30 • THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 " Bless the Lord, O my sovil : and all that is within me, 
 bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not 
 all His benefits " — Ps. ciii. I, 2. 
 
 " Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for 
 His wonderftil works to the children of men ! " — Ps. cvii. 8. 
 
 " That our sons may 'be as plants grown up in their youth ; 
 that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the 
 similitude of a palace." — Ps. cxliv. 12. 
 
 " Blessed be God, which hath not turned away our prayer, nor 
 His mercy from us." — Ps. Ixvi. 20. 
 
 After the few minutes of silence succeeding the reading 
 of these passages, the Chairman proceeded as follows : — I 
 have had put into my hands a letter from an old Ackworth 
 scholar, which I am sure you will be glad to receive. He 
 says : — 
 
 " To THE Ackworth School Centenary. 
 " Failing health in my eighty-third year prevents my attend- 
 ance on this memorable and interesting occasion. 
 
 "It is more than seventy years since I left Ackworth as a 
 schoolboy, under a grateful sense of the benefit of which I had 
 there been the recipient. 
 
 " William Robson. 
 
 " Stccktan-on Tees, Sixth Month, 1879." 
 
 A letter has also been received from our highly valued 
 friend John Bright. (Applause.) I had the pleasure of being 
 at Ackworth with him. He was not here very long, but my 
 elder brother and he were intimate friends, and whenever 
 we have met he has always remembered the association 
 between us. I need not allude to his career after leaving 
 school, so honourable to Ackworth and to our Society, and so 
 useful to the country at large. (Hear, hear, and applause.) 
 
CENTENARY ARRANGEMENTS. 31 
 
 Probably he might have been here to-day, but for the 
 recollection that when of late years he has been present at 
 Ackworth it has been in company with his wife, who may 
 almost be said to have laid down her valuable life in the 
 service of the Institution. She threw herself with great 
 interest into all its concerns. (Hear, hear.) She was the 
 animating spirit of the Women's Committee, and on 
 returning home from one of its meetings was taken ill, as 
 some thought from over-exertion, and her life was cut short. 
 Knowing, then, the interest which John Bright and his dear 
 wife took in this School, it would have been a great joy to 
 us to have had his company to day. (Hear, hear.) At the 
 same time we may be sure that his heart is with us, and 
 that he will no doubt read with interest the account of the 
 proceedings of this day. I am just reminded that, apart 
 from his feelings, he is so situated that he could not have 
 attended to-day. I am unfeignedly diffident in taking the 
 chair this evening from a sense that I have not the power 
 to give the right tone to such a meeting as this, or give 
 expression to those feelings which are uppermost in all our 
 minds. It is about fifty-eight years since I came to this 
 School, and as I have been a member of the Committee for 
 seven periods of four and sometimes five years, my con- 
 nectionwith the Committee has been a pretty long one, and 
 Ackworth School has fallen very much, for a long course 
 of years, under my observation. It seems wonderful to 
 myself to think now that the whole of my school period was 
 in the first half .century of this School's existence. When 
 I was here the School seemed to me part of the fixed order 
 of things, as if it had existed for a long time, and was not 
 likely to undergo much change or cease to be pretty much 
 
32 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 what it was then. I think we shall all feel, in looking back 
 as far as we are able upon the retrospect of a century, that 
 there is very great cause for thankfulness ; that, on the 
 whole, the expectations of the founders have been largely ful- 
 filled — (hear, hear,) — perhaps not always just in the way they 
 expected or could have desired — and that abundant blessing 
 has rested upon their labours. (Hear, hear.) At the same 
 time, we are all aware — and those especially who are con- 
 cerned in the management of the School — that it has been 
 a chequered experience ; that there have been times of 
 great discouragement and difficulty, when one has felt 
 almost as if the difficulties could hardly be overcome, and as 
 if some great crisis and change must be expected. I need 
 not, however, dwell upon those periods, for we know that, 
 through the mercy of our Heavenly Father, the difficulties 
 have been got over, and I' am not aware that at anytime 
 the prospects of the School were more satisfactory and 
 brighter than at the present moment. (Applause.) It would 
 be very interesting if we had the data, which we have not 
 to a very large extent, by which to compute the results, in 
 their after-history, of the lives of the very large number of 
 men and women in our Society who have been educated at 
 Ackworth School. We know that from time to time old 
 Ackworth scholars have attained to considerable eminence 
 — some of these are now living. The name of one very 
 distinguished individual I have already mentioned, and 
 others might be mentioned — fellows of the Royal Society 
 and other important bodies ; men who have made their 
 mark upon their time. But how very small a part are 
 these of the whole results, and how much more important 
 would it be if we could satisfy ourselves that the greater 
 
CENTENARY ARRANGEMENTS. 33 
 
 number of the boys and girls that have been at Ackworth 
 School, and have lived and grown up to be men and women, 
 many of them seeing lengthened years before passing 
 away — that in these cases, as a general rule, the education 
 at Ackworth had been a success ; not worldly success 
 wholly or chiefly, but success in the highest sense of the 
 word : men and women fulfilling their duties, working out 
 the plan of our Heavenly Father concerning them. There 
 is a saying that "every man's life is a plan of God," and 
 that if we yield ourselves to the influence of the Good 
 Spirit and accept Christ in early life, that plan will be 
 worked out, and each one will be brought into the largest 
 measure of usefulness and service of which he is capable. 
 No doubt, of the large number who have passed through 
 the School, there have been not a few failures in this sense ; 
 yet there have been many who, while greatly benefiting 
 others, have themselves been prospered — outwardly and 
 spiritually — by means of the teaching and Christian training 
 they received within the walls of this Institution. (Hear, 
 hear.) It is quite unnecessary for me to go in detail into 
 the history of the past of this School: we shall have that 
 brought before us to-morrow, and I know that it is likely 
 very greatly to interest those who may be privileged to hear 
 it. I should, however, just like to allude to one other 
 point. I have no doubt the second half-century of this 
 School's existence has been a happier and brighter experi- 
 ence than the first half, and I have no doubt that the last 
 twenty-five years have been better than the preceding 
 twenty-five ; that the School has in many ways, education- 
 ally, very much improved. We may say that without cast- 
 ing any reflection upon our friends of the past ; they were 
 
 D 
 
34 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 probably in advance of their time ; at any rate they acted 
 fully up to their light, and we enjoy the benefit of their 
 labours. Still I have no doubt that the state of the School 
 is far better, and the children more comfortable, and their 
 prospects when they leave school more favourable, than 
 during the first half-century of the School's existence. 
 Something was said in this place yesterday on the necessity 
 for great economy in the management of the School, in 
 which I think we may all concur. At the same time it is 
 necessary to advance with the times in the matter of 
 education. (Hear, hear.) Within a few years the Educa- 
 tion Act has come into operation ; elementary schools are 
 spread all over our country, and give an education of a very 
 superior kind. It cannot be compared in all points with 
 the education given at Ackworth, but with reference to 
 those points in which it can be compared we shall have to 
 look sharply after our interests and endeavour to maintain 
 our position. (Hear, hear.) Therefore we cannot afford to 
 narrow our curriculum unduly, or lower the tone and quality 
 of the education which we give : rather we hope it may be 
 even further improved. You will remember a passage in 
 Ecclesiastes which I think is very much to this point: 
 " Say not thou. What is the cause that the former days were 
 better than these ? for thou dost not enquire wisely con- 
 cerning this.'' The inspired writer does not say that the 
 modern times are better than the ancient, but implies that 
 each age and each period must endeavour to do their very 
 best in the matter which they have in hand. And so 
 I believe the future Ackworth School Committee, the 
 Friends holding up their hands in various parts of the 
 country, parents and others, must look to maintain, and 
 
CENTENARY ARRANGEMENTS. 35 
 
 even improve, the education which is given in this School. 
 (Hear, hear.) 
 
 The Chairman, at the conclusion of his address, called 
 upon James Hack Tuke, of Hitchin, to read a paper which 
 he had prepared at the request of the Centenary Committee, 
 being a sketch of the life of Dr. Fothergill, the originator, 
 and at least the most active and liberal founder, of Ackworth 
 School. 
 
 It was befitting the occasion that his invaluable efforts 
 in behalf of the Institution should thus be prominently 
 recognised, and that the instructive story of his useful life 
 should be told at the conclusion of the century of the exist- 
 ence of the Ackworth School. Before the lecturer was 
 placed, in view of the whole meeting, the beautiful Wedg- 
 wood bust of Dr. Fothergill executed from a model by 
 Flaxman. It heightened the interest of the auditors as the 
 various points in the character of the Christian Philanthropist 
 were brought out in the reading. 
 
 D 2 
 
A SKETCH OF THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN FOTHERGILL, M.D., F.R.S., 
 
 Born 1712; Died 1780. 
 By JAMES HACK TUKE. 
 
 The earliest time at which the name of Fothergill occurs 
 in history is, so far as I have been able to trace, in con- 
 nection with the siege of York by the Norman William. 
 
 Old Drake, in his celebrated "Eboracum, "gives an amusing 
 account of an adventure in which the Conqueror and his 
 knight Fothergill were concerned, which led to the capture of 
 the " Noble old Citty," and which briefly may be related as 
 follows : — 
 
 " The North Riding and the City of York having long 
 withstood all efforts to conquer them, Duke William 
 determined himself to lay siege to the city, which he 
 commenced on St. Thomas's Day. Retiring in the 
 evening, after an unsuccessful day, to his camp at Skel- 
 ton, he met two friars, and on inquiring where they 
 dwelt, they said at York, and were of a poore Priory of 
 St. Peter's, and had been to obtain ' some relief to their 
 fellows against Christmas.' One of them was laden with 
 a Wallett of Victuals and a Shoulder of Mutton in his 
 hand, and two great cakes hung about his necke, one of 
 
(from thu: cameo by weucwood.) 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 37 
 
 backe and another of his breast. The other had a, bottle 
 of Ale and a Wallett filled with Beef and Mutton. 
 
 " The Normans did confer with these Poore Friars, 
 and promised them large gifts if so they would let them 
 into their monastery, and also give them money. The 
 Conqueror also promised that he would make their Priory 
 all new, and give them great revenue, which he did after 
 perform. Soe they did condescend to let them into the 
 Citty at a Postern Gate ; and the King sent for his army, 
 and he, with his general of the field, Fothergill, took the 
 Citty that night." 
 
 The Conqueror acted well to Sir Robert Clifford and 
 others, who had so nobly defended their ancient city, " and 
 willed that they should ask what they would have, and they 
 should have it." 
 
 " They demanded of him if they might have every 
 St. Thomas's Day a Friar of St. Peter's Priory, painted 
 like a Jew, to ride of a horse, with the Taile in one hand 
 and Shoulder of Mutton in the other, with a Cake before 
 his breast and another at his backe, all throughout the 
 Citty, and the Boyes of the Citty to ride with him, and 
 proclaim that the Citty was taken that day through the 
 treachery of the Friars ; which it is added was continued 
 as a Memorial to that day." 
 This Knight Fothergill married "the faire Isabel 
 Poulton," or Boulton, who had as dower many manors, 
 including, among others, those of " Sedber and Garsdale." 
 That the Fothergill family known to us were descen- 
 dants of the Norman Baron and the "faire Isabel" we do 
 not pretend to say ; but this can easily be traced — that for 
 three or four centuries, families of this name have resided 
 
38 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 in the wild and secluded valleys of Ravenstonedale and 
 Mallerstang, both valleys in Westmoreland, which adjoin 
 upon " Sedber and Wensleydale." Sufficient for us, for the 
 purpose of this memoir, is the fact, that a John Fothergill 
 migrated thence to Counterset in Wensleydale, and after- 
 wards to Carr End soon after the year 1600. 
 
 The simple humble life of the " Statesman " or " Dales- 
 man " of Yorkshire or Westmoreland, as it existed centuries 
 ago, does not present many incidents for the historian to 
 dwell upon, and thus it is that until the rise of Quakerism 
 we know comparatively little of the ancestors of Dr. 
 Fothergill's family, except that they had undoubtedly dwelt 
 in these vales for many previous generations. 
 
 But Quaker history — which has preserved for us, like 
 "flies in amber," lives or notices of so large a number of 
 its .earliest members — ^tells us that at Carr End, on the 
 banks of the. small and quiet lake of " Semer Water," there 
 dwelt Alexander and Ann Fothergill, who were probably 
 convinced by George Fox (about the year 1652), as " he 
 passed up the Dales warning people to fear God, and 
 preaching the everlasting Gospel to them." * 
 
 Here, in 1676, John Fothergill the elder, the father of 
 Dr. Fothergill, was born. Living in immediate succession 
 to the Fathers of Quakerism, he inherited much of their 
 earnest spirit, and devoted the greater portion of his life to 
 the work of the ministry and missionary journeys throughout 
 England, Ireland, and Scotland, as well as North America 
 and the West Indies. Three visits were paid to America 
 at different periods of his life, the first when he was thirty 
 
 * George Fox's Journal, folio, p. 72. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHBRGILL. 39 
 
 years of age, and the last when he was about sixty. The 
 devoted simplicity of his early life well deserves our hearty 
 admiration and respect. He appears to have inherited the 
 little estate at Carr End, after the death of his father, in 
 1695, who had suffered much the previous year from 
 months of imprisonment in York for refusing to pay tithes, 
 in company with the ancestors of not a few of us who 
 are now present. 
 
 A year after his father's death, when about twenty years 
 of age, he began his ministerial work, and gave up house- 
 keeping, and the house at Carr End, retaining " only a little 
 ground in his own hands for some necessary employ which " 
 (he says) " I loved and believed was both good for the 
 body and a beneficial stay to the mind." 
 
 Soon after he gave up even this land in order to be more 
 "completely at liberty" for his journeys in the ministry, 
 "yet worked often (on the land) for some others, both for 
 a living, and that my mind might not be too much dis- 
 engaged from temporal concerns, wherein there appeared to 
 me a danger." But still he adds, " I loved to be at home with 
 my friends and to labour with my hands in the creation." 
 
 When about thirty- four^ he married Margaret Hough, of 
 Sutton, in Cheshire, a woman likeminded with himself, and 
 settled down for some years in the old family house at Carr 
 End. Here the seven children were born, brought up with 
 a "zealous concern" (he says) "that they might have an 
 inward experience of an Holy living principle operating in 
 their hearts" in order to "lead them from error and 
 unrighteousness into all truth and the practice of every 
 Christian virtue." 
 
 Two of these children— the second son, John Fothergill, 
 
40 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 the most distinguished physician, and Samuel Fothergill, 
 the sixth son, the most distinguished Quaker preacher of the 
 middle of the last century — were striking instances of 
 the value of this teaching. John Fothergill, the future 
 doctor, was born on the 8th of March, 1712. {Appendix A.) 
 In very early life he was placed under the care of his 
 mother's family, the Houghs of Cheshire, who were people 
 of good fortune, with whom the bright, energetic, and sweet- 
 tempered boy was, no doubt, a great favourite; and to 
 them he was in after years largely indebted for the means 
 which allowed him to carry on his studies. 
 
 After leaving the elementary day school at Frodsham, 
 in Cheshire, he was sent (at twelve) to the old-established 
 Grammar School, of about 120 boys, at Sedbergh, on 
 the borders of Yorkshire and Westmoreland, and not very 
 far from his father's house.' There 'he seems to have 
 remained for four years, and obtained that thorough 
 education which was of such good service in after life. Dr. 
 Saunders was the head master at this time. 
 
 The Sedbergh School owed its foundation to Roman 
 Catholic times. In the year 1528 (says the old chronicle), 
 " Master Roger Lupton, a man of pious memory 
 deserved, founded a public school, where the youth 
 among the ' Sedbarians,' should be instructed in letters 
 and gentility ; and gave it, endowed with a certain small 
 sum for the support of a schoolmaster; and also founded 
 a small chauntry, in which masses were to be sung to 
 redeem the soul of the founder, or others whom he might 
 appoint."* 
 
 * History of Sedbergh. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 41 
 
 Nor was this the only instance of Dr. Lupton's zeal 
 for education, as the " Lupton Tower " at Eton, of which 
 he was Provost for some years, testifies. He also esta- 
 blished "a foundacion for sixe " scholars, or disciples, for 
 ever to remain " in the colledge of St. John's, Cambrydge, 
 to be chosen from such as had been students in Sedber 
 School." But the Reformation brought troublous times 
 upon Sedbergh, a few years later, and the school was 
 reduced to the greatest poverty by the confiscation of 
 its lands, &c., spite of the earnest pleading of the cele- 
 brated Roger Ascham. It was reconstituted in Edward 
 the Sixth's reign, as the " Free Grammar School of Sed- 
 bergh," and has flgurished to the present day. 
 
 Leaving Sedbergh School in 1728, at the age of sixteen 
 he was apprenticed for seven years (as the Indenture now 
 shown proves) to Benjamin Bartlett, an eminent apothecary 
 at Bradford. B. Bartlett was a minister in the Society of 
 Friends known to young Fothergill's father, with whom he 
 travelled extensively. His house (says Gilbert Thompson*) 
 might be called — 
 
 " The Seminary of Ingenious Physicians. How 
 happy to obtain such a master, when to imitate him 
 was to be the gentleman in sentiment and manner, 
 to be generous, good, and virtuous. He had here the 
 completest opportunity of knowing drugs, and prepara- 
 tions in their best and genuine state, of compounding 
 them with neatness, visiting patients, and of laying the 
 
 *■ " Memoirs of the Ijfe and a View of the Character of the late Dr. 
 John Fothergill." Drawn up, by desire, of the Medical Society of 
 London, by G. Thompson, M.D. 1782. 
 
42 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 best foundation in an art to which his mind had an early 
 and strong impulse. He gave many flattering expecta- 
 tions under the precepts of his worthy master, and his 
 sensible conduct and behaviour attracted the notice, and 
 even admiration, of some considerable persons in the 
 neighbourhood." 
 
 It was probably as some recognition of the fidelity of 
 these services that he was liberated before the expiration 
 of the term of his apprenticeship, to pursue his medical 
 studies in Edinburgh, which, from the eminence of the 
 men who at that period filled the Professors' chairs, had the 
 highest repute ; suffice it to name — Drs. Munro, Alston, 
 and Rutherford, — all of them pupils , of the celebrated 
 Boerhaave, of Leyden. 
 
 I have been fortunate enough to have had placed in my 
 hands, by my friend I. M. Williams, of York, to whom it was 
 given by a great-niece of Dr. Fothergill's, the memorandum 
 or account book, in which the young student entered with 
 great minuteness his daily expenditure and some other 
 details, beginning with his entry upon Edinburgh life in 
 1734, and continuing to the year 1739, when, unhappily, it 
 ceases. By an entry on the first page of this book, it 
 appears that his grandfather, Thomas Hough, had left 
 him the sum of ;fi20 towards his education, and that on 
 leaving home he received ;f 20 (part of this) from his uncle 
 Thomas Hough, towards his college expenses. He appears 
 to have ridden from Carr End on horseback, selling the 
 mare he rode (for £4 4s.) to Jonathan Ormston, of Kelso ; 
 and his expenses for the three days, on the way from Carr 
 End to Edinburgh amounted to 17s. 6d. All his belongings 
 were probably in his saddle-bags, as among the first entries 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 43 
 
 in his account book we find: — "A hat, 7s. 6d."; " 13^ yards 
 linen, at is. iid. per yard"; "shirts making and stocks, 
 5s."; "gloves, IS. 3d."; "shoes, 4s. 6d." And further on 
 we find he pays for 4 ozs. tea, 2s. gd. {= i is. per lb.), is. 6d. 
 per lb. for sugar, and 3d. per lb. for butter. For his lodgings 
 he pays 2S. 6d. per week. 
 
 The Edinburgh of that periocl was a city of little over 
 50,000 inhabitants, much divided in political feeling and 
 allegiance ; among whom, as was shown, the Jacobin fire 
 needed but to be fanned to burst forth into a flame, when 
 ten years later the Pretender's flag was unfurled before the 
 city. The town itself was as great a contrast as is possible 
 to that which the eveiy-day traveller calls to mind, as he 
 thinks of the " modern Athens." The old town, with its 
 narrow streets and dark " wynds," upon which we look 
 with so much interest, was the Edinburgh of Fothergill's 
 student days ; and doubtless, as he passed up and down the 
 High Street, he often looked up to the words over the house 
 of John Knox at therhead of the Netherbow — 
 
 " Huff. ®oii ahuU al. antr v) ngeijtbour. as pi'.iStlf." 
 — words which might seem to have been chosen as his 
 motto, and carried out during life to an extent which few 
 have surpassed. 
 
 His first visit to London was probably made during the 
 summer recess of 1735, as we find an entry of, " Paid 
 my freight from Leith by vessel to London ;^i lis. 6d.," 
 a voyage which appears to have taken as long a period 
 as is now occupied by the steamers between Liverpool 
 and New York ; the voyage to London taking nine days 
 and the return to Edinburgh even a longer period. 
 
44 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 Both during this visit to London, and in Edinburgh, 
 he commenced to form his library, and a list of these 
 purchases — costing £i8 is. od., during the two years, is 
 now before me ; the only Ho;z-medical books in the list 
 being "Thomas-a-Kempis," 6d.; "Boyle's Seraphic Love," 
 8d. ; and " Ray's Travels," 12s. 
 
 At the University he pursued his studies, says his 
 biographer (Lettsom)* 
 
 " With serious attention, and a purpose of being 
 well grounded in those principles of science, preparatory 
 to a conscientious care of life and health. He was 
 one of the few who engaged the particular regard 
 of the Professors, and I have heard several of them in 
 their public lectures speak of him in terms of sincere 
 esteem, and equally commend his professional accom- 
 plishments, and the integrity of his life." 
 
 Dr. Lettsom says that Dr. Fothergill adopted the 
 method of taking notes of the heads of each lecture of 
 the professors, and on returning to his lodgings translating 
 those into Latin which had been given in English, and 
 then carefully consulting and comparing the opinions both 
 of the ancients and moderns upon the subject, after which 
 he added such remarks as his reading and reflection fur- 
 nished ; thus gaining a knowledge both of ancient and 
 modern medical practice which was of the greatest use in 
 his future career. He also carried on with much assiduity 
 the study of the Greek and Latin, and probably French, 
 languages. 
 
 Using again the little account book, we find, under the 
 
 * '' Memoirs of J. Fothergill, M.D.," by J. C. Lettsom, M.D., 1783. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 45 
 
 date of Second Month 20th, 1736, "A letter from father." 
 That letter is still extant, and forms one of a series of 
 letters which have been placed at my disposal by the 
 kindness of Alexander Fothergill, of Darlington, a lineal 
 descendant of the writer, John Fothergill the elder.* This 
 letter refers to the prospect of his son's shortly leaving 
 Edinburgh for London, and is a pleasing evidence of the 
 care taken by a parent of whom the son in after years con- 
 stantly speaks in most affectionate and g;i-ateful terms : — 
 
 '• With respect to thy going to London " (he writes) " I 
 ^ could say little, nor yet have any settled dislike or un- 
 easiness to dissuade therefrom, nor dare I say much on 
 the other hand, but pray, and believe if thou walk and 
 step with reverence, and yet with a cheerful trust and 
 without too much boldness, fear to tempt the Lord for 
 e^itraordinary directions, more than may be agreeable 
 to His wisdom to give ; the Almighty will care for thee 
 and cast up ways one little" after another to thy comfort 
 and His own honour; which my own soul is much 
 affected in longing for on thy account, more than words 
 can set forth thou may be assured, and which is much of 
 what I can now do further for thee. Farewell, Farewell, 
 thy nearly loving Father, — ^J. F. 
 
 " To John Fothergill att Thomas Areskine, 
 Brewer in Edinbro' ." 
 
 » I have also to thank T. C. Riley, of Liverpool, for obtaining for me 
 the valuable collection of Fothergill Papers, belonging to the Crosfield 
 family; also J. B. Braithwaite, Fothergill Watson (of Nottingham), and 
 G. S. Gibson for the use of private letters and papers, &c.; and my 
 brother, Dr. Hack Tuke, for researches in the British Museum, and 
 much other aid. 
 
46 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 Soon after, young Fothergill wrote his Latin Thesis ; 
 took his degree of Doctor of Medicine, and left Edinburgh 
 in the autumn of 1736, having most probably witnessed the 
 excitement resulting from the firing by Porteous upon the 
 mob, and the subsequent riot and burning of the Tolbooth, 
 and execution of Porteous ; scenes so vividly depicted by 
 Scott in "The Heart of Midlothian." 
 
 The 2gth of October, 1736, saw Dr. Fothergill, at the age 
 of twenty-four, in J/Ondon, where, the more thoroughly to 
 qualify himself for practice, he entered as a pupil at St. 
 Thomas's Hospital. During this time, though chiefly thus 
 occupied and in visiting the poor, he took a few fees, some 
 at los. 6d., and others at 2rs. He expended £8 los. on a 
 watch, which sum I shall be happy to give for it to the present 
 fortunate possessor. I should, however, hardly like to pay 
 £2 8s. i^d., which he gave to " Richard Reynolds for 
 2f yards of drab cloth at 17s. 6d. per yard, for coat and 
 breeches." Nor must I omit the entry of the purchase of 
 his first cane, 4s., and a pair of spurs, 2gs., and, as show- 
 ing the literary bent of his mind. Homer's Iliad, Pascal's 
 Pensees, Woodward on Fossils, and a Hebrew Grammar; 
 also "Amber Stones" 14s., and a Map of Siberia, on both 
 of which subjects he read essays in after-years before the 
 Royal Society. With his brother " Samme " he also 
 visited Oxford. 
 
 A letter written about this time to his brother Alexander, 
 who resided on the family property at Carr End, strikingly 
 shows his maturity of character and depth of feeling at. 
 twenty-five. 
 
 " If thou supposed thyself almost forgot, thou wast 
 
 mistaken; if ideas could be clothed with substance, if 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 47 
 
 thoughts could be rendered as visible as they are quick, 
 ocular demonstration would convince thee of the contrary ; 
 how often would thou see me, in the house, in the 
 orchard, in the fields, and scampering amongst the rocks, 
 . . . whilst I am attending thee at work, or admiring thy 
 fruitful genius in turning to some purpose the unpolished 
 crag or crooked ash; . . when, with fearlest soonerorlater 
 the enemy should tempt me to a lukewarm state, by the 
 many objects I am daily conversant among, I sometimes 
 ask, — has the enemy as much power in the rural retreats 
 of my native dale ? 
 
 " A thousand scenes of folly are here perpetually 
 offered to my view, besides the horrid din of blasphemous 
 oaths, sufficient almost to pollute the air, and draw down 
 the waiting vengeance. Wensleydale is void of these, at 
 least it is in one's power to shun them. Thrice happy are 
 you whilst I view you in this light ; but change the 
 scene, look .to the heart— are you less selfish, less 
 obdurate, more full of Divine love. Yes 1 some holy souls 
 there are, purified and redeemed from earth, possessed of 
 a degree of primeval simplicity, and unaffected innocence, 
 but how few of these ; how numerous the sinful, the 
 obdurate, the rebellious, and such as know not experi- 
 mentally that there is a God, but with the strongest 
 pretences to Christianity are real practical Atheists, in the 
 true sense of the word. Of both these kinds our world 
 here is composed. Here and there we meet with bright 
 seraphic souls disengaged from earth, but cordially des- 
 pised for it by the rebellious and miserably stupid part 
 of mankind, by much the most numerous. If one 
 examines into the way by which one of the blessed 
 
48 THE ACKWORTII CENTENARY. 
 
 inhabitants above described, of your or our country 
 arrived at this degree of purity, we find it by one and 
 the same way ; viz : — a willing obedience to the internal 
 dictates once certainly learned by a. close attention to the 
 Dictator. Thus dear Brother, I find little odds ; happi- 
 . ness is confined to neither city nor country, we possess 
 it in proportion to our obedience, and our willingness to 
 part with everything for it." 
 
 Fairly established in practice, he took a house in 
 White Hart Court, Gracechurch Street (in 1740), adjoin- 
 ing the once well-known Friends' Meeting-house there. 
 As appears from the little book, so often quoted, he re- 
 ceived fees in this year to the amount of 105 guineas, 
 and expended £104, of which ;^44 was spent in travelling 
 in Holland and Germany for twelve weeks. 
 
 I may here refer the curious for further information about 
 this journey to the letter in Latin which he addressed to 
 his friend Dr. Cuming on his return home, given in Dr. 
 Lettsom's Life.* 
 
 But I cannot refrain from giving a short extract from a 
 letter written about this time to his brother " Samme," in 
 which he refers to a visit from his father in London. 
 
 "I wonder not" (he says) "at the tenderness thou 
 expresses ; whilst' he was here my heart was filled with 
 thankfulness, not only for such a parent, but also that I 
 could see some marks of that treasure of goodness 
 which it has pleased Divine love to place and treasure 
 
 * " Memoirs of John Fothergill, M.D.," by J. Cookley Lettsom, M.D. 
 London : 1783. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 49 
 
 up in his soul. The wisdom of his conduct, his upright- 
 ness and humiHty often affect me." 
 
 We have now brought the life of Dr. Fothergill to the 
 period of his establishment as a physician in the City of 
 London, what was then truly " The City of London ''; a 
 London which, though then deemed " immense," had a 
 population of scarcely three-quarters of a million. 
 
 Here, during the succeeding forty years, he laboured un- 
 remittingly, attaining to the highest rank in his profession, 
 and numbering among his patients some of the most 
 worthy and distinguished characters of the century. But 
 in estimating his character it would be a great mistake to 
 regard him simply as a great physician ; it was in its 
 highest and widest meaning, as a friend to man, that he 
 has a claim upon our regard and admiration. There is 
 scarcely a point which affects the physical, moral and 
 religious interests of the race, which did not attract his 
 attention, and receive benefit from his judicious and 
 untiring labours. 
 
 As it will be necessary for the purpose of this sketch to be 
 as brief as possible, and, at the same time, to give a general 
 idea of what manner of man Dr. Fothergill was, we pro- 
 pose to take the forty years in decades. 
 
 During the first decade, we find him living alone in 
 White Hart Court, his practice for some time growing but 
 slowly ; thus, when half through the period he writes to his 
 brother : — 
 
 " In regard to money I cannot at present command 
 
 ■ 5 guineas. I have £120 in two friends' hands, from whom 
 
 I cannot yet demand it, £20, I lately sent to T. Erskine, 
 
so THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 of Edinburgh " (probably for some assistance given whilst 
 a student there) " and £50 I paid J. Hunt, on brother 
 Joseph's account, and this, with some little trifling sums, 
 is my all " 
 
 And it was not until near the close of this period that 
 his "History of The Putrid Sore Throat" (then almost 
 a plague), which work was considered his masterpiece, 
 brought him into note, and with a sudden bound gave him 
 a large and lucrative practice. 
 
 What his views about practice were may be learned 
 by the following extract from Dr. Lettsom's Memoir : — 
 " Nothing (he says) hurt his feelings more than esti- 
 mating the profession of Physic upon lucrative advan- 
 tages ; the art of healing he considered in that sacred 
 point of view which connected it with a conscientious 
 principle of action. ' My only wish was to do what little 
 might fall to my share as well as possible, and to banish 
 all thoughts of practising Physic as a money-getting 
 trade, with the same solicitude as I would the suggestions 
 of vice and intemperance.' " 
 Noble words ! which he carried nobly into practice through- 
 out his long career, often refusing fees, with the greatest 
 delicacy, even from those thought by others to be able to pay, 
 and especially from the clergy, of whatever denomination. 
 In many instances he not only refused to take money, 
 but gave handsome sums to those who were in affliction or 
 poverty from illness, amounting in one case to ;^ 1,000. 
 
 Of his views about housekeeping at this time, a short 
 extract from another letter to his brother says : — 
 
 " Thou wilt smile at my singularity when I tell thee 
 that I am determined to know as little about housekeep- 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 51 
 
 -^ 1 
 
 ing as possible. If I can, I'll get a trusty servant, if not, 
 I'll be cheated rather than be confined to marketing, and 
 have to do with bartering and cooking." 
 Then, after some directions, he adds, 
 
 " Thou knows my way, I would have what's good and 
 becoming the situation I am cast into." 
 
 That Dr. Fothergill was not without thoughts about 
 marriage during this period is clear; but I think it must 
 be admitted that he was a cool lover, and justified the truth 
 of the adage, " Faint heart ne'er won fair lady." Here are 
 one or two extracts from his letters on this subject: — 
 
 " Thou wants to know what progress I make towards 
 matrimony; none at all, but advancing years. I hinted once 
 that an overture had been obliquely made. I thought about 
 
 it a good deal, carefully. I did not trust myself in 's 
 
 company, till accident threw us together at a meeting. 
 Her behaviour there determined my resolutions not to 
 
 think about her any more in that light. . . . Oh ! that P 
 
 was what I wish her, and that it was decreed we should 
 be one and happy. She knows not that I wish it, nor very 
 few except thyself. I shall wait some time longer with 
 great calmness, and only wish that everything may happen 
 for the best, whether agreeable to my inclination or not. 
 
 " I am happy in an employment that .suits my 
 disposition, that has thus far supported me decently, 
 and preserves me in a great degree independent, and 
 respected among my acquaintance. For this I am 
 thankful ; I pray to be more so, and to live as becomes 
 such favours. Solitary, absent from my nearest rela- 
 tions, weak and contemptible, I am kept from repining 
 at anything that occurs to me." 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY 
 
 « ■ 
 
 Later on he writes — 
 
 " My not having a companion to take care of a friend, 
 if I am called out, often deprives me of their company ; 
 but this I must for the present bear, a^ I don't know 
 how to remedy the inconvenience, as I am still in the 
 
 dark with regard to 's family, having not yet received 
 
 any answer to a letter I sent to them near three months 
 ago. I can't think of engaging in any fresh pursuit ; 
 however I shall pay just deference to thy opinion. . . " 
 
 The result of it all was, that he never married. 
 During this first decade we find him very actively en- 
 gaged (young as he was) in the interests of the Society 
 > of Friends, and as a member of the Meeting for Sufferings 
 -^at that time rather more entitled to its name than is now 
 the case — he was appointed correspondent for Stafford- 
 shire, and speaks of the Friends as his " constituents," 
 and of himself as their "representative," much as a Member 
 of Parliament would do now. 
 
 In this period (1745) the Scotch invasion occurred, and 
 as the Pretender's troops advanced as far as Derby, great 
 alarm was naturally felt, not only by his Staffordshire 
 constituents; but by Friends generally, and it is evident 
 that considerable difference of opinion arose as to the 
 course of action to be pursued by Friends. A paper was 
 issued by the Meeting for Sufferings which the Doctor did 
 not approve of, thinking that it lowered the testimony of 
 Friends against war; and with no small difficulty, and some 
 speech-making, he used his influence to have another paper 
 substituted for it, for the uncompromising tone of which he 
 was much blamed by some, but which eventually ruled the 
 Society of Friends. 
 
X 
 H 
 O 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 H 
 
 < 
 
 >< 
 
 m 
 
 rJ 
 
 z: 
 
 ^ s 
 
 o 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 53 
 
 It was during this period, also, that Dr. Fothergill's 
 justly honoured and beloved father died, of whom Dr. F. 
 subsequently compiled a memoir. 
 
 The following words from his last letter to his son close a 
 correspondence which Dr. Fothergill says afforded him the 
 strongest satisfaction that anything in this life could yield. 
 The Father's words are these : — 
 
 " I ask no questions further but to be helped to live to 
 the Ever-living Being the little time He may suffer me 
 to continue on this side the grave. As I have no 
 dependence on human assistance but from thee, nor any 
 correspondence which affords me like comfort and satis- 
 faction, I must beg thy frequent remembrance, and to 
 hear from thee as often and freely as leisure will permit ; 
 and be assured my hearty careful desires for thee in 
 every true good, not oiily are entwined by the strong 
 ties of nature and affection, but are more rivetted and 
 strengthened by many a gracious spring of living good- 
 ness from the Almighty Helper of His people who have 
 trusted and feared Him. Thus, dear Son, farewell, 
 farewell.— J. F." 
 
 After his father's death, the estate of Carr End, con- 
 taining about 200 acres (then worth about ;^30 a-year) went 
 to the eldest son, who also practised as a lawyer; and 
 as the Doctor had only £60 as his share of the family 
 property it is evident that Dr. F. was solely indebted to his 
 own exertions for his position. Even this " Patter money," 
 as his sister Ann calls it, he made over to her, adding £4.0 
 more of his own. Of Carr End and its surroundings, a few 
 words may not unfitly be inserted here. 
 
 There is no need to say a word to a Yorkshire audience 
 
54 THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 in praise of Wensleydale, with its broad meadow slopes 
 of luxuriant grass running up to the moorland heights 
 above, or downward, amidst the most lovely fringes of 
 trees broken by an occasional " scar " or cliff, to the 
 peaceful river below. Semmerdale, situate at the' head 
 of the valley, is one of the numerous smaller valleys , 
 which run nearly at right angles with the larger vale of 
 Wensley, and in "which the little stream which flows from 
 the heights above forms, before it enters the Ure, a little 
 lake in the midst of bare, marshy meadows ; but the whole 
 are surrounded by low mountainous hills, which give to it 
 a sense of secluded beauty. Towards its southern end, 
 about four miles from Askrigg, Carr End is situated on 
 the rocky road which leads across the hills to Marsett 
 or Kettlewell, at a point where it suddenly drops down 
 nearly to a level with the lake. The house is so shut 
 out from the road by tall trees, and the rock at the foot 
 of which it is built, that, though within a few yards, the 
 traveller is scarcely aware of its existence until almost 
 passed. The house, which faces nearly east, is on the 
 edge of the low meadows which surround the lake, and 
 from the little garden — once kept trim and neat, with its 
 little lawn and flower-beds, but now chiefly devoted to 
 potatoes — '.here are views both right and left, especially the 
 former, worthy of the pencil of Dr. Fothergill's collateral 
 , descendant, the late George William Fothergill (himself an 
 Ackworth scholar), and one of my most intimate friends in 
 early life, whose death cut short a career of great artistic 
 promise. Of the house at Carr End but little can be said. 
 There is a stone let into the gateway by which you enter 
 the garden, on which is carved "J. F., 1677," but the house 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 55 
 
 is of a later period, and has a neglected, desolate air. The 
 present tenant is a small farmer, and a part of the house 
 is let off to the village schoolmaster ; as we saw it in the 
 quiet, fading light of the evening, the plaintive cry of the 
 plover, as it came to us from the moorland, seemed a fitting 
 wail over the departed life of Carr End as it surrounded the 
 boyish days of Dr. Fothergill. 
 
 The estate passed away from the Fothergill family so 
 recently as 1841. 
 
 Of the interest which he felt in Carr End, we have many 
 instances in his letters to his brother Alexander, who 
 resided there, upon whom he urges planting and other 
 improvements : — 
 
 "Remember planting: the time is at hand, and as 
 firs grow with so much expedition, put them down 
 everywhere ; whilst young they may be defended, and 
 under their covert every other species of timber will 
 
 grow." 
 
 In another he says :— " Plant ashes thick on the high- 
 way side ; by this means half the drip falls on the road, 
 which likewise supplies half the nourishment. I know of 
 no one who has thought of this circumstance. Sow 
 ashes and acorns together ; the ashes will shelter the oaks, 
 and may be cut down before those can injure these." 
 
 He mentions that he has sent by vessel, to Hull, "a 
 small bag of acorns, and a cargo of some hundred young 
 elms ; " and adds, " I'll be answerable for all expenses 
 if thou wilt be at the expense of planting them." 
 
 Again he says :-" Thou wilt not forget what I have so 
 often recommended— I mean planting, and to look out 
 for every convenient spot to raise wood in. Young ashes, 
 
56 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 I am informed, will thrive well in the more swampy parts. 
 
 The borders of Simmer Water will suit the experiment 
 
 well." 
 
 Probably much of the timber which at this day sur- 
 rounds Carr End is the result of these repeated injunctions. 
 Nor was planting, the only point. In the same letter he 
 refers to an experiment he had before mentioned, with 
 regard to the making of cheese, and begs his brother to 
 make him one in the manner proposed. 
 
 The cattle plague seems to have broken out with great 
 violence about 1748-9, " threatening the worst consequences 
 to the public, and ruin to individuals." He writes with 
 minute directions to his brother about the treatment needed, 
 and on the absolute necessity of separation, and avoiding 
 all possibility of contact between sound and infected 
 cattle. 
 
 " In short " (he says) " you have no way left to stop 
 
 its progress but by keeping your cattle wholly within 
 
 yourselves. Men may carry the venom in their clothes ; 
 
 horses, dogs, swine, nay fowls, may carry it from one 
 
 place to another." 
 
 He advocates the stopping of all markets and fairs, 
 and indeed the letters might with advantage have been 
 published during the early part of the recent outbreak 
 which inflicted so heavy a loss upon the country. Small- 
 pox seems about the same period to have been rife ; and 
 he writes to his brother, at Carr End, one of whose family 
 had died of the complaint, strongly advising inoculation 
 for the other. 
 
 " I should earnestly advise inoculation" (he says), "'tis 
 
 an operation easily to be performed, and in the manner I 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 57 
 
 am going to direct it is seldom with any ill effects. In 
 common, those who have it in this way get through with- 
 out the least danger. A common sewing thread, of mode- 
 rate thickness, may be drawn through a ripe spot in such 
 a manner as that some part of the thread may be a little 
 moistened with the matter. . . . Then, with the point of 
 a needle, make a small scratch on the skin a little below 
 the knee, either inside or out ; cut off a short bit of the 
 thread (for instance the eighth part of an inch, or less,) 
 and lay this on the little bleeding scratch; cover it with 
 any kind of sticking-plaster, and the whole is done." 
 He then goes on to describe the usually mild form of 
 the complaint — which will begin on the eighth day after — 
 gives directions, and adds : — 
 
 " As I am clearly convinced that by procuring the 
 disease in this slight manner will be of great advantage, 
 so I cannot but warmly recommend it to all who have 
 numerous families of hopeful issue, and have paternal 
 regard enough to wish them safe through a most loath- 
 some disorder. Thy loving brother," &c. 
 
 In another he expresses' a hope that the school at 
 Countersett (a village about a mile from Carr End, where 
 the Meeting-house which they attended was situated,) will 
 not be allowed to drop. " Any expense I will willingly 
 defray." Nor was it only as regards the outward or 
 material beneiit of this brother and his family that he was 
 so much in earnest. Here is one among many instances 
 of his brotherly care and advice : — 
 
 " Endeavour to be to thy family what our father was to 
 us. So will Providence bless thy care, and make them a 
 blessing in old age. Thou knows my wishes, my views, 
 
58 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 — let me say my hopes — that thou wilt understand the 
 seduction that lies near thee, and, I confess, to us both. 
 But greater will be the triumph, if, with capacity to 
 please, we rather choose to follow the dictates of 
 simple unpleasing truth, and thus become fools for 
 Christ's sake — the hardest of all lessons to many.'" 
 
 Before leaving this period we may notice as a proof of 
 the high estimation of his friends that he was appointed 
 Clerk to the Yearly Meeting for the year 1749, at the 
 age of thirty-seven, the sixteenth Clerk from Benjamin 
 Bealing, who held the appointment from the time of George 
 Fox to 1722. 
 
 We also find him reading papers before the Royal Society, 
 upon Amber and Siberia, &c., as early as 1743 or 1744. 
 
 Entering upon a second decade {i.e. between 1750 and 
 1760) we find that, " failing matrimony," his sister Ann 
 came to reside with him, who lived with him during the 
 thirty remaining years of his life. He often speaks of her 
 in his letters in terms of the warmest affection and appre- 
 ciation. Let one extract suffice. Writing to his brother 
 Alexander (1755) he says : — 
 
 " Sister Ann is still poorly, . . . but I hope she will 
 soon be restored to her usual, if not better, health, and 
 be long my sister, my companion, my friend, and my 
 example." 
 
 The sister herself, who devoted her life to the Doctor, 
 in writing to her brother Alexander, says : — 
 
 " I have my health at present just as well as before I 
 came here, being under the care of a kind, affectionate 
 brother and physician, who often orders some little thing 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 59 
 
 or other to recruit my constitution, and endeavours to 
 inspire (me) with cheerfulness and ease." 
 She goes on to describe the Hfe in her new house : — 
 
 " A new scene of Hfe it is to me, where a multitude of 
 
 occurrences attend to engage, divert, or amaze. Singular 
 
 I am, and so I hope to continue, in my dress ; the antic 
 
 folly I observe does not incite me to imitate. Brother's 
 
 extensive acquaintance and esteem exposes me at present 
 
 to a pretty deal of company. . . . He has employ for 
 
 every hour of his time, and is anxiously careful to execute 
 
 his business well, that so much intense study and fatigue 
 
 keeps him very thin, and he is generous beyond a wish. 
 
 I came here in great fear. I find I am very deficient ; 
 
 but brother is not for dismissing me. He'll bear with 
 
 imperfections, or try to improve me awhile longer." 
 
 Then we find pleasant intercourse constantly kept up 
 
 between the family at Carr End and White Hart Court. 
 
 Sister Ann sends clothes for the family, and they in return 
 
 send "Yorkshire hams, hung beef, oatmeal, which they 
 
 cannot obtain in London, and are very good," she says, 
 
 " and which make an agreeable part of many a regaile.* I 
 
 borrowed a bake stone, scarce expecting to see such a thing 
 
 in town, and made some oate bread, which several thought 
 
 a choice regaile, and of which luckily the Doctor is very 
 
 fond, and which often makes up the greatest part of his 
 
 supper." 
 
 The following letter is so descriptive, and gives so vivid 
 a picture of the Doctor's life at this time, that we give it 
 nearly entire : — 
 
 A genuine Saxon word, worthy to be recoined. 
 
6o THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 Dr. Fothergill to Alexander Fothergill, 
 
 London, iz/i, 1753. 
 
 "Dear Brother, 
 
 " . . My time is much > less my own than ever, and if I 
 live must still be less so for a season. My business is not the most 
 gainful. Many, very many, I attend as a duty, which costs me 
 labour and some thought, yet all my business is not of this kind. 
 I have a greater income than ever I expected, but my expenses 
 are likewise large, and as it is but very lately that T was fairly upon 
 a level ; so it will be long, if I live, ere I get so much as to main- 
 tain me with less labour. I generally go out at nine, and am 
 traversing the streets till two or past. I then come home to 
 dinner, and, if not called out before, I begin again about four, and 
 have something to do till between seven and eight, now and then till 
 nine. It would perhaps surprise thee to hear that the last year 
 afforded me not less than j^l,8oo and that I spent not much less 
 than j^i,o6o, yet this is not far from the truth. 
 
 " I imagine that my business is greatly magnified ; but so inti- 
 mate a friend, so near a relation, ought to be better informed. 
 
 " When 1 consider my beginning, progress, and present condi- 
 tion, a youth, a stranger, with little money, without friends, being 
 utterly unknown in the place, and that from thence in the space 
 of about seventeen years, two of which were wholly spent in im- 
 provement here, I should be favoured so far, it raises many a serious 
 and sometimes grateful consideration and acknowledgment to a 
 Power whose great name I am not worthy to mention. 
 
 " Thy son I hope will be taken suitable care of at Coz Gilbert 
 Thompson's. The expense I shall cheerfully defray. As to Jane, 
 I shall do my part and do it with pleasure in order to convince 
 thee of the unfeigned affection I bear thee as my brother and my 
 father's son. Thy kind presents at length came safe and were 
 acceptable. . . . 
 
 " Farewell, and be assured that I am thy affectionate brother, 
 
 " J. Fothergill. 
 " Pray remember me to the worthy Justice (Metcalf ). " 
 
The words, "The expense I shall cheerfully defray," 
 occur again and again in the correspondence with his 
 family. Whenever a niece was to be married, or a nephew 
 to be educated, whenever a brother needed help, the Doc- 
 tor's generous, loving aid, is given unsparingly, and without 
 thought as to his own future wants. 
 
 Dr. Fothergill began during this period to publish in the 
 Gentleman's Magazine a monthly report of the weather 
 and temperature, chiefly in relation to disease, and regu- 
 larly continued it for several years (1751-6), when the press 
 of his engagements, combined with other causes, compelled 
 him to give up this most useful and very interesting work. 
 One great object which he had in view was to excite 
 other experienced physicians in various parts of the country 
 to imitate his example, that by a comparison of their united 
 observations new truths in the science of healing might 
 be discovered. In this, unhappily, he was disappointed, 
 no one responding to his wish. Small-pox, for instance, 
 and the causes from which it seemed to him to arise, are 
 frequently mentioned, and the practice of inoculation — just 
 then beginning to attract observation — advocated. The 
 yearly deaths from this complaint, in London alone, were 
 sometimes 2,600 ; and this, we must remember, in a popu- 
 lation under a million. 
 
 He may be" said to have been the pioneer in the road to 
 those meteorological observations which we all now consider 
 so important. There was at this time no registration of 
 deaths or births, and burials, and Dr. Fothergill used all 
 his influence to effect this most desirable object ; but it was 
 not until some years after his death that this was carried 
 out, and the Bills of Mortality were reduced to a system. 
 
62 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 It was during this period (1754) that he was elected a 
 Fellow of the College of Physicians of Edinburgh. 
 
 John Wesley was one of his patients during this time ; 
 but, ill as he was, his earnest spirit did not allow Ijim to 
 carry out the Doctor's advice to rest and repair to the Hot 
 Wells at Bristol for change. Probably, like his comrade 
 Whitfield, he thought "that perpetual preaching was a 
 better remedy than a perpetual blister." 
 
 It is characteristic of the two men that, during the war 
 with France, whilst Dr. Fothergill was doing all in his 
 power to point out the folly and injustice of the quarrel, 
 John Wesley was offering to raise 200 of his converts as a 
 volunteer corps. 
 
 " Man," says Dr. Fothergill, "whose passions ought to 
 be humanised in the school of Him who invariably 
 recommended peace on earth, can never become the 
 natural foe of man, .... even were religion of no avail ; 
 interest, one might imagine, would urge him to the com- 
 munication of mutual benefits. . . . Habit has rendered 
 the language of ' natural enemy ' familiar to national 
 prejudice as regards France, yet," he adds (in advance of 
 modern politicians), "even France might be united to us 
 by interest and friendship were we to encourage mutual 
 intercourse in trade, instead of interdicting it by severest 
 restraints. 
 
 " Whilst she takes of our woollens, our hardware, or 
 other heavy articles, we might receive in exchange her 
 wines, and other articles which the gaiety of the people 
 or the constitution of the soil, seem better adapted to 
 produce." 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 63 
 
 What the Doctor's views were in regard to the great 
 revival under Wesley we have no means of knowing ; and 
 I do not find the slightest notice of that great religious 
 movernent of the eighteenth century which has since 
 affected every town and village, nay every hamlet, in 
 England, and is felt throughout the English-speaking 
 world. 
 
 With the third decade, beginning in 1760, the 3'ear 
 in which George III. came to the throne,* we have 
 evidence of his interest in the educational work in the 
 Society of Friends, as we find him presenting a report of 
 a committee of the Meeting for Sufferings to the Yearly 
 Meeting on Education. It refers especially to the need for 
 the better encouragement of schoolmasters and school- 
 mistresses in the various counties. 
 
 H? was now forty-eight years of age, in the full vigour 
 of his active intellect, and with an ever-increasing practice, 
 " the whirl of dissipation " and " cruel service," as his 
 sister calls it, also increased ; but it was not his practice 
 alone which filled up every moment of his time. Devoted 
 as he was to his patients and the study of medicine, these 
 formed but a portion of the work which he undertook — 
 chemistry, conchology, entomology, corallines, and above 
 all botany, — filled up the moments which he could spare 
 from the active work of his profession. 
 
 In order to carry out his botanical researches he sought 
 for ground in the immediate neighbourhood of London, 
 
 * Dr. F. wrote the address of congratulation sent by the Society of 
 Friends to the King on his accession to the Crown. 
 
64 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 and found a sheltered spot on the Surrey side of the Thames, 
 in every respect suitable. The proprietor being willing to 
 sell, he was about to complete the purchase, when he found 
 that it was let to a tenant whose whole family depended on 
 its produce, and " whose misery was inevitable had he ex- 
 pelled them from this fruitful soil." He therefore refused 
 the offer, adding, that that could never afford gratification 
 to him which entailed misery on another, and, in addition, 
 nobly presented the family with the intended purchase- 
 money. 
 
 Soon afterwards (1762) he purchased the gardens at Upton, 
 so well known in after days as the hospitable residence and 
 grounds of the late Samuel Gurney. It contained at that 
 time a house, garden, and about thirty acres of land, after- 
 wards increased to about sixty acres. The garden contained 
 about five or six acres. " Here," says Gilbert Thompson, 
 "his active mind had ample room to expatiate and indulge 
 in its private. pursuits. In launching out into the extra- 
 ordinary expense which must attend so large an undertaking, 
 his great design was to enrich his garden and grounds, and 
 hence his own nation, with many rare and new productions 
 of the vegetable kingdom, such as might not only embellish 
 any gardens, but by their curious structure and properties be 
 objects of scientific speculation, or (which was his primary 
 intention) be subservient to the interests of his country and 
 to the common good. 
 
 " With these views he spared no pains, no cost, in 
 establishing a correspondence with almost every part of 
 the globe, and his wishes happily succeeded in procuring 
 a vast quantity of plants and seeds from China and the 
 East and West Indies, from Siberia and the Alps, North 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 65 
 
 America, and the newly-discovered islands, as well as from 
 Africa, — that stupendous garden of vegetable beauty. 
 
 " His garden, formed upon this extensive plan, and yearly 
 improving by large supplies of the more rare indigenous 
 plants and new exotics, arrived at length to that pitch of 
 excellence as to be esteemed the second in Europe, the 
 Royal Gardens at Kew alone deserving the pre-eminence." 
 He employed here, it is said, fifteen gardeners. 
 It is thus described at the time : — 
 
 " On the banks of a winding canal rare and exotic 
 shrubs flourished. In the midst of winter, evergreens 
 were clothed in full verdure, without exposure to the open 
 air; a glass door from the house gave entrance to a suite 
 of hot and green-houses, nearly 260 feet in extent, con- 
 taining upwards of 3,400 species of exotics, whose foliage 
 was a perpetual verdure, and in the open ground in 
 summer nearly 3,000 distinct species of plants and 
 shrubs vied with the natives of Asia and Africa. 
 
 " That science might not suffer a loss when a plant 
 
 he had cultivated should die, he fiberally paid the best 
 
 artists to draw the new ones as they came to perfection ; 
 
 and so numerous were they that he found it needful to 
 
 employ three or four artists in order to keep pace with 
 
 their increase. His garden was known all over Europe. 
 
 Foreigners of all ranks asked permission to see it." 
 
 The extent to which we are now indebted to Dr. 
 
 Fothergill may be partially learned by the following account, 
 
 for which I have to thank my friend J. G.. Baker, F.R.S., 
 
 of Kew : — 
 
 " A list of the plants that were in his greenhouses at 
 the time of his death was published by Dr. Lettsom, and 
 
as the names were very carefully determined by his friend 
 . Solander of the British Museum (the best botanist then 
 living in England), the document, of which we possess a 
 copy at Kew, possesses great value in connection with 
 the history of Gardening in England.- 
 
 " Dr. Fothergill frequently offered rewards for the 
 introduction into this country, or the colonies, of plants 
 of medicinal value. For instance, he offered a premium 
 of ^100 to two captains of ships for living plants of 
 the Winter's Bark (Cortex Winteranus), a native of 
 extra tropical South America, and named after Captain 
 Winter, who used it as a remedy for scurvy. 
 
 " He tried (but without success) to obtain plants of the 
 Cinchona, a native of the Andes, the most valuable of 
 all known vegetable medicines. 
 
 " He also attempted to introduce into our West Indian 
 Colonies the Bread-Fruit Tree and the Mangosteen ; 
 the former from Polynesia and the Indian Archipelago, 
 where it forms the staple food of the islanders, and the 
 latter, which is about the size of an orange, and has the 
 reputation of being the most delicious of all tropical fruits/ 
 from the Straits of Malacca. 
 
 " Dr. Fothergill employed as one of his collectors a 
 Friend named Bartram (after whom a genus of Mosses 
 was named) to travel through the Southern United States. 
 Another was employed in the Alps, and one at the Cape of 
 Good Hope. He was one of the earliest to import and 
 spread into English gardens the Kalmias, Rhododendrons, 
 Maples, and other shrubs from the Western hemisphere, 
 and to honour his memory, an American shrub, the 
 genus Fothergilla, was named after him by the younger 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 67 
 
 Linnsus. The French Botanist, Aublet, also named a 
 genus Fothergilla, after him, now called Miconia Fother- 
 gilli. Other plants perpetuate his memory, among which 
 may be noticed — ' Fothergill's Lily' {Nerine Fothergilli) 
 and Calceolaria Fothergilli. He is best remembered 
 in horticulture as the raiser of Fothergill's Geranium 
 [Pelargonium Fothergilli) one of the earliest races of the 
 zone-leaved Cape Geraniums, which are now so popular. 
 Specimens of the more interesting plants grown in his 
 garden were given by him to Sir Joseph Banks, and are 
 now preserved in the great National Herbarium at the 
 British Museum." 
 
 At Upton, of which Dr. Fothergill says "there is a 
 forest on one side, not populous, and a Meeting," he sought 
 occasionally for a little quiet from the excessive hurry of 
 his London life ; but it was too near to afford him the relief 
 he needed. Importunate patients could send to him, and he 
 could not resist their appeals. 
 
 So we find him writing from Upton, under date of 15th 
 of Tenth Month, 1764, to his brother Samuel Fothergill, at 
 Warrington : — 
 
 " Jt Upton, \ $th of Tenth Month, i-jSi^. 
 
 " Dr. Fothergill to Samuel Fothergill. 
 
 " One day it came into my thoughts, unsought for, to retreat a 
 few months next summer into Cheshire, and it seemed easy to 
 me to do so, and some part of the country not far from Middlewich 
 seemed pointed at. ... I am looking for quiet in a place where 
 I have no acquaintance, yet not far from those I most love. My 
 AIM IS QUIET, and if I can procure some decent abode not far from 
 a meeting, not far from a market, in a situation not unhealthy, 
 not very populous, where we may have room enough to eritertain 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 a friend and live not uncomfortably, be the terms what they may, 
 we shall be satisfied. I want nothing great, or elegant, or 
 expensive ; but if nothing but what is such can be had I would 
 submit." 
 
 Then there is a brisk correspondence between the 
 brothers, which ends in the Doctor taking " Lea Hall," 
 about four miles from Crewe, for a term. In this corres- 
 pondence we find him sending a present of books to his 
 brother, also to his uncle Hough, "To whom," he adds, 
 " I wish to give every mark of grateful remembi^nce in 
 my power." 
 
 The following summer we find him writing to his brother 
 that he intends " to leave home in the Seventh Month, 
 and so to reach our quarters by Third-day night" — probably 
 four or five days on the road with his own horses and 
 carriage. He proposes to send two maids, to be there a 
 few days in advance, so as to have all in neat order for 
 " Sister Ann and myself" The goods (five cases) needed 
 are sent down by vessel to Liverpool, smaller packages are 
 sent by carrier. He adds : — 
 
 '' Please procure for us, and send to Lea Hall, 
 
 2 gallons of the best French Brandy, 
 
 3 do. of good Mountain (Wine), 
 
 I or 2 dozen of very good White Wine, 
 6 gallons of good red Port, 
 rather new, as little bordering on the acid as may be. A 
 rough, good-bodied wine I like best." 
 
 The order may seem large in these teetotal days, but 
 I do not know that five or six dozen was an excessive 
 quantity to be laid down in the cellar of this hospitable 
 
retreat to which, though he aimed at quiet, his friends 
 were constantly invited. Writing again to his brother, he 
 says : — 
 
 " I am thankful, repeatedly thankful, for the prospect of 
 this recess ; . . . and I esteem it as I ought as a means 
 of escaping by degrees from labour next to oppression. 
 Much I owe to the public, and honestly have I endea- 
 voured to repay the obligation. May they never want 
 persons better qualified than myself to serve them ! On 
 me the world has not frowned. I courted not its favours 
 nor feared the reverse. It is time, however, to think of 
 getting into port, and as the wind serves I hope to make 
 use of it." 
 
 Lea Hall as it now exists is not a taking place ; the 
 country around is low and damp, and it is a matter of 
 surprise that the Dalesman should have sel'ected this spot 
 for his retirement, unless it be on the ground that, except- 
 ing those who sought his own society, the place presented 
 no attraction. To him the early associations with Cheshire, 
 where he had lived in childhood with his mother's family, 
 doubtless presented great attractions, and there was also 
 the further pleasure of his brother Samuel's society who 
 resided comparatively near, at Warrington. 
 
 But the Lea Hall of to-day, with its dismantled gate-posts 
 and weedy gardens, and neglected, desolate paths, must 
 not be thought of as the place of Dr. Fothergill's retreat. 
 Then it was doubtless a pleasant country house, built in 
 the Queen Anne period, and much like many of the smaller 
 French chateaux which one sees in the country districts of 
 France, with its trimmed-walled garden and orchard, and 
 bowling-alley, and fish-pond, and pavilions. The interior 
 
70 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 of the house, like the exterior, is now neglected and out of 
 repair. The rooms are lofty and panelled throughout, and 
 doubtless when the good Doctor and the neat sister Ann 
 and her trim housemaids held court there; and the big 
 coachman and the black horses and post-chaise filled the 
 courtyard, the scene was as great a contrast as possible 
 to the neglected, deserted rooms, and the poor half-blind 
 farmer (" nearly dark " as a neighbour called him), and his 
 stout wife and daughter hard at work at the cheese-press, 
 whom we found there when we visited Lea Hall this 
 spring. 
 
 From 1765 to the year of his death he regularly retired 
 for the autumn months to Lea Hall. Here he wrote up his 
 arrears of scientific or other correspondence, which extended 
 to most parts of the civilised world, spending four hours a 
 day in writing. Here, too, he enjoyed at times the society 
 of his brother Samuel and of his nephews and nieces, and 
 a few intimate friends — medical and scientific. 
 
 It is not improbable that the vicinity of Etruria — where 
 Wedgwood was then carrying out his perfect, beautiful work, 
 bringing home to the simple and unlearned the exquisite 
 sense of beauty which exists in Greek art, and which he 
 subordinated to the everyday purposes of life — led him to 
 form, at this time, a friendship with the "Great Potter." 
 As we know from Miss Meteyard's life of Wedgwood, Dr. 
 Fothergill often corresponded with Josiah Wedgwood, to 
 whom his exact chemical knowledge was of value, and he 
 also took especial interest in the question of the clays of 
 North America, then imported in small quantities from .the 
 Cherokee and Pensacola districts, but which have since 
 been superseded by our own Cornish clays. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 71 
 
 The black bust which we have before us to-day, of 
 Wedgwood-ware, is from a model taken by Flaxman after 
 the death of Dr. Fothergill, as we find in Wedgwood's 
 Memoirs the following entry : — 
 
 " Mr. Wedgwood to J. Flaxman. 
 
 " May 20, 1781.— Moulding a bust of Dr. 
 
 " Fothergale £1 4s. od." 
 
 Two busts of Rousseau and Sterne figure in the same 
 bill at 1 6s. 
 
 It is probable that the beautiful cameo likeness now 
 reproduced was also modelled by Flaxman.* 
 
 Whilst at Lea Hall he devoted one day in each week 
 to attending the poor, gratis, at Mi'ddlewich, the nearest 
 market town, and, in order to lessen the applications of 
 more wealthy patients, who followed him to his retirement, 
 he took no fees. As an illustration of the great fame which 
 the Doctor enjoyed, it may be mentioned, that on his 
 journeys to and from Lea Hall, he was intercepted (often to 
 his annoyance) at every stopping-place by patients or 
 apothecaries who desired to obtain his advice. 
 
 We find during this term Dr. Fothergill and his sister 
 paying a visit to Carr End (1763). Driving from Scarborough 
 (whither he had retreated for a while to recover strength) by 
 way of Thirsk, where he asks his brother Alexander to 
 meet him in order " to show them the way," he hopes 
 to " drive from thence to Askrigg or Bainbridge in a day 
 and a-half." 
 
 • It is a curious instance of the incorrectness of historians that the 
 cameo likeness figured at page 7 in Miss Meteyard's " Life of Wedg- 
 wood," as that of Dr. Fothergill, from the Mayer collection, is not his 
 likeness at all. 
 
72 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 "We fancy" (he says) "we can get to Bainbridge in 
 our carriage, and leave it there, or at Askrigg, with our 
 horses and servants ; only the saddle-horse to carry me, 
 and thou must get one, either double or single, to carry 
 sister." 
 He hopes to reach Carr End on Seventh-day evening, and 
 to attend Meeting with them next day, and then to Lan- 
 caster the following day (so he does not stay long in the 
 old home), and adds : — 
 
 "Give thyself no uneasiness about our entertainment. 
 Nothing, will come amiss to us but thy family's too great 
 concern about our accommodation. Remember we have 
 lived there, and yet can do with great content if you will 
 permit it" 
 
 We should like to have seen the cavalcade as, leaving 
 the ^.dmiring awe-struck crowd of villagers at Bainbridge, it 
 wound up the hilly rocky road to Carr End. The great 
 London Doctor, with cocked hat and big wig, in light 
 drab suit and drab silk stockings, sitting upright on his 
 horse, with sister Ann in light drab bonnet and habili- 
 ments of the plainest sort on a pillion, escorted by brother 
 Alexander, let us hope in Dalesman's costume. 
 
 Towards the close of this decade (1767), Dr. Fothergill re- 
 moved from White Hart Court to Harpur Street, then a 
 newly-built street (for the house was not finished when 
 they took possession of it). Writing of this change of resi- 
 dence Dr. Fothergill says : — 
 
 "We find a great difference between Harpur Street 
 and the City; we have almost an hour more daylight. I 
 keep at home to see patients only on Third and Fifth- 
 day afternoons, by which means I have Second, Fourth 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 73 
 
 and Sixth-day afternoons more at liberty, and I hope 
 gradually to lessen both my business and all my incum- 
 brances." 
 Later he says — 
 
 " I am in treaty to let Upton. I find it embarrassing in 
 point of time, though managed with frugality, expensive.' 
 I shall preserve the liberty of the garden and part of its 
 produce, but quit all further use of it for a lease of seven 
 years. What seeds I receive will be taken care of, and I 
 contribute to the support of the gardens." 
 
 He had, in fact, found that he could rarely visit his 
 beloved gardens, and Lea Hall, and the change to Harpur 
 Street had prevented the need of another country house. 
 The writer well remembers, when a boy, on his first visit 
 to Upton, being shown by the late Samuel Gurney many 
 of the rare shrubs in the garden ; and also being told the 
 tradition that Dr. Fothergill had so little time to visit the 
 place by day-light that he used to come down in the even- 
 ing and go round the garden to inspect his favourite plants 
 with a lantern. A few of his shrubs still Hnger in the 
 garden, which is now converted into a People's Park. 
 
 Dr. Fothergill's love of botany brought him into cor- 
 respondence with the celebrated Linnaeus, and he not only 
 generously helped, but superintended the great and ex- 
 pensive botanical work of John Millar, published to illustrate 
 the Linnsean system. He also largely assisted the authors 
 of other scientific books, as, for example, Dr. Russell's 
 " History of Aleppo " (afterwards writing a Memoir of 
 Dr. Russell), and Dr. Cleghorn's "Diseases of Minorca;' 
 Edwards' beautiful work on the " Birds of Great Britain," 
 and Drury's " Entomology," were largely assisted by him. 
 
74 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 Nor must the munificent assistance which Dr. Fothergill 
 rendered to Anthony Purver, in the translation and publi- 
 cation of his version of the Old and New Testaments, 
 be overlooked. Not only did he give pecuniary assistance, 
 to the extent of two thousand pounds, to the translator (a 
 poor self-taught man), but, it is said, revised the whole of 
 the sheets as they passed through the press, and subse- 
 quently did all in his power by recommendation or gift to 
 promote the circulation of the folio. 
 
 We pass on now to the last decade of his life, which 
 alone is connected with Ackworth School — 1770 to 1780, 
 in the closing days of which he died. 
 
 The removal from White Hart Court to Harpur Street 
 
 did not lessen his work; for, though he lost many of his 
 
 City patients, those who came from the West-end were even 
 
 more numerous and exacting, and again and again we find 
 
 both the Doctor and his sister speaking in the strongest 
 
 terms of the excessive hurry and fatigue of his busy life. 
 
 " My brother is at the full stretch continually, of 
 
 what his faculties of both body and mind can sustain. 
 
 He drags himself about from eight in the morning to 
 
 near five, which is now our hour to dine. He eats a 
 
 morsel in almost impatient hurry, and is out again about 
 
 six till near nine or ten ; then comes home, scarce able to 
 
 get upstairs, and then sits down to write until eleven or 
 
 twelve." And, again, she speaks of the " anxious 
 
 fatigue and solicitude impressed on his countenance." 
 
 So great was his practice during this period that it is 
 
 said he had sixty patients on his daily list in the year 1775, 
 
 when influenza was very rife ; but we suspect that his 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 75 
 
 income (then stated to be £-j,ooo or £'8,000 a-year) was 
 not so large in reality, from his extreme generosity and 
 unwillingness to take fees from his patients. Quaker as he 
 was, he would not take pay from clergymen, and number- 
 less are the instances known in which he not only refused 
 fees, but gave large sums to patients whom he thought 
 needing help. There were also at this period many and 
 increasing objects which claimed his deepest sympathy — 
 the loss, also, of his much-loved brother Samuel saddened 
 and depressed him. 
 
 The condition of the French prisoners of war, who 
 were left rotting in barracks and prisons in various parts of 
 England, deeply moved him ; and he and other Friends 
 joined in a large subscription raised throughout the country 
 for their help, of which the Society of Friends raised one- 
 fourth part. He was also selected by the Government to 
 inquire into the terrible mortality raging amongst the 
 Spanish prisoners in Winchester Prison, and had the 
 selection of a competent physician intrusted to him, who 
 soon reduced the daily deaths from twenty-one or more 
 to a minimum. 
 
 Jointly with Howard, the distinguished philanthropist, 
 whose friendship he enjoyed and with whom he heartily 
 co-operated, we find him working at the prisons and making 
 suggestions for the employment and separation of convicts, 
 and for the formation of penitentiaries ; nor did the question 
 of slavery escape his attention. Then, again, at h'ome the 
 subject of canals, the condition of the streets of London, — 
 the absence of pavements, the narrowness and filthiness of 
 the streets, — the need for increased and more direct com- 
 munication from one part of the City to another, the police, 
 
76 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 and general administration of City matters, all claimed his 
 vigilant eye ; and it is said that on the improvement of the 
 streets alone he wrote upwards of one hundred letters to 
 the papers. 
 
 One of the last letters which he wrote^ little more than 
 a month hefore his death, was addressed to the River Lea 
 Company, suggesting to them to cut down the trees on the 
 banks of the river in consequence of the injury caused to 
 the water by the decomposition of their leaves, and urging 
 them to establish public baths for men and boys, as well 
 as for women and girls, at a low rate — 6d., 3d. and id. ! 
 
 Nor did the careless mode of the burial of the dead then 
 common, with large pits for the poor, usually in crowded 
 parts of the City, and often very offensive, escape his atten- 
 tion. He advocated the i-emoval of the burial-grounds to 
 open places, mentioning Moorfields as a desirable place; 
 and also the establishment of public cemeteries " executed 
 with decent elegance and suited for any degree of citizen- 
 ship." 
 
 Jointly with David Barclay and some others, he formed 
 a plan for supplying the poor and others with fish and 
 potatoes by land carriage, breaking down a monopoly which 
 kept up the price too high ; and in the time of scarcity 
 advocated the use of Indian corn Or potatoes mixed with 
 wheat, causing proper directions to be printed and dis- 
 tributed among the bakers and others. 
 
 That the excessive rigour of the Criminal Code, which 
 at that time made the gallows the punishment of an in- 
 finite variety of crimes, and probably condemned upwards 
 of 1,500 men, women, and children to Tyburn during the 
 forty years the Doctor resided in London, did not claim his 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 77 
 
 attention, seems strange to us now; and not less remark- 
 able does it appear that, except for the passing remark of 
 one of his biographers "that his sympathising manner was 
 helpful to the mind diseased," we find no trace of any 
 attention to disorders of the mind. The Doctor wrote 
 treatises on sore throat, on influenza, on consumption, 
 on sick headache, but never refers to insanity — though the 
 subject must constantly have been forced upon his atten- 
 tion in his immense practice. 
 
 The time had not yet come for the great and blessed 
 reform in the criminal code which we have witnessed, nor 
 for the introduction of any rational treatment of mental 
 disorders; and it was reserved for another Yorkshirem an 
 — a colleague of the Doctor's in his great educational work 
 at Ackworth — to commence at the York Retreat, a few 
 years after Dr. Fothergill's death, that system of mild and 
 sensible treatment of the insane which has since been 
 universally adopted throughout the civilised world. 
 
 But above all during this period the conflict, impending at 
 first but afterwards actual, between England and America, 
 excited his deepest 'attention. He had protested against 
 war with France, — a nation whom he says we call " our 
 natural enemy;" — but here was the question of war between 
 brothers, " a fratricidal war involving the lives of perhaps 
 100,000 fellow-men taken from the loom or from tillage." 
 
 We can perhaps hardly now estimate the closeness of 
 the family ties which then bound the two nations together. 
 
 Dr. Fothergill's days were not separated by more than 
 100 years from the departure of the first Pilgrim Fathers, 
 and by much less from the Earlier Friends who sought an 
 asylum in the New World, and from that date there had 
 
78 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 been a continuous stream of emigration of thoughtful and 
 well-to-do men belonging to the class among whom he 
 moved. In addition, Dr. Fothergill's father and brother 
 Samuel had kept up, by their frequent visits to the settle- 
 ments of Friends, a warm friendship with many in America. 
 Dr. Fothergill's house was also the rendezvous of the 
 various noted American ministers who came to visit their 
 English brethren. 
 
 He was thus, both by knowledge and natural sympathy, 
 warmly attached to his American Friends, and alive to all 
 that related to their welfare. He had freely assisted them 
 in their schools at New York, Philadelphia, and other 
 places ; he had proposed plans for their adoption, for im- 
 proving and giving work to the Indians, and had many 
 correspondents, from some of whom he received political 
 information, and from others new and rare plants arid other 
 objects of interest. Patients, too, g,ttracted by his fame, 
 braved the dangers of a six-weeks' voyage to obtain the. 
 benefit of his advice. 
 
 A few years before, he had written a most admirable 
 
 pamphlet of thirty pages, entitled " Considerations relative 
 
 to the North American Colonies," in which he justly says : — 
 
 " There is scarcely a more important subject can 
 
 occupy the attention than the war, being a contest with 
 
 near two millions of English subjects descended from and 
 
 inseparably connected with ourselves." And further on 
 
 ■ he adds, " If we inquire into the conduct of the wisest 
 
 States of former days, to their distant colonies, we shall 
 
 find it always to have been to treat them with kindness 
 
 and indulgence ; to engage them to look back to the 
 
 mother, country with duty and affection, and to recom- 
 
THE LIFE OF DR: FOTHERGILL. 79 
 
 pense the protection they have enjoyed by the produce 
 of their labour, their commerce, and, when needed, their 
 assistance. We meet not with many instances, compa- 
 ratively, even of distant conquered countries revolting, 
 till causes of strong disgust had sown the seeds of 
 discontent, and succeeding acts of oppression and injustice 
 had ripened them into rebellion. 
 
 " Colonies sprung from Britain," he observed, " will 
 bear much, but it is to be remembered that they are the 
 sons of freedom ; and what they have been early taught 
 to look upon as virtue, in their ancestors, will not soon be 
 forgotten by themselves ; nay they will the sooner be apt 
 to vindicate their wrongs." 
 
 With Benjamin Franklin, who at that time was in 
 Europe seeking to obtain a settlement of the points in 
 dispute with the mother country, he formed a friendship, 
 and had frequent negotiations and discussions. In these 
 negotiations he was assisted by his friend David Barclay, 
 who shared his views. Here is a short note, under date of 
 the Tenth Month, 1774, written in the early morning to 
 David Barclay, who lived in Red Lion Square, not far 
 from Harpur Street : — • 
 
 " I came home last night at ten o'clock extremely 
 fatigued. I could not forbear giving perhaps a very 
 strong proof of it. If the enclosed remarks are worthy 
 of the least notice, I wish we could see one another this 
 morning before nine o'clock." 
 
 This paper was intended as the basis of measures 
 for obtaining a speedy and honourable settlement of the 
 pending dispute, and was afterwards submitted to Dr. 
 Franklin, who accepted in the main the Doctor's sugges- 
 
8o THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 tions. It is a paper honourable alike to his clear under- 
 standing and judgment, and the impartiality with which he 
 viewed the points in dispute. Had it been adopted, as was 
 at one time hoped, by our Government, as the basis for a 
 settlement with her great North American provinces, 
 England might probably have been spared the war, and the 
 Colonies have obtained a free Constitution. 
 
 As a Yorkshireman he ever took a deep interest in all 
 that related to his native county, and, prior to the General 
 Assembly of Electors, held at York, in December, 1779, he 
 addressed a letter (intended no doubt for the meeting) to 
 his friend Henry Zouch, the clergyman of Sandal, in which 
 he speaks in trenchant language of the injury resulting to 
 the country from the policy of the Government. 
 
 "There is one necessary point which I think you 
 ought, in the first place, to state most clearly — the 
 general decay of the county — and keep close to your own 
 county — manufactures declining, commerce languishing, 
 value of land decreasing, public improvements at a 
 standstill, bankruptcies numerous, taxes increasing, mul- 
 titudes distressed. . . Pray, therefore, that peace may 
 be restored between us and America, as the only 
 means of saving your country from every species of 
 calamity ; the war with that country and its conse- 
 quences being the general cause of these distresses. 
 
 " Once more excuse me, — if I im taking a liberty un- ■ 
 becoming me, — the honour of our county, the good of 
 the country in general, is at stake. If you ask for what 
 is EVIDENTLY ' great and right ' your example will be 
 followed by all." 
 
 Notwithstanding the intense pressure of all these 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. Si 
 
 varied engagements, we find that he was an Elder, and 
 became a member of the Yearly Meeting's Committee, 
 appointed to visit the Meetings of Friends in the various 
 counties of England. He was thus engaged for many 
 weeks, chiefly in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Westmore- 
 land, and it was whilst thus engaged that he paid his 
 last visit to Carr End, in 1777. 
 
 It may have been that these visits, and the ignorance 
 he found in many quarters, gave additional force to 
 his long-cherished desire to see a sound and Christian 
 education more generally valued, and made accessible to 
 all classes in the Society of Friends. Be this as it 
 may, it was in this year that he succeeded in giving a 
 practical shape to his very long-cherished wish; and we 
 now come to that point in our narrative which, extending 
 over the three remaining years of Dr. Fothergill's life, 
 gives the History of the Establishment of Ackworth School, 
 which was, as Luke Howard justly called it, "The Era of 
 a Reformation in our Religious Society."* And was not 
 this truly a New Era, which laid the foundation of the 
 sound, practical and religious education, which has to a 
 large extent been the model of the more extended Edu- 
 cational System, which during the past hundred years has 
 placed within easy reach of the humblest member of the 
 Society of Friends an Education such as the wisest men 
 of the present day, having recognised the want of for the 
 numerous class in England "not in affluence," are now 
 seeking to establish throughout the length and breadth of 
 the land ? 
 
 * " The Yorkshireman," by Luke Howard. 
 
82 THE AC K WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 Throughout the period extending from 1700 to 1777 
 the subject of Education was frequently and pressingly 
 brought forward by the Yearly Meeting. This was 
 strikingly the case during the earlier years of this 
 period, and not less so, later on, from about the year 
 1750, and forward. This is not the place to go into this 
 interesting question; but up to 1777 it is believed that the 
 school at Gildersome, established by Brighouse Monthly 
 Meeting, and the "School Fund" of York Quarterly Meeting, 
 were the only visible or practical results of this deep concern. 
 That Dr. Fothergill took a zealous interest in this move- 
 ment there cannot be a doubt. He was one of the most 
 active members of the Meeting for Sufferings from 1745 
 to the date of his death in 1780 ; and, as has already been 
 stated, he presented to the Yearly Meeting of 1760 a 
 Report.from the Education Committee of the Meeting for 
 Sufferings earnestly advocating the subject. This Report 
 is a long and interesting one, and bears the stamp of Dr. 
 Fothergill's style, and has especial reference to the "better 
 encouragement of schoolmasters and mistresses in the 
 various counties." 
 
 But to return to the year 1777, which may be considered 
 as the year in which Ackworth School — the centenary of 
 which we celebrate to-day — was conceived. 
 
 The Yearly Meeting of 1777 — the year of the Inception 
 of Ackworth School — passed the following minute : — 
 
 " It being the judgment of this Yearly Meeting that 
 encouragement for Boarding Schools suitable for the 
 education of children whose parents are not in affluence 
 will be advantageous, the consideration of a plan proper 
 to this purpose is referred to the Meeting for Sufferings, 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 83 
 
 to be laid before the Meeting next year, to which Friends 
 in the country are desired to give their attention and 
 assistance. {Yearly Meeting, 1777.)" 
 
 The question naturally arises, What led to the selec- 
 tion of Ackworth as the place for carrying out this intention 
 of the Yearly Meeting ? The answer is found in Dr. 
 Fothergill's own account of the transaction, which we take 
 from his printed Letter to a Friend in the Country. 
 
 " Whilst I was in Yorkshire, in the autumn of 1777, 
 mention was casually made of Ackworth Hospital. That 
 it was on sale, and would probably be sold for a very 
 moderate price, compared with the sum that it had cost. 
 Though I had not seen the building I had seen and con- 
 sidered a pla,n of the house, and learned from that and 
 from the report of many who had been on the spot, that 
 the building, the situation, the healthfulness of the 
 country, the plenty of provisions, and the vicinity of many 
 valuable Friends, were such, that if it could be purchased 
 and properly endowed, it might in many respects answer 
 the intention of Friends, and lay the groundwork of an 
 useful and permanent establishment. 
 
 " For the information of divers who may not be 
 acquainted with the nature of these premises, it may be 
 necessary to observe that, after the setting on foot the 
 Hospital for Foundling Children in London, the public had 
 great expectations of its utility; large sums were sub- 
 scribed, and money likewise granted by Parliament, for 
 erecting proper buildings for the reception of great 
 numbers of children. A large hospital was built in Lon- 
 don, another near Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, and this at 
 
 Ackworth, as appendages to that in London, and under 
 
 G 2 
 
8+ THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 the same direction. The Friends whom I consulted, on 
 my return to London, thought it a matter of such moment, 
 as to deserve attention ; and, in pursuance of their 
 opinion, inquiry was made concerning the price. I was 
 given to understand that it vwas fixed at ;f 7,000 ; and in 
 a short time after was informed that £6,800 was offered 
 for it by some other person. The Meeting for Sufferings 
 was then consulted, and the state of the affair submitted 
 to their consideration. They wished to have had the 
 matter kept open for the deliberation of the next Yearly 
 Meeting, but this was precluded by the unexpected offer 
 of another purchaser. A number of Friends, in their 
 private capacity, generously stepped forward with an 
 offer to bear the Meeting for Sufferings harmless, should 
 the ensuing Yearly Meeting decline the purchase. This 
 being accepted, a contract was made in the autumn of 
 1777, and the matter reserved in this state for the 
 deliberation of the following Yearly Meeting in 1778." 
 Elsewhere it is stated that the Ackworth Hospital 
 had been erected eighteen years, occupied for twelve, and 
 from that time had stood empty, though preserved from 
 decay ; and that the house, a strong convenient stone build- 
 ing, with eighty-four acres of land, which had cost the 
 Foundling Hospital ;f 17,000, had been purchased for £7,000. 
 Doubtless, though he does not mention it. Dr. Fothergill 
 was one of those who, with his friend D. Barclay, thus 
 stepped forward to bear the Meeting for Sufferings harmless. 
 ■ In the negotiations for the purchase of the Ackworth 
 premises it is also clear that Dr. Fothergill had the largest 
 share; and it was not unnatural that as he resided in 
 Harpur Street, within ten minutes' walk of the Foundling 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 85 
 
 Hospital, he should have conducted the business with the 
 authorities of this Institution ; and in one of the minutes 
 of the Yearly Meeting it is stated that the property had 
 been " contracted for by one individual." 
 
 In a letter written about this time (autumn, 1777,) to Henry 
 Zouch, the clergyman at Sandal, he says, — 
 
 " As we are to take possession at Michaelmas, I 
 thought the Committee of the Foundling Hospital would 
 at least have taken care of their interest till then, and have 
 delivered up the premises in decent order, but on receiving 
 thy obliging letter I applied to one of the Committee, and 
 requested leave to enter at once, on condition of making 
 the Hospital a suitable recompense." 
 
 He then goes onto state that the Committee "had 
 granted this permission," and mentions that in the previous 
 year, 1776, the Hospital had received £iog for Gist cattle 
 (or about 30s. per acre for the right of grazing), as the 
 ground had been chiefly pastured, and only nine acres 
 cultivated. 
 
 He also adds that he thinks it " will be more consistent 
 with ourselves to relinquish all claims upon the pews in the 
 Church,— They may possibly be generous enough to think 
 them worth some equivalent ; we shall give up our interest 
 to the next rightful owner." 
 In conclusion, he says : — 
 
 " It will he a long time before I shall he ahle to prevail 
 on many whom it concerns to enter thoroughly into my 
 wishes to promote this estahlishment, and the times are 
 against me ; hut I am not apt to despair. I have contended 
 with difficulty, as every man has who travels on this globe, 
 and must do it cheerfully." 
 
86 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 Under date Twelfth Month 24, 1777, we find the following 
 in a letter from sister Ann to her niece Sally Hird,*of Leeds— 
 " Brother desires his love to thyself and family, and to 
 say he took it kind that thy husband went with John 
 Hustler (of Bradford) to view Ackworth. The affair is to 
 be concluded next Second-day." 
 
 In the Fifth Month of the following year " Sister 
 A.nn" again writes to her niece Sally Hird, of Leeds : — 
 
 " That David Barclay and his wife and Thomas Col- 
 linson and his wife are coming to Leeds. Their principal 
 inducement to come down now is to view Ackworth, 
 about which many demurs arise as to the propriety of 
 engaging in so large an undertaking. They have a mind 
 to see the premises to enable them better to form a judg- 
 ment, and to act accordingly. They propose to travel 
 in David Barclay's coach, taking horses from stage to 
 stage, so as to take less time. They are expected to be 
 absent from home about ten days." 
 
 In the same letter " Sister Ann " speaks very feelingly 
 of her brother's ^' hard servitude" in his practice, and of his 
 having " much to suffer both in body and mind." No doubt 
 there were many faint-hearted and wavering, and others who 
 opposed him as too sanguine ; but, happily, the report of the 
 visit of his friends D. Barclay and T. Collinson appears to 
 have been satisfactory; for shortly after their return, under 
 date of Sixth Month 5th, 1778, we find that the Committee 
 of the Meeting for Sufferings brought in the following 
 Minute, which was read, and " is to go in with the other 
 
 * The wife of Dr. Hird, of Leeds, who was devoted to Dr. F., and 
 of whom he afterwards wrote a very ihteresting memoir. 
 
Minutes to the Yearly Meeting." We give the names of 
 those present at this Committee, and an extract from the 
 Minutes, evidently the writing of Dr. Fothergill, to whom 
 there can be no doubt that we are indebted for the estab- 
 lishment of Ackworth School. Let us repeat the date, and 
 hold these names also in grateful remembrance. 
 
 " Met, pursuant to adjournment, the ist of Sixth 
 Month, 1778. 
 
 "Present — Timothy Bevan, Thomas Corbyn, Jacob 
 Hagan, John Eliot, John Wright, John Hill [the future 
 Treasurer], John Townsend, Joseph Row, David Barclay, 
 Daniel Mildred, Robert Howard, Joseph Hooper, Obed 
 Cooke, Henry Sterry, Thomas Home, William Forster, 
 Owen Weston and John Fothergill. 
 
 " We, the Committee appointed to consider of some 
 proposal for the education of children whose parents are 
 not in affluent circumstances, pursuant to the directions 
 of the last Yearly Meeting, have met many times, and 
 employed much serious attention on the subject. Some 
 assistance we have received /row a friend or two in the 
 country, and wish that many more had been actuated 
 by a like desire to promote this important object. The 
 Committee — well knowing from past experience that great 
 difficulties would arise in the execution of any proposal 
 likely to be attended with expense, and being satisfied 
 that nothing could be effectually done without it — entered 
 upon the consideration of this business under great dis- 
 couragements. They had recourse to the Minutes of the 
 Yearly Meeting and the Meeting for Sufferings in respect 
 to the education of Friends' children, and found that this 
 subject had been taken up in the Yearly Meeting of 1758 ; 
 
further considered in 1759, and that in 1706 a proposal 
 for the encouragement of schoolmasters had been agreed 
 to, and recommended to the several counties and places. 
 It would seem that from want of proper zeal to 
 promote this important concern, the directions of the 
 Yearly Meeting were not attended to in the counties 
 in general ; a few only endeavoured to act agreeable to 
 the plan they had received. 
 
 " In our last Yearly Meeting the subject of Education 
 was again revived, and the situation of such Friends 
 as were not of ability, however willing to provide a 
 suitable education for their children, was more parti- 
 cularly taken into consideration, and the Yearly Meeting, 
 with much sympathy and regard, felt the necessity of 
 endeavouring to provide for their relief, and the matter 
 was referred to the Meeting for Sufferings, as well as to 
 Friends in general, in order to consider some practicable 
 method of effecting this very necessary" purpose." 
 
 The report then goes into the detail of the purchase of 
 Ackworth Hospital, and concludes with the following words : 
 
 " Your Committee have not been able to frame any 
 proposal for the education of such children as are the 
 objects of the Yearly Meeting's care, so likely to be 
 carried into execution, and to be attended with so bene- 
 ficial effects, as might be obtained were these premises 
 to become the property of Friends, who thereby would be 
 in possession of a place capable of admitting a large 
 number of children, and might afford an opportunity of 
 forming a pi-acticable plan, for the education of such 
 children as are not in affluent circumstances, according 
 to the direction of the last Yearly Meeting." 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 89 
 
 The Yearly Meeting of 1778, to whom the Report was 
 addressed, appointed a large Committee of London and 
 country Friends " to report their sentiments upon the 
 Minute of the Meeting for Sufferings, and to make such 
 further proposal as they may deem expedient." 
 
 This Committee, consisting of sixty Friends, contained 
 as the Yorkshire representatives, John Hustler, of Bradford, 
 and William Tuke,* of York, the latter of whom brought 
 in to the Yearly Meeting, at a future sitting, the following 
 Minute: — 
 
 " It is the opinion of this Committee that the House and 
 Estate at Ackworth in the County of York, contracted for 
 by consent of the Meeting for Sufferings, should he pur- 
 chased for the use of the Society ; that a liberal subscrip- 
 tion he immediately set on foot during the sitting of this 
 Meeting for making this purchase ; and that the Meeting 
 for Sufferings should be empowered to borrow on interest, 
 on the lowest terms, such sums of money as may be 
 further necessary to complete the agreement, and establish 
 the intended Institution at Ackworth ; the interest to be 
 paid out of the profits of the Estate." 
 
 Such was the decided Report of the Yearly Meeting's 
 Committee, which must have cheered the heart of Dr. 
 Fothergill. 
 
 After deliberate consideration, the report of its Committee 
 was adopted, and the Yearly Meeting directed that the 
 buildings and Estate at Ackworth, contracted for provision- 
 ally at the price of ;f 7,000, be purchased for the use of the 
 Society; and that the following methods for raising the 
 
go THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 sums necessary for completing the purchase, furnishing the 
 house, and establishing a school, be recommended to the 
 several counties, viz., by Donations ; by Annuities ; by 
 Subscription ; by issuing Bills of Admittance, the amount 
 of which was fixed at £8 8s. for one year's education, 
 maintenance, and clothing. It was further directed that 
 the School should be opened in the Third Month of the 
 following year (1779) ; but from various circumstances it 
 was not actually opened until the Tenth Month of that year. 
 
 In the Seventh Month of the same year (1778) the 
 Meeting for Sufferings appointed the first London Com- 
 mittee, consisting of twenty-four Friends — seven a quorum 
 — which held its first sitting on the i8th of Eighth Month, 
 1788, at which a scheme for the management of the School 
 was prepared. Dr. Fothergill's nephew (John Chorley) being 
 Secretary of the Commitee. Dr. Fothergill and his friend 
 D. Barclay were among the number who attended. 
 
 With the scheme, a circular, detailing the various steps 
 hitherto taken, was sent down to the country, which 
 says : — 
 
 " From this it will appear how much the very impor- 
 tant subject of procuring a sober religious education has 
 
 employed the attention of the Society." 
 It adds :— 
 
 "That a sum of ;f 2,000 will be needed to furnish and 
 
 establish the house in addition to the purchase-money of 
 
 £7,000." 
 It is further proposed : — 
 
 " That a substantial tenant be sought for, to take the 
 
 land, and a judicious Friend to superintend the house 
 
 and garden and purchasing of provisions. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 91 
 
 " That a woman Friend be inquired for, to have the 
 charge of the family, the provisions, and do all the duties 
 of a housekeeper. 
 
 "That a master, capable of teaching the boys to read, 
 write, and keep accounts, and to teach writing and 
 accounting to the girls, be appointed.* 
 
 "That a teacher of the girls, capable of instructing 
 them in reading, needlework, spinning, and housewifery, 
 be provided, and, as the School increases, proper assist- 
 ants be allowed." 
 The Yearly Meeting of 1779, of which Dr. Fothergill 
 was Clerk, had little to do but to confirm the action of the 
 previous year. 
 
 Writing of this, his niece, Alice Chorley, says : — 
 
 " My uncle John was Clerk to the Yearly Meeting this 
 year (1779). Ackworth School is now at last agreed 
 upon, and there is to be a grand meeting to choose 
 deputies, appoint and nominate wise, prudent, and skilful 
 people, for putting the School on a proper foundation, so 
 that it may be permanently lasting, and hand down the 
 names of its institutors to latest posterity." 
 
 At this "grand meeting" Dr. Fothergill paid his first 
 visit to Ackworth, and, the first General Meeting was held 
 there from the 29th to the 31st of Seventh Month, 1779. 
 By Ann Fothergill's little diaryf of these last journeys 
 which she took with her brother, and which gives with 
 
 * It will be seen that a woman was not then thought likely to teach 
 accounting and writing. 
 
 t A thin little book, with paper cover, about three inches square, 
 kindly placed at my disposal for this Memoir by A. Fothergill, contain, 
 ing itineraries of journeys to Lea Hall, Carr End, Ackworth, &c. 
 
92 THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 characteristic minuteness a list of all their stopping-places 
 between London and Ackworth, we find that the journey 
 occupied five days, and that at Pontefract, where they 
 lodged at the " Red Lion," they met many Friends, and 
 remained four days at Ackworth. At this General Meeting, 
 the first held at Ackworth, a Report, signed by William 
 Tuke, was drawn up to be presented to the next Meeting 
 for Sufferings, in which it is said that pursuant to the 
 direction of the Yearly Meeting very considerable numbers 
 of Friends appointed by their Quarterly Meetings, and 
 several of the Ackworth Committee from London, met at 
 Ackworth, together with divers Friends from different parts. 
 At this General Meeting, the first Country committees of 
 men and women Friends were appointed. 
 
 The Report, after expressing satisfaction that the pre- 
 mises lately purchased were in good condition, and the 
 house well built, spacious, and judiciously contrived, 
 observes, that the great end of establishing the School, is 
 to secure a pious, guarded, useful education to the children 
 of Friends not in affluence; and acknowledges with a degree 
 of thankfulness that their "minds were often covered with 
 a sense of divine goodwill in the course of their deliberations 
 on this important subject." 
 
 Nearly three months afterwards the School, as we have 
 said, was opened on the i8th of Tenth Month, 1779, under 
 the care of John Hill,* as Treasurer and Superintendent ; 
 and his wife Judith Hill, as mistress of the family; and 
 Hannah Little, as Teacher. 
 
 * Luke Howard, who resided at Ackworth, writing in 1836, says, 
 "that he well remembers John Hill, in his venerable grey hairs, and his 
 wife in the midst of the family." — Vide " Yorkshireman," p. 309. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 93 
 
 As showing Dr. Fothergill's continued care over the 
 details of the new School, I may quote from a letter dated 
 from Lea Hall, in which he says : — 
 
 " I have been endeavouring to assist Ackworth as well 
 as I could, and have found a young man here who I hope 
 may answer as a schoolmaster. I wish he could be a fort- 
 night under the hands of a drill-sergeant to teach him 
 only how to walk (but that among ourselves). School- 
 masters often strut sufficiently, but they should learn 
 sometimes to do it with a good grace, for the sake of 
 example ; but we must take him as he is." 
 
 About this time we find : — 
 
 " 1779, Tenth Month 28th. — Ann Fothergill writing to 
 Sarah Hird — ' My brother has prevailed on Nancy (Hill) 
 to go to Ackworth to teach the girls there, at least for the 
 present, and likewise prevailed with her father to accom- 
 pany her thither, and stay a few weeks himself to super- 
 intend and assist in establishing good order in the 
 beginning. They set off last evening in the coach with 
 five or six girls under their care, so that if it suits thee 
 to go to Ackworth next Second-day, if they get safe down 
 thou would receive late intelligence of us, and it would 
 be satisfactory to them to see a cordial face they know.' " 
 
 We find, also, that he pubHshed a shorter edition of 
 Dean Percy's " Key to the New Testament," for the use of 
 Ackworth School. In the preface to this little book (the 
 last, I believe, of his works,) he says : — 
 
 " I think it is a duty we owe to the rising generation 
 among us, of all degrees, not only to accustom them to 
 the frequent reading of the Holy Scriptures, but likewise 
 to inform them, as far as we can, of all those eternal 
 
94 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 circumstances and events which tend to explain or 
 confirm the doctrines they contain. 
 
 " The Key is worthy to be put into the hands of youth 
 of every rank in life. The higher classes may receive 
 information from it ; but as my intention in procuring 
 this extract was principally to accommodate the children 
 at Ackworth, where a plain English education is all that 
 is proposed, such parts of the Key are omitted as seemed 
 less to coincide with such an Institution. — J. F." 
 
 In the spring of the following year the Country Com- 
 mittee (held Fifth Month ist, 1780), in a report signed by 
 its first Clerk, William Tuke, gives some information as to 
 the state and progress of the Institution up to that period. 
 From this it appears that seventy boys and fifty-three girls 
 had been admitted. They add that the want of such an 
 establishment seems clearly evident, from the ready dis- 
 position with which Friends have embraced the privilege of 
 giving to their children the means provided for a pious 
 and guarded education. 
 
 A Statement of Accounts is appended, by which it appears 
 that— 
 
 £6,380 had been given in donations. 
 3,050 Donations, subject to annuities. 
 
 10 Legacy. 
 1,596 Bills of Admittance (190 at £8 8s.) 
 
 £".036 
 
 Dr. Fothergill himself, and his friend D. Barclay, gave 
 ;£'300 each, and subscribed a further £'200 by way of 
 annuity ; five others gave ;f 200 each, and seventeen gave 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 95 
 
 £100 each, and many of whom gave a similar sum subject 
 to an annuity. 
 
 The action of the Meeting for Sufferings, which has b'een 
 detailed, and the warm support given by the Yearly Meeting 
 to the establishment of Ackworth, does not in any way 
 detract from the important part which Dr. Fothergill took 
 in its establishment. That he had been for years working 
 for this object both in the Meeting for Sufferings and in the 
 Yearly Meeting, we have already seen ; and it is I think 
 clear, that the estate at Ackworth would not have been 
 purchased, had it not been for his earnest perseverance and 
 determination in overcoming all obstacles. 
 
 Nor does it render him less entitled to have his name 
 handed down to the latest posterity as the founder of 
 Ackworth School, that he did not, as has often been stated, 
 purchase it wholly and present it to the Society. And 
 jointly with his name, and entitled to our gratitude and 
 remembrance, we must not omit to mention that of his 
 warm and devoted friend David Barclay* (of London), and 
 in Yorkshire, those of his friends, John Hustler (of Brad- 
 ford), and William Tuke (of York). 
 
 In the summer of 1780 (the last of his life) Dr. Fother- 
 gill paid his second, and subsequently a third, visit to 
 Ackworth School. We take the following vivid description 
 of the Doctor's journey from Ackworth to Lea Hall, after 
 the first of these visits, from his sister's diary, and of her 
 own feelings after visiting the School. 
 
 " ijth Eighth Month, 1780. — We got well to Halifax 
 
 * David Barclay was the grandson of Robert Barclay, of Ury, the 
 distinguished author of Barclay's "Apology." 
 
96 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 before twelve, ordered dinner early, to go on as far as we 
 could. But so many were apprised of my brother's coming, 
 that he had a number of apothecaries and patients pre- 
 sently, that put him almost out of patience, and detained 
 us until four o'clock, though he left divers unsatisfied. 
 Some urged his staying all night, that he might see more, 
 which was no part of his plan, and then to Littleborough 
 that night ; and to Manchester about nine next morning, 
 where my brother was that day employed unceasingly." 
 She thus refers to Ackworth : — 
 
 " As to my thoughts on Ackworth I can say little, but 
 this, that so agreeable, well ordered (so far as I had time 
 to observe) numerous young family impressed my mind so 
 satisfactorily, that it dwells on my thoughts, and some 
 idea of it has attended my mind in dreams almost each 
 night since I left the place. May best wisdom vouchsafe 
 His influence to direct and preserve those who sustain the 
 arduous task of its good government to its latest lime." 
 
 In the same month Dr. Fothergill writes a very interest- 
 ing letter to the celebrated Dr. Priestley, in which he says : — 
 
 " Near Middlewick, Cheshire, 2^th of Eighth Month, 
 1780. — I called at Ackworth on my way hither, and find 
 we have made a pretty prosperous beginning. Above 
 80 girls and 150 boys are got together in less than ten 
 months' time. The head of the house is made for it, 
 and teachers we are making as fast as we can. The 
 children aris already moulded into excellent order, clean 
 and attentive. The beginning is prosperous, the event 
 must be left. 
 
 " It is my fervent wish that all the professors of Chris- 
 tianity may be more anxious to live Christian lives than 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 97 
 
 either in advancing the consequence of a sect, or reflect- 
 ing on our fellow-servants and our brethren, the sons of 
 the same Father. To establish young minds in Truth, 
 and erase the prejudices that may have been sown, is a 
 great object with me. . .. Reading, writing and arithmetic 
 for the boys, and for the girls the addition of necessary 
 female employments, are there taken care of. 
 
 " To give them an early inclination of acting uprightly, 
 doing to all as they would desire others to do to them, 
 even in the most trivial concerns of life, is a matter I very 
 much wish to have kneaded into all their instruction. If 
 they can act so as to avoid the reproaches of their own 
 minds in the first place, and then be able to act such a 
 part as to feel an interior approbation, they never will 
 slide far from the paths of rectitude." 
 
 In his published " Letter to a Friend " upon Ackworth 
 School, from which we give the following extract. Dr. 
 Fothergill lays down the broad principles in accordance 
 with which he desired the education at Ackworth should 
 be conducted — an education based upon the most profound 
 conviction of the imperative claims of an enlightened con- 
 science — and which inculcated above all things a reverence 
 for the Almighty and a fear of offending Him. 
 
 " But above all, it is hoped that'every opportunity will 
 be embraced of cherishing in their tender minds obedience 
 to that principle of light and truth which is given us to 
 profit withal. And however necessary it is for all to be 
 bred up in the fear of offending this pure inward spirit of 
 truth which naturally leavens the mind into a teachable, 
 submissive frame ; yet to those whose condition in life 
 makes a just subordination a duty, a temper of this kind 
 
98 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 must be an invaluable blessing. Perhaps there is nothing 
 in the common course of public education in the world 
 that so unfits men for that humble attention to the 
 Divine monitor within, that renders them such perfect 
 strangers to the spirit of Christianity, and all its happy 
 effects, as the cultivation of a bold, unfeeling disposition, 
 which, under a notion of promoting manliness and courage, 
 too often sets aside that great defence and ornament of 
 youth, a modest and ingenuous temper ; accustoms them 
 to throw off all the restraints of duty and affection, and 
 at length to bid defiance to entreaty, admonition and 
 reproof. 
 
 " In this place it is hoped that endeavours will be used 
 to form in the children a temper widely different, equally 
 remote from a culpable fear and servility, and an auda- 
 ciousness that knows no respect for order or authority. 
 
 " There is a circumstance in the bringing up of Friends' 
 children, which has been, and yet is, of greater import- 
 ance to them than perhaps is generally apprehended, 
 and I mention it, as in the proposed Institution it will 
 doubtless be particularly regarded. To habituate children 
 from their early infancy, to silence and attention, is of 
 the greatest advantage to them, not only as a preparative 
 to their advancement in a religious life, but as the 
 groundwork of a well-cultivated understanding. We are 
 almost the only professors of Christianity who acknow- 
 ledge the use of this absolutely necessary introduction to 
 Christian knowledge and Christian practice. To have 
 the active minds of children early put under a kind of 
 restraint, to be accustomed to turn their attention from 
 external objects, and habituated to a degree of abstracted 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. gg 
 
 quiet, is a matter of great consequence and lasting 
 benefit to them. To this they are inured in our assembHes, 
 and to sit in silence with decency and composure. 
 Though it cannot be supposed their young and active 
 minds are always engaged as they ought to be, yet to be 
 thus accustomed to quietness, and initiated to curb and 
 restrain the sallies of their youthful dispositions, is no 
 small point gained towards 'fixing a habit of patience 
 and recollection, and a regard to decorum which seldom 
 forsakes those who have been properly instructed in this 
 entrance to the school of wisdom during the residue of 
 their days. 
 
 "Bid the subject of this letter admit of it, it would not 
 be difficult to show from abundant authority, and reason 
 itself, the vast aid afforded to the improvement of the 
 human mind, by early habits of silent attention. The 
 most ancient schools of philosophy taught and practised 
 it, and the Scriptures are so full of precepts on this head 
 which ought to remove every objection to this necessary 
 duty." 
 
 Later on in this year (1780) Dr. Fothergill and his 
 
 sister retraced th-eir steps from Lea Hall, and paid their 
 
 third and last visit to ACkworth, attending the Committee 
 
 held, as now, in the Tenth Month. 
 
 Here is his own account of the reason which led him to 
 
 attend a second time in the year, at no little inconvenience 
 
 to himself. 
 
 Ninth Month .t6th. Dr. Fothergill writes : — 
 
 " Perhaps we may stay with our relatives at York some 
 
 part of Sixth-day, and get to Pomfret and Ackworth to 
 
 the Committee on Second-day following. I have been 
 
 H 2 
 
THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 labouring closely with my pen every vacant hour since I 
 came hither, not for myself, but on the Yearly Meeting 
 minutes. A week's respite would have been pleasing, 
 and perhaps useful ; but as our friend, David Barclay has 
 given up so much of his time, and wishes I could meet 
 the Friends there, I cannot but yield to his desire who 
 has sacrificed so much of his time and labour to this 
 very important undertaking. David Barclay sent me a 
 pretty full account of the affairs at Ackworth, many of 
 which will require very serious attention." 
 
 David Barclay had at this time a house at New Miller's 
 Dam, near Wakefield, and, whilst in the neighbourhood, 
 paid frequent visits to the School, in which he took so 
 deep an interest. 
 
 I cannot find that there is any record of this visit or 
 Committee from the pen of Dr. Fothergill ; but his nephew, 
 Dr. Hird, of Leeds, who was present, speaks of Dr. 
 Fothergill as breaking the solemn silence of a Committee, 
 and expressing himself as " rejoicing with a degree of 
 trembling, as he saw with heartfelt satisfaction the appa- 
 rently complete state of the Institution over which he had 
 spent very much of the past two years, and laboured very 
 ardently for the promotion of this'great design." 
 
 The little diary of his sister from which I have before 
 quoted refers to it, and expands and wells over with a note 
 of thankfulness as they return home togetheT, for the last 
 time, and almost as I think with some touch of insight that 
 the beloved a,nd. useful life which she prized above all others 
 was not long to be spared to her. 
 
 "At Ackworth, Tenth Month, 1780. — Next day a large 
 concourse of Friends attended. Good order prevailed, and 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 
 
 wholesome rules were established, and a degree of peace 
 comfort and consolation, was to -be felt, as if a blessing 
 hovered over the Institution and was ready to own the 
 upright labourers in its promoting. 
 
 " Third-day Morning. — We parted with its inhabitants 
 in much love, and to see its prosperity and feel the sweet 
 reward of peace cheered our journey, and gave consolation 
 to this good man and worthy promoter as long as any 
 visible object could, as his upright intention and desire 
 seemed granted and blessed." ' 
 
 " Home by Doncaster, Bawtry, Tuxford, Newark, 
 Stamford, Stilton, Huntingdon, Royston, Waltham Cross. 
 Came home well in health, and, through favour, with 
 peaceful minds, that evening. Tenth Month 6th, 1780.'' 
 One of the most important objects of Dr, Fothergill's 
 life was now accomplished, and we can only devote a few 
 words to the account of its close. Before doing so, how- 
 ever, the following graphic description of Dr. Fothergill, 
 as he appeared probably at the time of his last visit to 
 York, written by a great-nephew, cannot fail to be of 
 interest : — 
 
 Extract from Records of John Fothergill, of York (1793). 
 
 " Dr. Fothergill was pious, generous, and benevolent, 
 rather above the middle age ; very delicate and slender, 
 of a sanguine temperament; his forehead finely propor- 
 tioned ; his eyes light-coloured, brilliant, acute, and 
 deeply penetrating; his nose rather aquiline ; his mouth 
 betokened delicacy of feeling, his whole countenance 
 expressed liability to irritation, great sensibility, clear 
 understanding, and exalted virtue. 
 
THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 " He usually wore a large low three-cornered hat, a 
 white medical wig, with rows of small curls descending 
 one under another from near the crown to his shoulders ; 
 a coat, waistcoat, and breeches of nearly white superfine 
 cloth ; the coat without any collar, large cuffs, and two 
 of the buttons buttoned over his breast ; the waistcoat 
 with long flaps ; the ends of his cravat were buttoned 
 within his waistcoat ; the stockings he wore were silk and 
 the colour of his clothes ; his buckles were small. ' 
 
 " His coach was dark green, with wheels of the same 
 colour ; the horses were tall black ones, with very short 
 dock'd tails after the old manner. His coachman was 
 exceedingly lusty : he weighed at least sixteen stone ; his 
 livery was a plain cocked hat, a white wig, a light drab 
 coat with a velvet collar the same colour, and bright 
 haycock buttons. My great-uncle left him £^t> per 
 annum. Dr. Fothergill had a little stiffness in his 
 address, when he walked along the streets he leaned 
 forward a good deal." 
 
 The three years during which were carried on the 
 negotiations ending in the opening of Ackworth School 
 were, as we have seen, years of unremitting exertion. 
 This severe strain told upon his health, and in 1778 he 
 had an attack of the same internal disorder which termi- 
 nated his life little more than a year after the opening of 
 the School. As showing both the estimation in which Dr. 
 Fothergill was held, and the immense extent of his practice 
 and acquaintance, we find it stated that he had upwards of 
 600 calls or letters of inquiry after his recovery from the 
 former attack. Writing to his brother Alexander of the 
 excessive strain upon his health about this time he says : — 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 103 
 
 " I would wish to retire from the excessive labour, if I 
 could get my affairs reasonably settled with a little to 
 support us if I should live to old age. I have lost 
 abundance, and worked hard for many from whom I can 
 expect no return, whatever happens to me ; and the 
 growing calamities of the country involve every one in 
 distress and difBculty." 
 And again, referring to his illness in 1778, he says : — 
 
 " I could wish gradually to retreat from the excessive 
 hurry I have long lived in, and to live a little more to my 
 friends and to myself. I have had a narrow escape ; . . . 
 another day might have been my last. Through Divine 
 favour I was preserved easy and resigned, knowing that 
 it had been my wish to live in the fear of the Lord, 
 that I might die in His favour ; and so, dear brother, 
 may it be with us all, to the end of our time, be, it longer 
 or shorter." 
 
 Two months after his return from his last visit to 
 Ackworth he was again seized with illness, which terminated 
 his useful busy life iri about a fortnight. 
 
 Very touching are the letters (belonging to the Crosfield 
 family of Liverpool) commencing with the 15th of the 
 Twelfth Month, 1780, three days after the seizure, which 
 David Barclay addressed to Dr. Fothergill's nephew, Dr. 
 Hird, of Leeds, which describe almost daily the sufferings 
 of the patient, and the resignation and fortitude with which 
 he bore them. His death took place on the 26th of Twelfth 
 Month, 1780, at the age of sixty-eight. 
 
 The event was regarded as little short of a national 
 calamity, and the papers and periodicals of that day were 
 filled with notices of the departed. The Noon Gazette had 
 
104 'i'^E ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 two long notices occupying several columns. In the Gen- 
 tlemen's Magazine and Annual Register, and other papers, 
 appreciative obituaries appeared. " His great reputation," 
 says the Annual Register (for 1781), "is universally estab- 
 lished. The exercise of his great abilities was not confined 
 to the practice of medicine and the study of nature, but was 
 unrestrictively employed for the promotion of the general 
 good and happiness of mankind, and as his extensive 
 knowledge, public spirit, and many virtues were not less 
 eminent than his medical skill, he will be deservedly 
 reckoned among the illustrious characters of the present 
 age." " His mind," says Dr. Hird,* '^was of that open, 
 candid, enlarged class, which surveys all the families of the 
 earth, and all orders of men, with a liberal and comprehen- 
 sive view, as the children of one common Parent, and 
 equally under the care of His Providence; and he was 
 instant, at all times, to support what was truly good and 
 virtuous under all forms and denominations whatsoever. 
 He was a man of charity in the true Christian sense, 
 ' thinking no evil.' . . . Yet I should think myself guilty 
 of neglect to the memory of my deceased friend did I not 
 observe that he abhorred the prevalent infidelity of the age, 
 and gloried in the name of Christian. 
 
 " His attachment to revealed religion was sincere, arising 
 from rational conviction and mature deliberation. He 
 valued the Scriptures as the great depository of Divine 
 Truth, and was never ashamed of those great fundamental 
 doctrines, salvation through the Mediator Jesus Christ, 
 and sanctification by the influence of His Holy Spirit." 
 
 * Dr. HIrd's affectionate tribute to the memory of Dr. Fothergill, 1782. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 105 
 
 Dr. Franklin, writing from Paris, says of hirrl : — " I 
 doubt whether there has ever existed a man more worthy 
 than Fothergill of universal esteem and veneration." 
 
 In the Nouvelle Biographic G6n6rale, of Paris, it is said 
 — " He was a philanthropist in the highest sense of the 
 term, and he merits the most honourable position among 
 the benefactors of mankind ;" and adds that the following 
 simple inscription was placed on his tomb: — "Here lies 
 Dr. Fothergill, who dispensed 200,000 guineas for the 
 relief of the distressed (Malheureux)." 
 
 That such a sum is much larger than that which he so 
 freely gave away, may well be admitted, but what he did give 
 away, and what was the total of the fees he refused to take, 
 will never be known. That these did amount to very many 
 thousands cannot be doubted; and if, as is stated by con- 
 temporary writers, he had an income for some years of 
 £■7,000 or £8,000 per annum, it was not unnatural to 
 suppose (as was then also stated) that the fortune he left 
 behind him was, for that period, "immense' — £80,000. 
 Such, however, was not the case ; and from private papers 
 and accounts I infer that his property did not much exceed 
 one-fourth of that sum, or £25,000 at the outside. His 
 unselfish, generous, open-handed liberality, forbade that he 
 should save; and of him it may truly be said that he 
 realised the words of the Christian Poet of our own time — 
 
 " He only who forgets to hoard 
 Has learned to live." 
 
 In addition to the gifts previously made to Ackworth he 
 
 bequeathed an annuity of £50 to the Institution, to insure 
 
 which his executors purchased £1,666 13s. 4d. in Consols 
 
 for the sum of £1,000, a figure at which it has stood for a 
 
io6 THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 century in the accounts of the Institution, until last year 
 the bequest was brought nearer to its present value of 
 ;£"i,5oo. To his faithful coachman Dr. Fothergill also 
 gave an annuity of £50, and smaller sums to his other 
 servants ; bequeathing the bulk of his property to his sister 
 Ann for her life, and afterwards to be divided among his 
 nephews and nieces. Some idea, may be gained of the 
 extent of his library when it is stated that it took eight 
 days to sell by auction. His almost unequalled collections 
 of shells, coralines, insects, reptiles, &c., &c., were sold to 
 Dr. Hunter for ;£"i,500, a sum much below their value, and 
 so fixed by Dr. Fothergill. His collection of paintings on 
 vellum of rare plants and other objects of natural history 
 were purchased for the Empress of Russia for £2,300; and 
 his collection of engravings of English Portraits (probably 
 the best then known) realised £90. 
 
 A letter from his devoted sister, written nearly two years 
 after her brother's death (First Month 29th, 1782) vividly 
 recalls the final scene in the sick-room in Harpur Street, 
 and is written with as keen a sense of her loss as if penned 
 at the time : — 
 
 " That my feelings have been exquisite thou wilt 
 believe, and that deep solemn silence was most befitting 
 as well as most desirable when it could be obtained. 
 
 " The full persuasion that Everlasting Rest is the 
 happy exchange of my dearest friend and brother con- 
 soles me, and as I think I loved him more than my own 
 life, or any temporal enjoyment or gratification for myself, 
 so at times I can rejoice, in his release from trials. Many 
 hidden difficulties and oppressions he underwent and' 
 were increasing to his feeling mind in a world unworthy 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. FOTHERGILL. 107 
 
 of him. In this view I not only acquiesce but rejoice, 
 as I believe he has fought the good fight, and is enjoying 
 the Crown of Righteousness. My mind has been at 
 times as peaceful as if I partook with him in this life, 
 though when I return to a view of my loss, it is as recent 
 as on the day when it happened. Some little account 
 thou wilt desire to have. I cannot yet proceed to give 
 much detail; the remembrance of the distressing scene 
 was too affecting, and though I was enabled to bear it 
 with apparent calmness, and to retain constant recollec- 
 tion and attention, what he suffered will never be erased 
 from my memory whilst my faculties last. He was in 
 extreme bodily pain, which he bore with patience, fortitude 
 and resignation, to the admiration of all about him. He 
 said little of his thoughts respecting himself on any 
 affairs till a few days before his release. As I was sitting 
 by him he said tenderly, ' Sister, be content ; do not hold 
 me. I have been low. I have been doubtful whether it 
 would be well with me or not, but now I am satisfied 
 beyond a doubt.' He repeated it — ' beyond a doubt that 
 1 I shall be everlastingly happy ; therefore, be content, and 
 may thou be blessed in time and in eternity '—in this 
 sweet sensible disposition, grateful to everyone for what 
 had been done for him, and desiring blessings upon us 
 with his last intelligible voice; and I doubt not is singing 
 praise to his Deliverer, is my consolation now" (to think). 
 Thus died the distinguished Yorkshireman John 
 Fothergill, who in life had so thoroughly exemplified his 
 own saying, thai the great business of man as a member of 
 society is to be as useful to it as possible, in whatsoever 
 department he m,ay be stationed. 
 
io8 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 "To prevent" (says his biographer) "the inconveniences 
 that were feared and might result from the crowd that 
 purposed to assemble to pay the last offices of esteem to 
 his memory had he been interred in London, it was judged 
 advisable to carry his remains into the country ; which, on 
 the 5th of January, 1781, were deposited in the burial 
 ground of Winchmore Hill, about seven miles from town ; 
 nevertheless upwards of seventy coaches and chaises filled 
 with friends attended upon this melancholy occasion. The 
 tender remembrance of friendship yet lives in every breast; 
 we mourn without form ; we see and feel the void his fall 
 has left, and which only time can mitigate, and resignation 
 to the dispensation of that Power which orders all things 
 with unerring wisdom and goodness beyond our compre- 
 hension." 
 
 Ann Fothergill, acting on her brother's directions, gave up 
 the house in Harpur Street, and retired to a smaller house, 
 No. 68, Great Russell Street. Here she lived out her quiet 
 life, dying in 1802, at the age of eighty-four, the last of her 
 generation. And now, side by side, in the peaceful suburban 
 burial-ground of Winchmore Hill, two small headstones 
 may be seen, which record the names of the devoted loving 
 brother and .sister, linked together in the last outward bond, 
 as he so often had united their names when writing to 
 various members of the family as "J. and A. Fothergill." 
 
 A few feet orily divide these graves from another, the 
 resting place of their friend David Barclay, close to which 
 is another whereon is inscribed, " David Barclay of Cheap- 
 side, the Son of the Apologist." 
 
CENTENARY ARRANGEMENTS. log 
 
 The reading of James Hack Tuke's paper gave great 
 pleasure to the meeting, and it was listened to throughout 
 with unabated interest. 
 
 The Chairman said : The meeting will be interested to 
 know that there are present three collateral descendants of 
 Dr. Fothergill, lineal descendants of Alexander Fothergill, 
 one of his brothers. One of these, Samuel Fothergill, an 
 old Ackworth scholar, will now address you. 
 
 Samuel Fothergill then said : You will not, I am sure, 
 be surprised when I tell you that I feel mine a very difficult 
 position. With only ten minutes before me, and placed in 
 such a position in relation to the distinguished individual 
 of whom we have just heard so much of a complimentary 
 character, I feel that every word I have to say ought to 
 tell. I do not want to speak for nothing. I speak to you 
 as an Ackworth scholar — as one who has enjoyed some of 
 the advantages of the Institution — as one who was brought 
 up a member of the Society of Friends, and who owes a 
 great deal of what is valuable in life to the fact that he 
 belonged to that Society ; and as one of the nearest repre- 
 sentatives of the family of Dr. Fothergill — a great-great 
 nephew,. I was an Ackworth scholar from 1829 to 1832. 
 Ackworth was a very different place then from what it is 
 now. Some reference has been made to the progress 
 which it has made since I was here as a scholar, and I am 
 quite delighted to see it. It is a pleasing fact that from 
 the first the Society of Friends took so great an interest in 
 education, feeling its importance so extremely ; and the 
 more we reflect upon this the more we shall see how right 
 that is which we are doing to-day. Wherever men exist, 
 there also exists education in some sense of the term. We 
 
THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 are all educated — ^every savage is educated — and there is 
 a great deal of education which is entirely wrong ; but it is 
 a grand thing for those who have a right education. And 
 there is no right education, it appears to me, except that 
 which has the basis which the Society of Frierids has always 
 regarded as the necessary and right one — that is, the Chris- 
 tian basis. (Hear, hear.) Education, in its best sense, is 
 emphatically and distinctly a Christian work., Our Saviour 
 left His high estate and came down to this earth and suffered 
 for the sake of erring humanity ; and this is the spirit that 
 animates true education. Self-culture is a great thing' — we 
 cannot cultivate our minds too highly — but there is such a 
 thing as selfish self-culture, and a great deal of education 
 results in little better than refined barbarism. True education 
 lifts the moral and excites and informs and develops the 
 spiritual parts of our nature — that by which we lay hold 
 upon God and the unseen. It is this which gives its grand " 
 character to education as a force in the world ; it was this 
 spirit that animated Dr. Fothergill in his endeavours to do 
 good. The best way we can honour God is to do all the 
 good we can to our fellow-men. Thus it was that the 
 Society of Friends in its early days attached so much 
 importance to education, and I am glad to know that the 
 disposition is not less prevalent in the Society now than it 
 was then. The sums of money spent on this School, and 
 on similar institutions in other parts of the country, testify, 
 I think, to that fact. It is a grand feature of the Society 
 that it has made provision for the education of all its 
 'members as it has done. But it has not stopped there, 
 for while it has done so much for its own members, it has 
 done much also for those around, who had no claim upon 
 
CENTENARY, ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 it except that of our common humanity. Carr End is dear 
 to my memory, and I cannot tell you how I felt when I 
 heard it mentioned just now. It is so full to me of memo- 
 ries of my early life. When I was a little boy we used 
 to go to Carr End every year to spend a few weeks with 
 our grandfather and grandmother. It was regarded as a 
 great privilege. We used to go in the old-fashioned post- 
 chaise. It was a long way from Darlington, but it was a 
 grand thing to be at that romantic place at the end of the 
 journey. I could tell you a great deal about the Doctor 
 which the writer of the paper has been obliged to pass over 
 for lack of time: — of his investigations in science, of his 
 having plants brought to him from foreign countries, and of 
 his endeavours to enrich and benefit his own country by col- 
 lections of this description — but I will not attempt to go into 
 those matters. I should prefer to occupy the remainder of my 
 time in just putting what I think is the lesson of the evening, 
 and it is this — that we all of us here, including these dear 
 children who are now enjoying the advantage of an educa- 
 tion in this Institution, have solemn obligations to meet. 
 There is not a person in this room who does not owe a deep 
 and overwhelming debt of gratitude to the past. Our 
 forefathers rotted in dark dungeons, or went to the stake, in 
 order to obtain for us those privileges and advantages 
 which we now enjoy in this Christian civilized country; 
 and are we to sit still, with folded hands, and enjoy those 
 privileges and advantages that were won for us by the 
 hard labours and terrible sufferings of those who have 
 gone before and we ourselves do nothing for the future ? 
 (No, no.) We none of us live to ourselves, or die to our- 
 selves. As we owe a debt of gratitude to the past, so are 
 
THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 we under obligation to labour for the future. If we are 
 fully alive to our position, we shall feel how much we owe 
 and what a privilege it is to work for humanity. As we lay 
 ourselves out to make others happy, to glorify the great 
 God who made us and the Saviour who died for us, exactly 
 in that proportion we shall be happy ourselves. May we 
 all, learning from the life of the illustrious man which has 
 just been sketched out, be determined more than ever 
 to live for God and for humanity. (Applause.) 
 
 The Chairman said: Among the distinguished men who 
 were educated at Ackworth, was the Right Hon. James 
 Wilson, who died Finance Minister of British India. We 
 have present his elder brother, Walter, who will now 
 address you. 
 
 Walter Wilson said : My friends, after the luminous 
 paper which we have heard read, truly descriptive of the 
 philanthropic career of the founder of this Institution, any- 
 thing I can say regarding my experience as a scholar 
 at Ackworth will fall very tame indeed. True it is that 
 I did not receive my first education here, for I did not come 
 until I was nearly twelve years of age. In 1808 (8th of the 
 Fifth Month) my sister Catherine and I started in a post- 
 chaise from Hawick. It took us four days to reach our 
 destination ; nov/ we can go from home to Leeds in four 
 hours and a half, — such is the change of times. When I 
 was conducted the" first evening up to my bed-chamber, 
 my feelings were very strange indeed. Introduced into 
 rather a large bed-room, with a number of boys all around 
 me who were perfectly strange, sitting up to see the new 
 boy, I felt my forlorn position. I did not shut my eyes, 
 and, on the whole, spent a very uncomfortable night. Next 
 
FIFTH-DAY EVENING. 113 
 
 morning I was surrounded by a number of boys, all won- 
 dering who this boy should be from Scotland. The lodge- 
 keeper came to my deliverance, and glad I was of such 
 a friend at the time. However, I was not very long in 
 making myself known, and in proceeding with my education. 
 I was drafted into Joseph Sams' class, the writing master. 
 In the first place I was sent to a side form to learn the 
 tables. Among the first was numeration ; that was soon 
 got over, and I took my place at the desk. I proceeded 
 from one step to another, and as time went on I found 
 myself very near the top of the School. The teacher of 
 reading was William Singleton. I must give him credit 
 for being a very excellent teacher of reading. He corrected 
 my pronunciation of the vowels by marking their proper 
 sound over the top of each letter; and, altogether, I think 
 he produced as good readers as I have been able to hear any- 
 where in my life. Another class was that of Master Joseph, 
 as he was called — a very nice man; and the education he 
 gave I considered at the time very good indeed. I remained 
 here for two years and a quarter, and then I went to another 
 school where I remained a year; so that my education had 
 finished when I was about fifteen and a half years old. I 
 was always very much pleased with Ackworth School, and 
 was very happy and very comfortable, with one or two excep- 
 tions, which I should have been very glad to escape, and 
 which I did escape sometimes. There was one point, the 
 dinners on Second and Sixth-day. (Laughter.) Not being a 
 lover of fat meat, I really could not manage it. However, 
 I was so fortunate as to find a boy on the opposite side of 
 the table who relieved me of all difficulties. (Laughter.) 
 
 As to the other food, well. Fourth and Seventh-days' dinners 
 
 I 
 
114 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 were not very good ; but all the rest was excellent. I enjoyed 
 good health, and, as I have already said, was very happy 
 and very comfortable the whole time I was here. There 
 was another point, which was to my mind very unsatis- 
 factory, and I must mention it (I am glad that this has 
 been entirely cured), and that was the old bath. It was a 
 dreadful place to take a poor boy to^ . Many a boy trembled 
 as he went, and was heartily glad when it was over. With 
 these exceptions, the School was very well conducted. 
 
 In my time Robert Whitaker, genial and kind-hearted, was 
 the Superintendent. He ever looked upon the boys as his 
 own children, and he sometimes had the kindness to join 
 us when I was walking with my sister in the centre path, 
 and, playfully clapping my sister on the shoulder, would 
 exclaim, " Well, Kate, how do ? " It was very pleasant 
 thus to be treated by that genial, kind-hearted friend, I 
 liked all the teachers very much. George Broxall was a 
 very excellent teacher of grammar. In class he sometimes 
 appeared rather drowsy, but no sooner did a boy make a 
 mistake than he was at him. (Laughter.) John Donbavand, 
 son of Master Joseph, followed him^not, in my estimation, 
 quite so well up to the mark. Samuel Evens was the 
 youngest apprentice when I went^to Ackworth, and I think 
 William Hayward was the youngest when I left. I left 
 school with the governess, Isabella Harris, who was going 
 to Thirsk to visit her relations. I accompanied her as far 
 as that place, and went on shortly afterwards. And thus 
 friends, I finished my education. But when is education 
 finished ? We are only beginning education when we 
 leave school. (Hear, hear.) We have then to look all 
 around us, make ourselves acquainted with good books. 
 
FIFTH-DAY EVENING. 115 
 
 which will enlighten our understandings, and form our 
 judgments. We have to look around, and observe 
 the attitude of society. These points are of great im- 
 portance in the acquiring of a good education. I also 
 admire the teaching of French and German now in- 
 troduced, either of which I consider more useful than 
 Latin. 
 
 I find that a number of boys are leaving school at this 
 time, and to them I should like to say a few words. Have 
 you thought of what you are going to do ? Are you 
 going home to your parents to follow their business, or 
 what other prospects and plans have you ? It is of great 
 importance that you should learn early what you are going 
 to do, and come to a decision upon the point. The next 
 thing, after you have settled what you are going to be 
 engaged in, is to get hold of books, which, as I have just 
 said, will enlighten your understanding and form your 
 judgment. I should recommend you- first of all to read 
 Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," one of the best books 
 to form the understanding on the subject of political 
 economy, which helps us to a true apprehension of the 
 duties of man to society, the duties which he has to perform 
 to the world while filling his station in life. And stick firm 
 to your principles ; be determined to stick to the truth. 
 Conscientiously perform your duties, whatever those duties 
 may be. As surely as you thus act you will form an item 
 of society that will be respectable and useful. The forma- 
 tion of character then has to be continued after you leave 
 school, and you must be industrious in preparing yourselves 
 for the performance of those duties which will devolve upon 
 
 you on your entering life. 
 
 I 2 
 
ii5 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 My brother James's name has been mentioned. He 
 was a scholar at Ackworth from 1816 to i8ig. I think 
 I came here to take him home. When he got home he 
 had just two ideas in his head — whether to qualify him- 
 self as a teacher of youth, or to be a farmer — and these 
 ideas were laid before my father. The result was that he 
 went to Essex to initiate himself in the training for a teacher. 
 He remained there six months, but it did not answer; he 
 got tired of it and came home. My brother William, who 
 was afterwards drowned on the coast of Dunbar, had begun 
 business as a hatter, and James went into that business with 
 him. Shortly afterwards they went to London together to 
 continue their business. James, who had a taste for literary 
 pursuits, began to write leading articles for the Morning 
 Chronicle ; and especially on one occasion, when the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer wished to make up a deficit 
 in the revenue by putting on additional taxes on the 
 Customs and Excise, my brother, seeing that that would 
 simply be raising the price of the article affected, and 
 lessening the consumption, wrote strongly against it. He 
 also started the Economist, and from taking an active part 
 in public matters, chiefly with regard to Finance and Free 
 Trade, he at last entered Parliament for Westbury. 
 After being in Parliament for a number of years, he was 
 considered, by both sides of the House, as the fittest person 
 to go to India for the purpose of reforming the finances of 
 that country. He felt it his duty to comply. He thought 
 he could work as hard in Calcutta as in London ; but he 
 found that was fatal. For some time he waited anxiously 
 for the report of a committee who were sent up the country 
 to inquire into the produce of cotton, and while thus wait- 
 
FIFTH-DAY EVENING. 117 
 
 ing he was seized with dysentery, and in two or -three days 
 his life was ended. 
 
 The next to address the meeting was our friend Henry 
 E. Clark, of whom we do not use terms of undue eulogy, 
 when w'e speak of him as the devoted missionary to Mada- 
 gascar, to which country he and his wife were returning in 
 the course of a fortnight. 
 
 H. E. Clark said : It can only be, dear friends, that in 
 a short fortnight to-day, as the sun sets, we shall probably 
 be sailing down the Thames to take our place among 
 Christian workers in foreign lands ; it can only be for that 
 reason that I am permitted to sa)- a few words this night. 
 I may be asked, " What can you say about Madagascar 
 which shall have any reference to the Centenary ? " Some 
 of you, however, may not be aware of the great influence 
 which Ackworth has had upon the Christian work which is 
 going on in that large island. We have here my dear 
 friend Joseph S. Sewell, who was an Ackworth- scholar. 
 He was the pioneer of the Society of Friends in Mada- 
 gascar, and no other missionary has done more to help 
 forward Christian education in that island than my dear 
 friend Joseph Sewell. On one occasion the Bishop of 
 the Mauritius invited me to breakfast, and in the course 
 of a conversation on the subject of establishing a bishopric 
 in Madagascar, the Bishop said, " You don't need a 
 bishop ; you have one already— Joseph Sewell." The 
 grammar published in the Malagasy language was written 
 by Joseph Sewell; and when the Malagasy see that 
 grammar their respect for their forefathers is very much 
 
ir8 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 increased, and they say, " What clever men our forefathers 
 were to make a language like that ! " Then William 
 Johnson, who was a scholar and teacher in this School, is 
 now conveying his wife to the coast of Madagascar, on 
 account of her ill-health, in order to send her to England. 
 Samuel Clemes, though not an Ackworth scholar, is given 
 credit for running away with an Ackworth apprentice as his 
 wife — a very irregular proceeding indeed (laughter) — and 
 the Ackworth loss has been a great gain to Madagascar. 
 I won't refer to myself, an Ackworth scholar of four years, 
 save to say that I am the son of one second to none in his 
 efforts to carry out, so far as he could, the designs of 
 the Founder of this School, of whom we have heard so 
 much to-night. I will speak of my wife — in future years 
 many in Madagascar will rise up to call her blessed 1 
 There is another lady going out with us, and she is an 
 Ackworth scholar and teacher. And, if I am not mis- 
 taken, others, in obedience to " marching orders," 
 will also go there from this School. Thus you will see 
 that this Centenary has, after all, something to do with 
 Madagascar, and that there is a rainbow, a golden arch, 
 connecting this village and School of Ackworth with the 
 far-distant city of Antananarivo, four thousand five hundred 
 feet above the level of the sea. It is profitable to us to 
 look back upon the past, to think of the many privileges 
 which were ours, the many advantages which we might 
 have enjoyed while we were occupants of these premises. 
 But, without entirely dwelling upon the past, let us look 
 forward with fresh hope that, wherever God's providence 
 may place us, there we shall be enabled, God helping us, 
 to display this grand banner of Ackworth to the world ; and 
 
FIFTH -DAY EVENING. 119 
 
 then, when our places on earth shall know us no more, hand 
 it on unsullied to our children. (Applause.) 
 
 Joseph Simpson, a member of the Centenary Committee, 
 was the last speaker this evening. He said : — I took down 
 a few notes awhile ago, from which to speak : but my heart 
 is so full at this great meeting that I cannot look at them, 
 and you must please excuse me, dear friends, if I get over 
 the traces now and then, and speak in not quite conventional 
 language. The prominent feeling in my mind to-night is 
 this, "What should I have been but for Ackworth School?" 
 For, among the many blessings, during a life which has 
 been full of blessings, I count my education here to have 
 been one of the greatest. 
 
 It has been truly said to-night that our respect and 
 gratitude are due towards the good man of >vhom we 
 have now heard so much. Whilst heartily agreeing with 
 this, I submit that towards our old teachers, too, that 
 gratitude is eminently due. This I know, anyhow, that 
 I shall never cease to feel deeply grateful to my dear 
 old friend and master, Thomas Puplett— (great cheering) 
 — and to Joseph Stickney Sewell. I have, I fear, often 
 grieved them, but I have never been ungrateful towards 
 them, and I hope and believe that this feeling will 
 never diminish. And, dear friends, if we feel thus, it 
 is only right that, at such a time as this, we, should speak 
 out. And then there are our old Superintendents and 
 "Committee-friends!" I am glad to remember dear old 
 Robert Whitaker, William Dent (a Nathaniel " in whom 
 there was no guile"), and. Samuel Tuke, who got me my 
 first holiday here. To these, amongst others, I feel deeply 
 
THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 indebted ; and I trust that when the bi-centenary of this 
 School comes to be celebrated, old Ackworth scholars will 
 with similar truth and heartiness, declare their loyalty and 
 gratitude. 
 
 But if our praise is to be of any value it must be dis- 
 criminating. It was not all pleasure or profit at Ackworth 
 in my time, nor is it so now, I suppose. There were 
 drawbacks then, as, doubtless, there are now. And 
 amongst these, may I, without giving offence, mention 
 one ? I should like to see the boys and girls of Ackworth 
 School a little more polite : having amongst them a little 
 more of that consideration for the feelings and convenience 
 of others, which is, I take it, the basis of all true politeness. 
 They are not so faulty in this respect, as we were; but 
 I am sure we lose much ourselves, and give much less 
 pleasure to others, by our shortcomings in this respect. 
 
 And now, let us try to draw at least one practical 
 lesson from this meeting. I have received, as every 
 boy and girl who has passed through this School has 
 received, great benefit from my life at Ackworth. Let us 
 hand on these benefits to those who come after us. It 
 is related of a great English painter of our own time — 
 B. R. Haydon— that, when the New Houses of Parliament 
 were being built, he petitioned to be allowed to paint one 
 of the large frescoes there. He did this from love for his 
 Art, and not for mere money payment. "And if," said he, 
 in his petition, " your honourable House cannot accord to 
 me this privilege, I beg that I may be entrusted with one 
 of the smaller frescoes." " But should even this honour be 
 denied me," he went on to say, " I ask only that I may 
 be allowed to grind the colours for some one else to paint 
 
FIFTH -DAY EVENING. 
 
 with." And so, my friends, let it be with us. Few of us, 
 it may be, are fitted to paint the large, or even the smaller 
 pictures in this life, but let us at least be willing and 
 wishful to grind the colours for some one else to paint 
 with. This is all I ask for. 
 
 The meeting now concluded. It was felt to have been 
 worthy of the occasion. 
 
 The allusions to the letter of John Bright, M.P., were 
 received by the assembly with marked interest and expressed 
 applause. His name recalled very eminent services to his 
 country and to humanity, extending over a very lengthened 
 period. It is valued and dear to multitudes in both hemi- 
 spheres, particularly so to his co-religionists, and more espe- 
 cially to those having the common ground with him of 
 Ackworth scholarship and religious training in childhood. 
 The domestic affliction alluded to by the Chairman gave a 
 more touching interest to John Bright's associations with 
 Ackworth. 
 
 The paper of James Hack Tuke had much more than 
 local interest, carrying the minds and imaginations of his 
 audience back to the days a century ago, and incidentally 
 depicting Quaker life and feeling, whilst dwelling lovingly 
 on the talent, philanthropy, and Christian excellence of a 
 very uncommon man. 
 
 The work of founding Ackworth School was undertaken 
 by men who, having put their hands to the plough, looked 
 not back; who sowed good seed, to be reaped by the gene- 
 rations following, and whose lives and services deserve to 
 be borne in grateful remembrance by their descendants. 
 
THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 CENTENARY PROCEEDINGS OF SIXTH-DAY. 
 
 The weather of Fifth-day had been unfavourable, and it 
 was with foreboding that we thought of the morrow. 
 
 The morning of Sixth-day opened gloomily. There had 
 been rain in the night, and doubts prevailed. Happily 
 these misgivings proved needless. The breeze was a good 
 " friend;" clearing away the clouds, and letting in the sun- 
 shine ; so that the weather was at its brightest through 
 the day, as sunny as if it formed a part of the arrangement 
 for Ackworth's festival. 
 
 The devotional meeting on Sixth-day morning, at seven 
 o'clock, was a much larger one than that on Fifth-day; and 
 it was held in the Reading-room. It was a solemn prayerful 
 .time, and was an appropriate opening of the day's pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 Dr. DouGAN Clark, Richmond, Indiana, opened the meet- 
 ing by reading the 72nd Psalm. He spoke of David, as the 
 man of war, subduing God's enemies; and, in this Psalm, 
 inaugurating his son Solomon's reign of peace, with all the 
 heathen conquered around him. David's prayers are here 
 ended, and his desires fulfilled. In connection with this, 
 Dr. Clark alluded to the difficulties of the first conductors of 
 Ackworth School, and that now we might hope for a time of 
 settlement and peace in the second century of its existence. 
 He then specially drew attention to the Christian life, which 
 at first is often one of conflict, until, through the power of 
 Christ, in whom alone the Christian can trust, the enemies 
 of our souls are subdued, and Christ reigns supreme. 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 123 
 
 Very early after breakfast Friends began to take their 
 seats in the marquee. And now the question arose, What 
 will be its acoustic qualities ? If filled, as evidently 
 it will be, can speakers with weak voices make them- 
 selves heard ? It was very cheering to the Committee 
 to have the ready reply in the affirmative to the ques- 
 tion, " Can Friends at the end of the tent hear? " whilst 
 J. S. Rowntree was reading his paper. But we antici- 
 pate. A platform had been erected at the end of the 
 tent farthest from the girls' wing, and there, closely 
 packed, were the members of the Centenary Committee 
 and the intended speakers. Neither age nor position was 
 a passport to this coveted spot, and some very reverend 
 people had to mingle with the crowd below. Luckless 
 they who had failed to be in time. It was the " early bird " 
 which caught the worm. As the morning trains brought 
 their heavy supplement, sitting space and standing space 
 were alike fully occupied, and some of us were fain to 
 crowd around the purlieus of the tent, unloose its 
 folds, and make ourselves peep-holes and become eaves- 
 droppers. Happy we that nothing dropped from the eaves 
 on us ! These contrivances for spectatorship availed much, 
 however. Even the outsiders saw and heard — 'i Better than 
 those inside," said some, maliciously. " Cooler, too," 
 although the breeze, amongst its other good services, 
 invaded the heated recesses of the tent. There was a 
 somewhat subdued — we might call it religious— light, within 
 the tabernacle, unusual, but not unpleasant. 
 
 Immediately under the platform sat the dear and happy- 
 looking School children, some of them to remember and 
 recount for fifty, sixty, seventy years, the events of the day. 
 
124 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 May they be happy ones for them ! Altogether it was a pretty 
 and impressive sight, not to be forgotten by any of us who 
 saw it all from the platform. We have already said that 
 there was computed to be about i,6oo persons present. 
 
 The Chairman of the meeting this morning was James 
 Henry Barber, of Sheffield, who took his place at ten 
 o'clock, at the invitation of William Coor Parker, on behalf 
 of the Committee. 
 
 The Chairman said : Dear Friends, it was explained 
 last night that although our joyous Centenary Meeting 
 is not, strictly speaking, a devotional meeting, yet it was 
 believed it would be more in accordance with the feelings 
 of all Friends that we should open our meetings by reading 
 a few verses of Scripture. I desire this morning to follow 
 the precedent of last night in this respect. 
 
 The "Chairman then read a few verses from the forty- 
 eighth chapter of Genesis (being the account of Jacob 
 blessing the sons of Joseph) ; and after a short devotional 
 pause he said : 
 
 Dear Friends and Fellow-Scholars, — Our dear and re- 
 vered Chairman of last night said that it was with unfeigned 
 diffidence that he took the chair on that occasion ; but 
 what must, and what ought, to be my feelings this morning 
 on being asked to preside over this large gathering ? And 
 yet I do not intend to take up your precious time by any 
 personal apologies, but to do my best in order to discharge 
 the duty which the Centenary Committee have assigned to 
 me. (Applause.) One is almost overwhelmed when one 
 thinks of the vastness of our constituency, of the number 
 .of persons and the extent of space which, we have, as it 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 125 
 
 were, to think of as we speak in this tent this morning. 
 One thinks of three generations, one of which has passed 
 away, or, perhaps, not wholly passed away, another gene- 
 ration which is rapidly passing away, and the third genera- 
 tion constitutes the vigorous and active men and women 
 of the present day. Then, again, one's thoughts turn to the 
 fourth generation, our hope and our joy, the children who 
 are now occupying the places at Ackworth that we once 
 occupied. Perhaps there are to some of us special consi- 
 derations of interest in regard to this Centenary. I am 
 one of those — for I recollect the Jubilee at Ackworth School 
 fifty years ago. (" Hear, hear," and applause), I was a 
 scholar at Ackworth School at that time, and although I 
 don't intend to dwell upon that interesting occasion, which 
 will no doubt be spoken to by others, I thought I should 
 just like to allude to it as a special object of interest to me. 
 Not only is it a fact that for one hundred years there has 
 been an unbroken stream of Ackworth scholars — at the 
 rate of nearly one hundred annually — flowing out, but when 
 one considers to what distant quarters, and to how many 
 regions, the reverberations of this tent will come, we may in- 
 deed feel this to be an important meeting. (" Hear, hear," 
 and applause.) The Austi'alian sheep-farmer in his secluded 
 and solitary home will hear with interest of our gathering, 
 and his heart will warm at the recollection of his Ackworth 
 education and of his schoolmates. The colonist of New 
 Zealand will hear of our meeting, and the settler in South 
 Africa. Even in Natal, amidst all the horrors of warfare, 
 and the apprehensions which war brings with it, there 
 will be the remembrance of that lesson which has long 
 been taught at Ackworth School, " Love your enemies ; 
 
126 THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 do good to them that hate 3'ou;" and also that further 
 lesson so eminently taught at Ackworth, " If thine enemy 
 hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink." (Applause.) 
 There will be many a one scattered over the length and 
 breadth of North America who will hear of our meeting 
 to-day. The Canadian settler, as he makes his maple 
 sugar, will be thinking of friends now at Ackworth, and of 
 what we are doing here to-day. Some one, it may be, who 
 is passing up the Rhine, or through Switzerland, will hear 
 of us this morning, and an individual or two seeking 
 health on the shores of the Mediterranean will think of us. 
 There are, also, dear friends in Madagascar, and under the 
 burning sun of India, who will not forget us. Indeed, all 
 over the world, wherever the restless Anglo-Saxon race has 
 wandered, we shall find Ackworth scholars ; for probably 
 there is not a nook, a corner, or a village where they have 
 gone, where the news of this Centenary gathering will 
 not be hailed with joy, and where hearts will not be glad- 
 dened by the news. (" Hear, hear," and applause.) 
 
 Well now, dear friends, on such an occasion as the 
 present, one is tempted a little to speak of some of those 
 incidents of the Ackworth life in the old days, but they 
 must be very few indeed. My recollection of fifty years ago 
 brings first and foremost as the two central figures then at 
 Ackworth our dear and venerable Superintendent at that 
 time, Robert Whitaker and his excellent wife Hannah 
 Whitaker. (Applause.) I can well remember the motherly 
 kindness and attention of Hannah Whitaker, and if I 
 wanted the type of an excellent friend and an honest man 
 
 " Close buttoned to the chin, 
 Broad cloth without, and a warm heart within ; " 
 
SIXTH -DAY. 127 
 
 Stern in the execution of his duty, and still having a 
 loving and genial heart, commend me to Robert Whitaker. 
 ("Hear, hear," and applause.) I knew him in the year 1828, 
 and the fifty years which have since elapsed have not 
 diminished in any degree the impression of his character, 
 or of the kindness of his disposition. (Applause.) There 
 is one little incident which occurs to me which I should 
 like to speak of in connection with my school days at 
 Ackworth. Fifty years ago we were a rebellious race — 
 — (laughter) — and I well recollect the time when an epidemic 
 of rebellion passed through the School. Before supper- 
 time it broke out ; through supper-time it continued ; after 
 supper it raged in the bedrooms ; next morning it broke out 
 again at breakfast time ; and I know there are those in this 
 tent this morning who can remember Robert Whitaker 
 coming into the boys' dining-room and standing there 
 with a saddened aspect, and saying to us, " Boys, if 
 ever this happens again, I believe I shall take my leave 
 of Ackworth School" (" Hear, hear," and applause). 
 Rebellion vanished at that word, because we all loved 
 Robert Whitaker far too much seriously to grieve his 
 heart. (Hear, hear.) That incident I still remember 
 well, because it showed how Robert Whitaker reigned 
 in the hearts of the Ackworth boys at the time he was 
 the Superintendent. 
 
 I am now inclined to ask our elder friends to shut their 
 ears, because I am going to tell the children a story, and I 
 hope you will not think I am lowering the dignity of the 
 meeting by doing so. Well, I had a kind and loving aunt, 
 and when she came to, Ackworth to see me on one occasion 
 she thought she would give me a treat ; and, knowing my 
 
128 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 love of cockles, she brought me in a basket a whole 
 boiling of them. (Laughter.) As she thought it would be 
 rather diflficult to get the cockles boiled at the Inn, she took 
 them to a cottage in the village, and there the cockles wei'c 
 boiled, and I made a capital feast of them. (Laughter.) 
 When I had eaten as many as I could, there were cockles 
 to spare, and I filled my pockets with them and went into 
 the School. A circumstance then occurred for which I had 
 made no provision. The cockle-shells were not waterproof, 
 the gravy ran out of them and over my boots upon the 
 floor as I walked into the School, and I well remember 
 having to mop up the cockle gravy. (Laughter.) There 
 was one boy in the School at that time with a warm heart 
 — and he, had also a warm temper — whom I invited to 
 share with me something good I had got. I sought him 
 out, and, going up to him, with the usual retjuest, " Open 
 thy. mouth and shut thy eyes," I popped a cockle into his 
 mouth. (Laughter.) Instead of receiving it with grati- 
 tude, he flew at me with great ferocity, and I had to defend 
 myself as well as I could ; and it was not until I had received 
 many blows that I made him understand that I had given 
 him a cockle, and not a snail. (Laughter.) The children 
 must have their bit of fun, therefore I hope our elder 
 friends will forgive me for relating the story I have just 
 told them. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 There is another incident I cannot lose sight of in con- 
 nection with this School, and it is associated with Joseph 
 John Gurney. (Applause.) There are boys and girls here 
 who will recollect how we gathered round Joseph John 
 Gurney like a swarm of bees, and how, on his visits to 
 the School, he walked about the garden like a prince — as 
 
SIXTH-DAY. izg 
 
 he was — surrounded by his loyal subjects. (Applause.) 
 He taught us that beautiful, hymn — 
 
 " Rock of Ages cleft for me, 
 Let me hide myself in Thee ; " 
 
 and we used to repeat it altogether, and had such a love 
 for him, none the less that he begged for us a holiday and 
 gave each of us a shilling to spend. ("Hear, hear," and 
 applause.) 
 
 I must now bring my remarks to a close, because time 
 is pressing. Last night, at our meeting, one could not 
 help thinking of the various epochs which have distinguished 
 our Institution here. Four years after this School was 
 founded, the first Friends' petition was sent to Parliament 
 praying for the suppression of the slave-trade; and the 
 men who founded this School were those who set on foot 
 and carried on the -crusade against negi-t slavery, which 
 never ceased until every slave in the West Indies, and 
 subsequently in the United States, was made free. 
 (Applause.) It is to the efforts of men like these, and also 
 of such women as Elizabeth Fry, that we are indebted in 
 no inconsiderable degree for the beneficent altei:ation that 
 has taken place in criminal legislation, and also for the 
 efforts for the promotion of peace and goodwill among 
 the people of the earth. (Applause.) Dear friends, is 
 there nothing for us — the men of the present day — to 
 accomplish ? There has come a time when capital and 
 labour are arrayed against each other; when our working- 
 classes appear, often under great suffering, to assume. a tone 
 of defiance and hostility; when intemperance is ravaging 
 them ; and when Atheism of a different type from that of 
 Voltaire is desolating them. Such being the case may it 
 
 K 
 
130 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 not be our privilege and our endeavour to bring together 
 men of every class, especially in our First-day schools, and 
 teach them that brotherhood of men which John Woolman 
 taught, and that the love of God brings with it the love of 
 all God's animated creation? (Applause.) 
 
 Alfred Simpson of Manchester, one of the Secretaries, 
 then read the following Report : — 
 
 To THE General Meeting. 
 
 The Centenary Committee report that they have endea- 
 voured to carry out the instructions of the last General 
 Meeting. 
 
 The sum of ;f3,335 12s. od. has been paid or promised 
 by 1,171 contributors, in amounts varying from is. to ;f 100, 
 and £'2,659 igs. 6d. has been received. 
 
 The arrangements for the celebration of the Centenary 
 have been completed ; but as they are well known to 
 Friends they need not be recapitulated. 
 
 Substantial oak bookcases, with chairs and tables, have 
 been placed in the Committee-room, a new carpet provided, 
 and the room painted and coloured. Bookcases already on 
 the premises have been renovated, and placed in the boys' 
 and girls' wings. Some progress has been made with the 
 supply of these libraries with books, in the proper selection 
 of which great care is being exercised. 
 
 After paying the cost of the Celebration, the incidental 
 expenses, the cost of bookcases, fittings, and books, and 
 after setting aside £1,000 to the support and extension of 
 the libraries, there will remain a very inadequate sum to 
 be appropriated to the more thorough teaching of Practical 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 131 
 
 and Natural Science ; and the Committee hope that the 
 funds at their disposal may be increased by further dona- 
 tions, so as to enable them more effectually to promote an 
 object of such great importance to the future welfare of the 
 Institution. 
 
 The General Meeting will understand that the work of 
 the Committee is not yet completed. 
 
 For the Committee, 
 
 Wm. Coor Parker, ) „ , . 
 . „ } Secretaries. 
 
 Alfred Simpson, I 
 
 Sixth Month i-^rd, 1879. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 John Stephenson Rowntree was now called on to read 
 his paper entitled " A Sketch of the History of Ackworth 
 School." It was as follows : 
 
 ACKWORTH SCHOOL— 1779-1879. 
 
 A great school is often both the monument of a good 
 man and the memorial of a great want. Eton perpetuates 
 the memory of its royal founder's peaceful piety, in an age 
 of turbulence and bloodshed. Dean Colet founded St. 
 Paul's, to spread the knowledge of the recovered learning, in 
 the days of Erasmus and of Sir Thomas More. John Lyon, 
 a yeoman of Harrow, and Lawrence Sheriff, a grocer from 
 Rugby, wishing to do something that might prevent the 
 return of the old superstition, that was ever reasserting 
 itself in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, endowed the schools 
 which have made Harrow and Rugby famous. 
 
 In like manner Ackworth School owes its existence to 
 the enlightened energy of Dr. John Fothergill, and to 
 the sore educational needs of the Society of Friends in 
 Great Britain a hundred years ago. 
 
 The fourth generation who bore the name of Friends, as 
 distinctive of their faith, was passing from the scene in 
 1779. Amongst the first and second generations of Friends 
 were many able schoolmasters, some of whom had enjoyed 
 a collegiate education. These had mostly died before the 
 eighteenth century was far advanced, and thenceforward 
 the Society of Friends suffered severely from a want of 
 
JOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH. 133 
 
 schools and of teachers. Between 1700 and 1740, London 
 Yearly Meeting pressed on its members the duty of greater 
 attention to the education of youth no less than twenty- 
 seven times. Minutes and Epistles were not necessarily 
 more productive of J-esults in the eighteenth century than 
 they are in the nineteenth ; but their existence clearly 
 marks the prevalence of an educational famine. Of the 
 causes of that famine, and of the first steps taken to remove 
 it, I cannot stop to speak ; are they not written in " Five 
 papers on the past proceedings and experience of the 
 Society of Friends in connection with education," by 
 Samuel Tuke ? 
 
 When the reign of George II. was drawing towards its 
 close, a stone building was slowly rising in the Yorkshire 
 village of Ackworth, designed to be a home for London 
 foundlings. Its promoters expended £13,000 upon it. 
 They expended also much zeal and pains, in caring for 
 their helpless charge after it was gathered within this 
 spacious building. But the results were disheartening, 
 and in 1773 the Institution was closed. Through the chain 
 of events already detailed in James Hack Tuke's sketch of 
 Dr. Fothergill's life, the vacant premises passed into the 
 possession of the trustees of the Society of Friends a few 
 years later. George III. had lived through a third of his 
 long reign, the Earl of Chatham was soon to be laid 
 in Westminster Abbey, the melancholy war between Great 
 Britain and her thirteen revolted colonies was dragging its 
 slow length along, when the foxes that had found a kennel in 
 the deserted Foundling Hospital were disturbed by the advent 
 of other tenants. 
 John and Judith Hill were the first heads of the new 
 
134 THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 household. John Hill bore the titles of Treasurer and 
 Superintendent, his wife that of Mistress of the family. 
 For the care and teaching of 314 children they had the 
 help of five schoolmasters, three mistresses and eighteen 
 other servants and officers. All the accounts which have 
 come down to us of the founding of Ackworth School 
 agree in testifying to the wide-spread interest excited 
 amongst Friends by the enterpirise, and the pecuniary 
 liberality with which it was supported. Nor are the views 
 of the founders obscure as to the class who were to be 
 benefited by the School, or the nature of the discipline 
 that was to be exercised over the scholars. These were to 
 be the children of Friends in Great Britain "not in affluence." 
 The boys were to be carefully taught in reading, writing, 
 spelling and arithmetic, and " labour being intermixed with 
 learning, the ends of both," says Dr. Fothergill, were to be 
 promoted, " a sound mind in a healthy body." The girls 
 were to be instructed in knitting, spinning, useful needle- 
 work, and domestic occupations, " suitable to their sex and 
 station." The principles of religion professed by Friends 
 were to be diligently inculcated, by example 'perhaps more 
 than by precept ; and great care was to be taken to preserve 
 the children from bad habits and immoral conduct. Contact 
 with the external world was to be reduced to a minimum, 
 and thus " a guarded and religious education " was to be 
 promoted. It is impossible to read Dr. Fothergill's " Letter 
 to a Friend," written in 1779, or Sarah Grubb's account 
 of the School a few years later, without seeing that the 
 founders of Ackworth School and the founders of monastic 
 institutions a thousand years earlier had some points in 
 common. 
 
. JOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH. 135 
 
 A General Meeting was held at the School three months 
 .before the admission of children. The opening ceremony — ■ 
 if ceremony of any sort there was — occurred on October 
 i8th, 1779, by the arrival from Poole, in Dorsetshire, of 
 Barton and Ann Gates, who have almost acquired historic 
 fame from having headed the long procession of nine 
 thousand five hundred children who have entered Ackworth 
 School. It was but slowly the School filled. About fifty 
 children had gathered by the end of 1779. Amongst 
 these Lancashire was not represented. Yorkshire had 
 sent less than a dozen. The majority were from distant 
 parts. The earliest notices of the School are very favour- 
 able. Sir Rowland Winn, of Nostell Priory, is said to 
 have been affected to tears when he saw the healthy, 
 happy faces at dinner, and recurred to the unhappy ex- 
 perience of the foundlings who before occupied the building. 
 Dr. Fothergill says he twice visited the School in 1780, 
 and writes in the highest terms of the progress of the 
 children in their studies, as well as of their behaviour. 
 
 Of the state of the School about seven years after its 
 foundation, Sarah Grubb has left us a picture, that por- 
 trays, at any rate, one of its aspects, and is specially 
 interesting to us because it refers to a time earlier than 
 can now be remembered by any living Ackworth scholar. 
 Sarah Grubb was the daughter of William Tuke, of York, 
 and the nufse of John Woolman in his last illness. She was 
 a helper in Esther Tuke's Girls' School at York, took a lead- 
 ing part in the founding of Waterford School, and is said to 
 have combined " the manners of a duchess with the piety of 
 a saint." Her letter descriptive of Ackworth, addressed to 
 a friend in America, from Foston — afterwards the home 
 
136 THE AC'KWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 of Sydney Smith — was probably written not long before 
 her death in 1790. For the 180 boys there were, she says, 
 four or five masters, who taught in four schools, the 
 masters keeping much to the distinct branches of learning 
 for which they are best qualified, — reading, writing, arith- 
 metic, — and the children pass in classes from school to 
 school, excepting the little ones. There were " some ap- 
 prentices," and ten or twelve of "the eldest and most solid 
 boys " were monitors. These seem to have discharged im- 
 portant functions at meal times, or at least in the collecting 
 before them. When the first bell had rung, ten minutes 
 before a meal, we are told how the masters stand in front 
 of their own divisions, whilst the' monitors " survey the 
 boys behind and before, taking care that their buckles are 
 in order, their hair combed, and if any be dirty to send 
 them to wash." "Here," the narrative proceeds, "the 
 masters have a frequent opportunity of making useful 
 observations, giving general directions, administering 
 counsel, and selecting out offenders for the table of dis- 
 grace, which is no otherwise distinguished than by being 
 detached from the rest, and having no cloth upon it." Let 
 us interpret the narrative to note that there must then 
 have been table-cloths before 17-90, though in 1814 we 
 shall read of " the clothless board." How long the table 
 of disgrace lasted, history does not say. It was in exist- 
 ence in Robert Whitaker's time, for we have heard how 
 he once entered the dining-room, and finding two monitors 
 sitting at this table, he lifted up his arms and his voice, 
 exclaiming, "Fallen! Fallen!" "When all appetites 
 appear satisfied," continues Sarah Grubb, " and a meal is 
 ended, silence again takes place, after which, with an inti- 
 
yOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH. 
 
 137 
 
 mation of quietude and sedateness, they are beckoned to 
 depart." The same order is observed amongst the girls, 
 under their four mistresses, with " salaries from ^^12 to 
 £25." We must not pause to speak of the duties of the 
 spinning mistress, nor of the means for compassing those 
 most desirable ends — the preservation of the mistresses 
 from a too-oppressive load of anxiety, and " cherishing in 
 them a necessary recollection of mind, enabling them more 
 sensibly to partake of a measure of divine strength, by 
 which alone they can govern with right authority and 
 tenderness." Sarah Grubb describes the engagements of 
 First-days, and tells how the two cooks got the victuals 
 ready the day before — cold meat and fruit pies in summer, 
 and " boiled plum puddings in winter," only needing one 
 person to stay at home and keep the coppers boiling ; and 
 how in the evening the whole family are collected, when 
 " they quietly settle down in silence for a little while, then 
 one of the masters reads a chapter, and about six boys and 
 as many girls read six or eight verses each, after which 
 they pause again till it is judged a suitable time for the 
 children to withdraw, which they do, not in couples as on 
 other occasions, but singly, going immediately to bed, and 
 at such a distance from each other as to admit of no con- 
 versation by the way, the teachers passing with them in 
 certain divisions preserve the quietude without interrup- 
 tion." But we must not linger longer on Sarah Grubb's 
 picture. She tells so much of the recollectedness of the 
 teachers, of the quietude and sedateness of the boys, of 
 the order and solidity of the servants at meals, of the 
 children's clothing so neatly folded every night, scarce one 
 article to be found out of its place, that it is a little difficult 
 
138 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 to realise she is writing near to a time when discipline had 
 become so relaxed that one of the boys had assumed the 
 title and exercised some of the prerogatives of king. William 
 Howitt tells how this aspirant- for royalty had manifested 
 his prowess by climbing higher than any competitor up 
 the leaden spout in the corner of the pediment, and thereon 
 inscribing his initials, which, he says, writing in 1847, 
 " remain unto this day." This anarchical condition of the 
 boys' side was in the sunset of John Hill's administration. 
 He was advanced in life when he went to Ackworth, and 
 his powers had waned before he was succeeded by John 
 Hipsley in 1791. John Hipsley did not spare the rod — 
 even upon the king's person — and a sterner administration 
 was introduced than seems to have prevailed in the first 
 years of the School. 
 
 Though Dr. Fothergill was by birth a North-country man, 
 the home of his manhood was in London, and our sketch 
 would be incomplete did we not note how large a part of 
 the money, as well as of the zeal, that launched Ackworth 
 School, were contributed by Friends in the south of 
 England. I find that of the first subscription of ;f7,ooo, 
 which paid for the building and eighty-four acres of land, 
 five-sixths (;f5,8oo) were given by donors living south of 
 Leicester ; and for many years London and Middlesex 
 contributed more than double the amount of any other 
 Quarterly Meeting to the annual subscription. It was 
 but natural that those who found so large a part of the 
 funds should wish to have a corresponding share in the 
 management of the School. Hence the establishment of a 
 London as well as of a Country Committee, each of twenty- 
 eight members. The functions of each committee were 
 
yOHN S. KOWNTREE'S SKETCH. 139 
 
 fixed by rule — neither might incur expenditure exceeding 
 £20 without the sanction of the other — and with the 
 General Meeting rested the questionable privilege of deci- 
 ding between the two committees when their judgments 
 differed. This was not a promising constitution for an 
 executive, body; and it was not long before the dual 
 government evolved those symptoms of friction — smoke 
 and heat. The General Meeting's authority over the two 
 committees was not a dead letter, for there is a record of 
 a sitting from seven to eleven in the evening, hearing an 
 appeal against the Country Committee for refusing to 
 admit a boy on the score of lameness. It is told how the 
 London Committee was once alarmed at the expense 
 proposed by their country friends in making certain struc- 
 tural alterations in stone, and sent down an architect to 
 prepare a cheaper plan in wood. Arrived amongst the 
 stone quarries of Yorkshire, he shortly returned to the 
 Metropolis with tidings that wood would cost more than 
 stone. After the superintendence of Dr. Binns, the diffi- 
 culties diminished. Gradually, as was natural, the real 
 power increasingly centred in the Country Committee 
 administering affairs upon the spot. Its relations with 
 Friends in London became most cordial, and the existence 
 of the dual government was prolonged some years,, at 
 the wish of North-country Friends, who feared lest its 
 abolition should lessen the national character of the In- 
 stitution. An amusing correspondence between the two 
 committees occurred about 1836. The Country Committee 
 decreed the abolition of beer as the children's beverage at 
 dinner. The London Committee proposed as an amend- 
 ment that "the beer be made better." Teetotalism won 
 
140 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 the day, and the brew-house was transformed into a 
 water-tank ! At last, in 1869, the London Committee was 
 dissolved as a separate body, some of its members forming 
 a section of the united committee, now raised to thirty- 
 six persons — irrespective of the women's committee of ten 
 persons. 
 
 However, our narrative is yet seventy years behind 1869, 
 and we have introduced the story of the two committees 
 here, because their differences caused not a little perplexity 
 to John Plipsley, and conduced, with other causes, to his 
 retirement in 1795. The General Meeting of that year must 
 have been a lively time. Amongst the visitors were 
 Priscilla H. Gurney, her companion Anna Clark and 
 Sarah Lynes. The boys' reading was thought not up to 
 the mark. One speaker, himself a teacher, thought the 
 " rwJwg" cadence defective." So much exercised was the 
 General Meeting that it set aside a coinmittee to examine 
 the teachers, who had to read before it. They passed 
 the ordeal successfully, though the air with which one of 
 them threw down his book indicated that such a testing 
 of the teachers' powers was deemed by them rather itifra 
 dignitatem. Another interesting proof of the care taken in 
 the teaching of reading at a somewhat later date, was the 
 sending of one of the mistresses to York to read before 
 Lindley Murray — from whose judgment there was then no 
 appeal. His report was so flattering that he suggested it 
 should not be shown to the subject of it, lest it should 
 conduce to too much exaltation. 
 
 John Hipsley was succeeded by Dr. Jonathan Binns, of 
 Liverpool, who renounced his medical practice in order, 
 under a sense of duty, to assume the superintendence of 
 
yOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH. 141 
 
 Ackworth School. Under his rule, the differences already 
 hinted at between the two committees, in which Dr. Binns 
 himself became involved, interfered with the prosperity of 
 the Institution. Dr. Binns' medical skill, and his devotion 
 in times of illness are still on record. He edited the excel- 
 lent Ackworth Vocabulary, which has passed through 
 so many editions. The Ackworth Table Book, Scripture 
 Text Book, and Reading Book, have all been useful 
 and creditable contributions to the school literature of 
 England. In 1804, Robert Whitaker, who had been 
 secretary to Dr. Binns, was appointed the first salaried 
 Superintendent, and retained the office for nearly thirty 
 years. The offices of Superintendent and Treasurer, 
 hitherto united, were now separated. Wilson Birkbeck, 
 Sparkes Moline, and Samuel Gurney — father and son — are 
 the four Friends who have discharged the duties of 
 Treasurer. The prevailing opinion that the first super- 
 intendents received no pecuniary remuneration is not quite 
 correct. They had no regular salaries, but the minutes of 
 the committee show that occasional honoraria were 
 bestowed. We have heard how the late John Hipsley, 
 the son of the Superintendent, served the Institution as 
 book-keeper without a regular salary. When he left, in 
 the autumn of 1796, the committee marked their appreci- 
 ation of his services by presenting him with an aged horse, 
 whereon he rode to York and there sold it for £12. 
 
 This financial expedient invites a few words upon Ack- 
 worth finance. The terms for board, clothing, and education, 
 fixed in 1779, were £8 8s. per annum. It illustrates the 
 value of money a century ago, and the prevailing ideas as 
 to the resources of Friends "not in affluence," to find 
 
142 THE AC K WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting pushing on the formation of 
 its School Fund, so as to reimburse parents one-half of 
 ~this eight guineas. And, indeed, Joseph Brown, of Lothers- 
 dale — whose memory is embalmed by. his fellow-prisoner, 
 James Montgomery, in the lines " Spirit leave thy house 
 of clay" — told Dr.Fothergill it was a contradiction in terms 
 to say the School was for " children not in affluence " and 
 yet to charge £8 8s. per annum, for clothing, feeding, and 
 educating them. The terms remained unaltered till 1799, 
 when they were raised to £10 los., were advanced to 
 £12 I2S. in 1801 ; reduced to £10 los, in 1807, and to ;f 10 
 in 1823. They remained at this figure for a quarter of a 
 century, till in 1848 the system of graduated payments was 
 introduced, varying according to the ability of the parent. 
 The rates then adopted were £10, £15, and £20. Succes- 
 sive changes, since that year of European revolution, have 
 brought the rates to what they are now £15, £20, £26, 
 £32, and £40. The average payment received per child 
 previous to the change of 1848 was of course £10; the 
 introduction of the graduated rates soon raised the average 
 to £15 15s., and it has slowly crept up to £26. The annual 
 income of the Institution, in the first few years of its 
 existence averaged about £5,000, children's payments con- 
 tributing rather more than half this sum. It has grown to 
 £9,904, in the year that ended with the last day of 1878, 
 the children paying £7,281. During the past century the 
 Society of Friends in Great Britain Ijas continually been 
 resolving itself into a Committee of Ways and Means for 
 Ackworth School. The discussions therein have, we 
 believe, afforded enjoyment to amateur financiers, and have 
 not been unfruitful in replenishing the Ackworth exchequer. 
 
yOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH. 
 
 143 
 
 A popular opinion prevails that this exchequer has usually 
 been in the same condition as the national exchequer under 
 the Beaconsfield ministry, yet the property of the School 
 has grown, and amounted at the end of each decade to the 
 following sums : — 
 
 1788 . 
 
 £ 
 ■ 8,417 
 
 1838 . 
 
 £ 
 
 ■ 28,505 
 
 1798 . 
 
 ■ • 14.099 
 
 1848 . 
 
 . 29,220 
 
 IS08 . 
 I8I8 . 
 
 ■ • 24,245 
 .. 27,526 
 
 1858 . 
 1868 . 
 
 ■ 37.012 
 
 ■ 37.740 
 
 1828 . 
 
 .. 29,481 
 
 1878 . 
 
 . 40,610 
 
 Recurring again to the state of Ackworth School early in 
 this century, we have, on the whole, a pleasing description 
 from the pen of William Howitt, who was a pupil 
 between 1802 and 1806. » He fully corroborates Sarah 
 Grubb's statements of the complete social equality that 
 existed amongst the- children, though some came from very 
 poor homes, and others from homes of many more outward 
 comforts. Sarah Grubb highly commends this blending 
 of different classes, and so does William Howitt. After 
 speaking of the children's isolation from outside evil in- 
 fluences, he says — " Within, the children are free from the 
 distinctions of wealth and rank, which torment the world 
 and excite many keen heart burnings in most public 
 schools. Here not a sense of them exists. The utmost 
 equality, the most cordial harmony, prevail. One child is 
 distinguished from another only by the difference of person, 
 of talents, of disposition, and proficiency in learning." 
 "Happy estate!," he exclaims, "admirable foundation for 
 a noble and erect carriage ; for establishing in the mind a 
 habit of valuing men, not by wealth and artificial rank. 
 
r44 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 but by the everlasting distinction of virtue and talent." 
 But for the inexorable march of time, it would be pleasant 
 to linger over " The Boy's Country Book," and to revive the 
 picture it gives us of Ackworth life in the days of the long 
 French War. Especially graphic is the notice of the walks, 
 and the distribution of hats and caps for the i8o lads from 
 the great wicker-baskets wherein they were kept stored, 
 except when in use for these rambles. He tells how, in 
 one of these walks, a boy with bow and arrow shot a dead 
 goose, and how the Superintendent paid the aggrieved 
 farmer 5s., the price of a live one ; and how the odours 
 which permeated the culinary department when the said 
 bird was cooked confirmed the veracity of the boy who the 
 day before had in vain affirmed its real condition. William 
 Hovvitt tells how he and Wiffen, the translator of Tasso, 
 told tales by turns in the bedrooms, of the sliding in 
 winter, of gardens in summer excelling any other gardens 
 he ever knew, and of the much-loved privilege, then, as 
 before and after, of walking on the f]ags^— " a charmed 
 promenade " — where brothers met sisters, and cousins of 
 uncertain degrees of relationship, confirmed and renewed 
 their friendships. 
 
 In 1813 wheat and "meslin" cost Ackworth School £'1,713, 
 more than three times the cost of flour last year. The 
 haivest of 1812 was bad and the flour bad in consequence. 
 We have heard scholars of this period tell how their pieces 
 of bread would stretch out till they were almost a yard in 
 length. At an earlier period, 1795, John Hipsley mentions 
 wheat, just before harvest, as 14s. per bushel, and the fears 
 that prevailed lest there should not be corn enough in the 
 country at any price. The book-keeper went to Pontefract 
 
yOHN S. ROWNTREES SKETCH. 145 
 
 market in those days, and such was the competition, " that 
 he had to place his hand on the farmer's sack, in order to 
 secure wheat, the moment , the bell rang for market to 
 begin.'" 
 
 " The good old times 
 Were hard old times 
 All the country over." 
 
 We must not pass away from the early history of Ack- 
 worth without referring to some of the visitations of illness. 
 It was very early discovered that, isolated from the world 
 as the School was, it was impossible to prevent the intro- 
 duction of epidemic disease. The second Annual Report 
 " states that forty children had been ill of small-pox in the 
 natural way, and twenty-five were inoculated," adding, a 
 little grimly, that all these are to pay one guinea each 
 towards the expenses occasioned, and if, in future, children 
 die of the small-pox, or any other complaint, two guineas 
 are to be returned for each whole unexpired quarter that 
 has been paid for, "less one guinea for funeral expenses." 
 In 1784, five boys and two girls died of scarlet fever. In 
 1792, fifty children had the small-pox — all recovered. In 
 1803, 200 persons in the family were affected by scarlet 
 fever — seven children died, and the General Meeting that 
 year was omitted. In 1824, seventy scholars were ill of 
 typhus fever — two died, also a teacher, John Donbavand. 
 In 1828, the Institution was visited with an awful epidemic 
 of fever; nearly 200 were ill — Henry Brady, the much- 
 beloved grammar master, Mary Dumbleton, the nurse, and 
 three girls died. In the winter of 183 1-2 nearly the same 
 number were attacked by fever— three fatal cases occurred. 
 A pupil who was at School between 1821 and 1824 writes, 
 " The state of health must, on the whole, have been below 
 
146 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 what it ought to have been. Bronchocele, or full neck, 
 was so common, that every spring the doctor examined us 
 all round, feeling our necks. When there was incipient 
 glandular swelling, he prescribed an extra weekly ptunge in 
 a cold bath — a highly popular remedy. Chilblains were 
 a scourge of many children in winter ; in some cases 
 ' crippling them for successive weeks.'" Robert Whitaker, 
 writing during the attack of fever in 1824, refers to the 
 medical treatment of that time in these terms: — " Most of 
 the late attacks have been slight scarlatina with sore throat, 
 which is not a formidable disease. If the children com- 
 plain quite in the outset, a smart dose of calomel, with a 
 cup of solution of Epsom salts, followed by a febrifuge and 
 a little nursing, are generally the means of subduing the 
 complaint in a few days." A correspondent remarks, that 
 much the same treatment was adopted in 1842. In the 
 hundred years of the School's history, the whole number of 
 children who have died at the School is ninety-three. Ar- 
 ranged in decennial periods the deaths group themselves 
 thus — 14, II, 8, 7, 17, 10, 9, 6, 6, 5. It is said that about 
 forty of the foundling children died within three months, 
 during the prevalence of one epidemic. 
 
 Though the conditions of good health are better under- 
 stood now than by our forefathers, the liability to the 
 recurrence of epidemic disease must always be one of the 
 dangers of a great household like that of Ackworth. It is, 
 we believe, well established that the health of the family 
 has been better during the last twenty-five than in the 
 previous seventy-five years. This may be attributed to 
 structural improvements presently to be spoken of, to a more 
 abundant supply of water, a larger allowance of air in the 
 
yOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH. 147 
 
 bed-rooms, imprbved food, and warm bathing. Vacations 
 must be debited with having increased the liability to the 
 introduction of epidemic disease. 
 
 The Society of Friends is now so assiduous in pressing 
 on its members the duty and privilege of frequent Scripture 
 reading, and the practice is so general, that it is a little 
 difficult to realise that for more than thirty years the 
 Scriptures were not publicly read in Ackworth School, 
 except on First-day evenings. On those occasions " Ken- 
 dall's Abstract" was the volume read from in 1812, says a 
 scholar of that year. In 1813 Robert Whitaker introduced 
 the plan of reading a chapter from the New Testament 
 every morning after breakfast. Three years later, Joseph 
 John Gurney attended the General Meeting, and in examin- 
 ing the children as to their knowledge of Scripture, found 
 it was very small. In a letter subsequently addressed 
 to the Superintendent, Joseph John Gurney says : — " I am 
 of opinion that the minds of the boys are not properly 
 cultivated on the subject of religion. They are remarkably 
 sheltered from evil, but do not appear to me to be positively 
 led to good." At his suggestion, a Bible, formerly given to 
 each child on leaving School, was furnished to each on 
 entering. The scholars cordially accepted his proposals to 
 undertake to study the Scriptures, preparatory to an ex- 
 amination by himself at the close of the year. The Super- 
 intendent, Robert Whitaker, and the teachers, warmly 
 seconded his views. Each child received a copy of the 
 Bible. " Well thumbed were these copies at the year's 
 end," says Joseph John Gurney, in his autobiography. "The 
 children took their Bibles to bed with them, read them by 
 
 the early morning light, pored over them at leisure hours 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 during the day, and especially on First-days. The teachers 
 rendered them their best assistance ; knowledge of the 
 subject increased, and with it good ; and when I visited 
 them at the close of twelve months, the whole aspect of 
 affairs was changed." The good work brought about by 
 Joseph John Gurney was continued under his auspices for 
 several years, and then gradually came into the regular 
 School curriculum. It may safely be said, that for the last 
 sixty years, the care taken in instructing the children in Scrip- 
 ture truth has been a leading feature in Ackworlh School. 
 
 I have already referred to three notices of Ackworth 
 School in its early days which have come down to us. Two 
 others now claim our notice. A pamphlet in rhyme^ — I 
 cannot say poetry — printed at Nottingham in 1814, describes 
 a visit to Ackworth by Mentor and Aniander. Nearly a 
 third of these three hundred verses of doggerel are occupied 
 with a discussion of punishments, in which the use of the 
 rod is deprecated. The gist of the arguments is in the 
 
 lines — 
 
 " Reject the tantalising scourge, 
 And pause and look within. 
 
 * * * w 
 
 For if with Solomon I whip, 
 Why not with Moses stone ? " * 
 
 Passing over another ten years, I come to a fifth notice 
 of Ackworth, in a letter from our friend Thomas Harvey, 
 
 * There is not much in this narrative that is specially illustrative. 
 A verse or two descriptive of " dinner at Ackworth, when Napoleon 
 was a prisoner at Elba, may serve as a specimen of the whole. 
 
 " Bak'd pudding crowned the clothless board. 
 The dinner of Fifth- day, 
 Each trencher bore an ample piece. 
 From side to side it lay. 
 
yOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH. 149 
 
 who was a scholar in 1821-24. He says : — " I look back 
 with deep respect on the Superintendent, Robert Whitaker, 
 and nearly all the Teachers. The School was, I believe, 
 considered nearly perfect. He would have been a bold 
 man who had hinted that there was much that was 
 defective. I can believe it was, as a school, in advance 
 of other middle-class schools, both in education and 
 training; but in looking back, memory rests on arrange- 
 ments which, in some respects were Spartan. The clothing 
 had been considerably reformed, the old leathern breeches 
 were abolished — one pair survived, which boys who inked 
 their clothes were compelled to wear a day or two, as a 
 punishment ; still the clothes were so peculiar in cut and 
 appearance that I suppose few on leaving School were 
 able to wear them out. The dietary was decidedly 
 unsatisfactory. We had roast or baked meat to dinner 
 on two days in the week ; on two other days ' lob- 
 scouse,' a poor thin Irish stew, with a little meat in 
 it ; on another day, suet pudding with treacle sauce ; on 
 another, batter pudding — ' clatty vengeance,' — very un- 
 
 Soon as the pudding and the sauce 
 
 To every one were dealt, 
 Stillness immediately ensu'd, 
 
 Stillness which might be felt. 
 
 Dinner concluded, once again, 
 
 The usual signal given, 
 Stillness invites the grateful mind 
 
 To render praise to heaven. 
 
 The boys are next dismissed to walk 
 
 In order round the green, 
 And the two friends withdraw, to take 
 
 A dinner at the Inn." 
 
150 THE AC K WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 popular. On First-days, apple or other frujt pie, or a kind 
 of cold, sweet rice pudding. The dinners were served on 
 wooden trenchers, with very small beer — the smaller the 
 better — in tin mugs. The redeeming feature of the diet 
 was the excellence of the hot milk porridge at breakfast, 
 and the cold milk with bread at supper. I sometimes 
 think I have never tasted anything so good since those 
 bi-eakfasts. 
 
 " As regards, teaching, there were few subjects taught ; 
 Reading, Grammar, Writing, Geography, English History, 
 and Arithmetic comprising nearly the whole. The system 
 was departmental ; there were two writing schools, the 
 front and the back, to one of which each boy belonged, and 
 in which he spent half his school time. The other half of 
 the day he was either in the Reading, or in the Grammar 
 School. The teaching was careful and thorough. The 
 Scriptures were carefully taught. Several of the masters 
 and apprentices — I remember especially Henry Brady — a 
 most superior man among the former — and John Newby 
 among the latter — took a good deal of pains to give the 
 boys a taste for improved pursuits in their leisure time. As 
 to the moral tone of the School, I feel at a loss to speak. 
 That it was lower than it has become, I do not doubt ; that 
 it was higher than in many other schools of the period, 
 I think probable. In so large a school, boys group them- 
 selves into circles of intimacy, and have only a slight 
 knowledge of other circles. If a boy drew towards an 
 orderly set, and became one of them, he would know little 
 of the doings of a set at the other extreme, and would 
 partake little of its tone of thought. That there was much 
 needing reform I do not doubt — the adult masters were 
 
yOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH. 151 
 
 too few to exercise the oversight that was desirable, and 
 there were some traditional notions of discipline that were 
 radically bad, though held with the best of motives. One 
 of these was, that any evil that cropped up— without 
 reference to its greater or less degree of blame-worthiness 
 — was best repressed by severity. The extreme punish- 
 ment was flogging. This was administered with what 
 seemed to us a somewhat awful surrounding of mystery. 
 After the boys had gone to bed, the culprit was brought 
 before the Masters' Meeting, tried, convicted, and punished. 
 I dare say it was not very severe, but the stigma was most 
 injurious. Some of the offences liable to this degrading 
 punishment were in themselves trivial; such as carving 
 names anywhere "on wood or stone, taking food out of the 
 dining-room, &c. There were also " light and airy cells" 
 for solitary confinement. I remember a high-spirited boy 
 being so broken down by one or two days solitude, aided 
 no doubt by the goadings of his, own conscience, that he 
 was made willing to read a most humble confession of his 
 fault — probably not one of moral delinquency — before all 
 the boys, teachers, and Superintendent at the evening 
 reading. It was well that there should be brokenness of 
 spirit, but the willingness should have been accepted for the 
 performance, and the boy spared this abject submission. 
 I have no doubt at the time this was deemed a triumph 
 of discipline and a proof of good and wise government. 
 Notwithstanding all that needed to be reformed, I look 
 back with respect and love upon the Superintendent and 
 teachers. They were able, wise, and good men ; they 
 were probably in advance of their time ; they were 
 thoroughly in earnest in the desire to give the boys the 
 
152 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 best educational training in their power, and to make 
 Ackworth fulfil the intention of its founders." 
 
 It may be convenient here to say a little more on the 
 subject of Punishments. Thomas Pumphrey makes a 
 memorandum within a week of his entering on the 
 superintendence of the School, of a " conversation with 
 an officer on the nature and object of punishment, its proper 
 infliction, — the impropriety of its having anything retalia- 
 tive in it, — prevention of offences and the reformation of the 
 ■offender, its legitimate objects, — the demoralising effect 'of 
 a multiplication of rules, by their frequent infraction and 
 necessary frequent punishment." He adds, "Examined the 
 records of caning, a very humiliating volume, — it carries its 
 own refutation with it, as to the good effects of such kinds 
 of punishment, — 235 inflictions in a year, of which half the 
 number have been upon eight boys, varying from three to 
 twenty-four times in the year : my mind is greatly pained 
 by the perusal." A gentleman who was at Ackworth in 
 the year of its jubilee — 1829 — sends me a narrative of his 
 detention for some hours in the " light and airy rooms," 
 and then, " faint and frightened," being brought before the 
 Masters' Meeting and caned there and then, having been 
 tried and condemned unheard. He expresses his surprise 
 that there was not a more copious crop of stubborn and 
 rebellious juveniles. In an important document of 1846, 
 the gradual relaxation of severe discipline is named, and 
 corporal punishment, though not formally abolished, is 
 stated to be " practically disused." It was reserved for an 
 Ackworth scholar — the late John Ford — after practical 
 acquaintance, both as pupil and teacher, with the harsher 
 systems of discipline, luminously to explain the principles. 
 
yOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH. 153 
 
 and to illustrate the methods by which influence and 
 authority may be maintained without recourse to corporal 
 inflictions — unless in very rare cases — and yet without 
 relaxing that habit of obedience which still is "the bDnd 
 of rule." 
 
 In the year 1833, Hannah Whitaker, whose official 
 connection with the Institution dated from 1787, died of 
 cholera, whilst from home on a journey. Her husband, 
 Robert Whitaker, retired from his long term of super- 
 intendence the next year. Just before the close of 1834, 
 Thomas and Rachel Pumphrey assumed the duties of 
 heads of the Ackworth household. 
 
 The establishment of the Friends' Educational Society in 
 1837, influenced the history of Ackworth School in various 
 ways. The Society was educational in a double sense. 
 Its theme was education, its objects being practical rather 
 than theoretical. The men who took part in its proceed- 
 ings were themselves educated by the discussions that took 
 place, and by the facts elicited by their inquiries. The 
 boarding-school system begun by Friends at Ackworth in 
 1779, hsCd been expanded by the successive establishment 
 of other schools, till, as was said at the Educational 
 Meeting of ,1842, from 1,000 to 1,200 children connected 
 with Friends were in its different boarding-schools. To 
 my late father, Joseph Rowntree, the question continually 
 recurred. What were the results of this education ? He has 
 told how constantly this thought presented itself when the 
 Ackworth Committee met with the boys, who were leaving 
 school, for the last interview. No one knew better than he 
 that there are mental and spiritual results that would elude 
 any attempt of the statistician to take cognizance of But it 
 
154 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 would be possible — could a sufficient number of persons be 
 interested in the inquiry — to follow out the history of a 
 group of Ackworth scholars, to see how many were living 
 after a given interval, how many had gone to th-is or that 
 trade, how many had failed in business, how many had 
 emigrated, how many had married, how many were still 
 Friends, for what causes those no longer Friends had left 
 the Society. After much thought, Joseph Rowntree deter- 
 mined to enter on this investigation, and in the autumn of 
 1843 asked correspondents in all parts of England and 
 Scotland to supply these particulars, as respects the i,86g 
 boys, who had left Ackworth in the forty years ending with 
 the last day of 1839. It would have been contrary to all 
 precedent if some Friends had not thought this inquiry 
 useless or mischievous ; but it was carried through, and — 
 as the result of much patience, a great correspondence, and 
 some expenditure of money — a mass of information was 
 collected of the highest value. No report of the investiga- 
 tion was published. It was difficult to do so in a form 
 not open to objection. Some of the facts disclosed were 
 calculated to occasion pain and discouragement,- and it 
 may, I believe, be said that the general result of the 
 inquiry was considered to be disappointing. The startling 
 facts in respect to disownments for marriage contrary to 
 the rules of Friends were made much use of in the subse- 
 quent discussion of the Society's marriage regulations. 
 But what more particularly concerns us now is the result 
 of these returns upon Ackworth School. Thase most closely 
 connected with its management were convinced that the 
 time was come for improving the material appliances of 
 the School — making the schoolrooms more spacious, and 
 
yOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH'. 155 
 
 therefore more healthy, and making more decided efforts to 
 add to the power of the teaching force, by increasing the 
 proportion of teachers to scholars, and by obtaining better 
 trained teachers. In 1846-47 an appeal was widely circu- 
 lated, stating the wish of the Committee to compass these 
 ends, by raising the boys' wing, so increasing the airiness 
 of the Schoolrooms, adding to their number by taking the 
 Meeting-house for that purpose, and erecting a new one in 
 its place. Along with these material improvements, the 
 number of boys' classes and teachers was increased. A 
 liberal response came to this appeal-^;£"6,238 — and these 
 great changes were carried out. When completed. Friends 
 were so much pleased with them that, after the General 
 Meeting of 1849, fl. loud demand arose that the girls' side 
 should' also be improved. Large alterations were effected 
 in the summer of 1851, the whole cost being defrayed by 
 special subscription. But whilst donations defrayed these 
 large investments in stone and mortar, added income was 
 wanted for the annual outgoings of the School, now in- 
 creased by the additional teachers and their larger remunera- 
 tion. To meet this need the plan of graduated charges 
 was successfully introduced in 1848. In 1852 the study of 
 French was introduced— more than sixty of the children 
 beginning to learn it. Latin had been taught to the elder 
 boys since 1824, now another class of boys began to learn 
 it. It will be seen that the period from 1846 to 1852 was 
 one of the most momentous in the history of Ackworth 
 School. It was one of rapid change and of great improve- 
 ment. Thomas Pumphrey was just the man to be at the 
 head of affairs at such a time. His fertility in resource, 
 and his active and enterprising spirit, were of the greatest 
 
156 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 value in carrying out alterations, both material and educa- 
 tional. 
 
 During the same period another event had occurred, that 
 
 told how 
 
 " The old order changeth.'' 
 
 For sixty-seven years Ackworth School had pursued its 
 operations with unbroken continuity, when, in the summer 
 of 1847, the great household broke up for the first vacation. 
 "Who," says a spectator, "but those that witnessed the 
 animated scene of the departure, can picture its thrilling 
 and overpowering character ? Situated several miles from 
 the nearest railway, it was needful to call into requisition 
 all the vehicles at disposal ; and five large tilted waggons, 
 fitted up for the occasion, each containing thirty or forty 
 light-hearted children, made more than a trip a-piece to 
 one or other of the neighbouring stations. The morning 
 was favourable ; many visitors assembled to witness the 
 novelty ; the children in their best, each bearing his own 
 modicum of luggage, took their place in the waggons, 
 nothing loath to be tightly stowed ; and before eight o'clock 
 the first party of a hundred started amidst loud and reite- 
 rated cheers, which were heartily re-echoed by the joyous 
 freight of the ponderous, heavily-laden vehicles. Ere 
 another hour had elapsed a second hundred were thus dis- 
 posed of, and by one o'clock the busy scene of the morning 
 concluded, by clearing out the last juvenile occupant of 
 yesterday's crowded mansion." 
 
 The vacation of 1847 was experimental, but its results 
 were so satisfactory that it became a permanent institution. 
 For nearly half-a-century no vacations at all were allowed 
 to the Ackworth scholars. Children were four, five, and 
 
JOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH. 157 
 
 even seven years, without seeing their homes. A story is 
 told of a poor man in Cornwall, who sent one child after 
 another to Ackworth, — the journey there was too great for 
 him to undertake, and the children on leaving school 
 taking situations in the North of England, their home- 
 leaving for school was a home-leaving - for life. Nor must 
 it be forgotten that in the days of no vacations, telegraphs 
 were unknown, post-cards unthought of, and the postage 
 of letters so dear that they were very few in number. The 
 few letters that were written at the School for the home 
 circle were always seen by a teacher or superintendent 
 before leaving the Institution, so that there was hardly any 
 intimate communication kept up between parent and child, 
 through the post. Parents came to the Inn and so saw 
 their children — but it was only some who had this oppor- 
 tunity. The founders of Ackworth had seen the evils of 
 children growing up ill taught in their homes. In seeking 
 to remedy this the)', to some extent, overlooked the unique 
 power of the family bond, as a divine institution, and the 
 impossibility of parental duties being performed by proxy. 
 They wanted to train the .children for heaven; but the 
 child's heart wants to be 
 
 "True to the kindred points of heaven and home." 
 We can hardly realise the difficulties there were in the 
 way of locorr)otion eighty years ago, which, of course, 
 partly explain the absence of vacations. Some of the 
 present company will remember how, when set down by 
 the coach at Went Bridge, they were, brought on to Ack- 
 worth in a cart littered with straw and drawn by the ox, 
 which also carted coals and turned the washing mill. Soon 
 after the introduction of railways, permissive vacations 
 
158 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 were allowed to children who had been two years at school, 
 and when the general vacation just spoken of followed, it 
 may safely be said that the School came into closer 
 harmony with the divine plan of human teaching and dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 Meanwhile a stone building had been rising on the brow 
 of a hill that had formed part of the School estate. It 
 looked lovingly down on the elder building, and was de- 
 signed as a training college for young men teachers, under 
 the .bequest of Benjamin Flounders, of Yarm. The Floun- 
 ders Institute was opened in the summer of 1848, under 
 the .superintendence of Isaac Brown. It has most influen- 
 tially helped the work of the School during the thirty years 
 that have elapsed since its opening. 
 
 In 1858 the girls' wing was remodelled and improved. 
 The next year the swimming bath was provided by the 
 liberality of former scholars. The old bath claims a few 
 words of notice, for which I am again indebted to Thomas 
 Harvey :^- 
 
 " The old bath, fed by a very cold chalybeate spring, was 
 about half-a-mile from the School. Those whose turn it 
 waa, rose early and walked before early class and breakfast 
 to bathe — the new and little boys had to jump in and be 
 caught, after their plunge, by bigger boys, who handed 
 them on to the shallower part. of the bath to creep out. If 
 a boy shrank from leaping into what seemed to his little 
 mind a yawning gulf, he was bodily thrown in by one of 
 the younger teachers. It was a frightful process, yet we 
 soon got used to the bath, and, after a while, thoroughly 
 enjoyed it. We had no towels, but put our shirts on our 
 wet skins and got dry by exercise. Towels were introduced 
 
yOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH. 159 
 
 soon afterwards. That this bathing refreshed and invigo- 
 rated the stronger boys, I have no doubt, but none, also, 
 that it injured others. I remember a little boy being 
 seized with a shivering fit after his bath, taken back to 
 the nursery and his bed, and in a short time dying. At 
 his funeral, his elder brother — then a very young acknow- 
 ledged minister^was present, also J. J. Gurney. Under 
 the pathetic ministry of these friends the school was a 
 Bochim (the boy was a general favourite) ; but I do not 
 recollect that any connection was suspected to exist between 
 the shock to the nervous system of a delicate child at the 
 bath, and his illness and death." 
 
 Previous to i860, examinations into the attainments of 
 the children had been made by the Committee, and at the 
 General Meetings, by the visitors present. In this year, 
 an examination was conducted by William Davis, B.A., 
 a professional examiner. Inspections by professional 
 examiners have subsequently taken place in 1872, 1874, 
 and 1879. 
 
 In 1862 Thomas Pumphrey retired from the superin- 
 tendence of the School. His death occurred in the same 
 year. George Satterthwaite entered on the vacant office 
 and held it for eleven years. In 1870 the rules of the 
 Institution were altered to allow of the admission of chil- 
 dren outside the line of membership ' with Friends. The 
 School had not been full, and it was believed these extra 
 scholars would improve the finances without interfering 
 with the conduct of the Institution as a Friends' School. 
 
 I have already referred to five accounts of Ackworth 
 School, relating to different epochs in its history. Two 
 others should be shortly noticed. In 1853 George F. 
 
i6o THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 Linney published a history of the School — a small volume 
 of fifty-five pages. It was written by our late friend 
 Thomas Pumphrey, and is the fullest account of the 
 Institution that has hitherto been published. I have often 
 employed it in the preparation of this sketch. In 1866 
 Ackworth School was visited by J. G. Fitch, M.A., on 
 behalf of the Schools' Inquiry Commission. His notice 
 of the School is printed in the ninth volume of the report 
 of that Commission, presented to Parliament in 1868. 
 "The intention of the founders has," says Mr. Fitch, 
 " been admirably carried out The course of instruc- 
 tion is faithfully described in the regulations as, 'a sound, 
 useful education, rather than one of a showy or superficial 
 character.' In the girls' school I was especially struck 
 with the beauty and finish of the reading, and of all the 
 written exercises. In both Schools geography, history, 
 English grammar, and experimental science are well and 
 intelligently taught. Instruction is also given in Latin 
 and French. Greek is not attempted. The whole curri- 
 culum contemplates the removal of the pupils at about 
 fifteen. I cannot sufficiently express my admiration of 
 the order, seriousness, and repose of this great Institution, 
 nor my sense of the advantage which the pupils enjoy, in 
 the watchful supervision of the Society to which they 
 belong." 
 
 On the retirement of George and Rachel Satterthwaite 
 from the superintendence, in 1873, Josiah and Mary H. 
 Evans succeeded as heads of the Ackworth household. 
 Robert Whitaker was a successful teacher before coming 
 to Ackworth, but, with this exception, Josiah Evans, the 
 seventh Superintendent, was the first who had enjoyed a 
 
yOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH. i6i 
 
 professional training as a Schoolmaster. His adminis- 
 tration, extending over four years, will be remembered as 
 the period of the first winter vacation (1876), also as that 
 in which the teachers and Superintendent first dined with 
 the children ; conversation being henceforward allowed, 
 at that important event in each day's proceedings. The 
 boys' washing-cellar was done away with, and the new 
 warm baths and lavatories erected. In the educational 
 department of the School, Latin and French, Geometry and 
 Algebra were now for the first time taught in all classes 
 except the lowest, and the whole School was re-arranged, on 
 the principle of placing every child under an adult teacher, 
 each of whom was assisted by one or more junior helpers. 
 
 The present Superintendent, Frederick Andrews, with his 
 wife, entered on their duties after the vacation of 1877. 
 All interested in the School will desire for our friends a 
 long and useful reign. 
 
 And now, though I have brought down my narrative from 
 1779 to 1879, how much that is pertinent to the subject in 
 hand remains unsaid ? And that which remains unsaid — • 
 personal reminiscences; anecdotes of teachers, officers, and 
 scholars; changes in manners, customs, dress, and regu- 
 lations — is that which gives life and sharpness to the dry 
 outlines of history. But I leave my st6ry in its imperfect 
 state with the less regret, because this slight sketch is but 
 the precursor of the Centenary Histoi-y of Ackworth School, 
 which we await with so much interest from the pen of 
 Henry Thompson. 
 
 In writing the foregoing pages I have been often 
 reminded of a well-known sentence in one of the speeches 
 of the late Prime Minister, where he spoke of " The social 
 
i62 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 forces which move on in their might and majesty, and 
 which the tumult of our debates cannot for one moment 
 impede." We have seen how a century ago, the " Quaker 
 colony " was founded at Ackworth, life there being regu- 
 lated on a model far removed from that approved by the 
 world at large. It is said, I apprehend with truth, that 
 such was the isolation of the children, that events like the 
 Battle of Trafalgar, the burning of Moscow, Napoleon's 
 overthrow at Waterloo, and even the recurrence of 
 Christmas Day, remained unknown to them long after their 
 occurrence. Yet Ackworth could not be unmoved by the 
 pulsations of life, the movements of the great social forces 
 in the wide world around it. The discovery of vaccination, 
 and other changes in medicine, the rise of teetotalism, the 
 invention of lighting by g^s, of lucifer matches, the intro- 
 duction of railways, cheap postage, telegraphs, the repeal 
 of the Corn Laws, the general softening of manners, 
 have all made their distinct impress on the character of 
 Ackworth life. 
 
 I should like to have' referred to officers, both living and 
 dead, to whom the School owes much. Notable gardeners, 
 beneficent bakers, governesses like Hannah Richardson, 
 housekeepers like Sarah Madocks, nurses like Mary William- 
 son, bookkeepers like George Bottomley, might claim 
 a tribute of affectionate remembrance. Nor can 1 stop 
 even to recount the names of eminent teachers — both men 
 and women — which will be fresh in the memory of most 
 present. Some remain among us, and some have gone to 
 their reward. 
 
 I should like, too, to have named some of the notable 
 men and women who have served on the Committee of 
 
Ackworth School. The names of some have incidentally 
 occurred already, but we have hardly mentioned William 
 Tuke, the friend of Dr. Fothergill, and the founder of the 
 Retreat ; Dr. Dalton, whose methodical economy led him 
 to omit his annual subscription in the years he served on 
 the Committee^; Edward Pease, the friend of Stephenson, 
 and the father of railways ; his son Joseph Pease, the first 
 Friend returned to Parliament, a munificent contributor to 
 the wants of Ackworth ; and a host of others of whom time 
 fails to tell. And so it does, too, of ancient customs, when 
 the Committee Friends closed the day's labour over glasses 
 of spirits and water, and fragrant fumes sped upwards 
 from their long clay tobacco , pipes. Amidst the grave 
 debates of the Committee it would not be difficult to name 
 many quaint or ludicrous passages. For example, when 
 the wooden trenchers were abolished, a venerable Friend, 
 with much emphasis, expressed the hope that they would 
 be carefully preserved, as he was assured they would at no 
 distant date be again wanted for use. The custodian of 
 the School's archives, can perhaps say whether they are 
 still awaiting such a resurrection ? 
 
 We must not entirely omit the mention of eminent 
 scholars. Certainly on this auspicious day Ackworth will 
 not forget that it has on its rolls such names as those of 
 William Allen Miller, V.P.R.S., William Howitt, Sarah 
 Ellis nee Stickney, Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen, Benjamin B. 
 Wiffen, the Right Hon. James Wilson (founder of the 
 Economist newspaper, and Finance Minister of India), and 
 the Right Hon. John Bright, M.P. 
 
 " Great men have been among us, 
 Hands that penned and tongues that uttered wisdom." 
 
 M 2 
 
i64 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 But we must not linger on these well-known names, nor 
 even stop to lengthen the list of the Ackworth alumni, for 
 it would surely be altogether foreign to the best traditions 
 of Ackworth if this day were allowed to pass without our 
 making some effort to draw from the annals of the past 
 teachings for the present and the future. Like the dying 
 king we hear both— 
 
 " The voice of, days of old and days to be." 
 
 Nearly forty years ago, Samuel Tuke endeavoured to 
 make an estimate of what Ackworth School had done and 
 what it had failed in. The subdued tone of this essay 
 contrasts pointedly with the rose-coloured tints in which 
 his relative, Sarah Grubb, had painted her canvas half-a- 
 century before. 
 
 "We think," says Samuel Tuke, "there has been suffi- 
 cient evidence of successful effort, to encourage those who 
 are engaged in carrying on the Institution to persevere, 
 and at the same time sufficient evidence of failure, in 
 degree, at least, connected with our defective operations 
 to stimulate us to further effort in the great service of 
 moral teaching." For a hundred years Ackworth School 
 has " given instruction in the arts which it professed to 
 teach, in a sound and eiBcient, and never in a superficial 
 manner." Its scholars were early noted for the excellence 
 of their writing. Ackworth has sent out hundreds of 
 admirable readers, girls famed for the beauty of their sewing, 
 and boys quick and accurate at accounts. For sixty years 
 it has been thorough in its Scriptural teaching, and its 
 scholars have a wide-spread reputation for. the possession 
 of " industrious persevering habits," as the result of regular 
 application enforced in the School. "We know further," 
 
JOHN S. ROWNTREE'S SKETCH. 165 
 
 says Samuel Tuke, " that Ackworth School has given its 
 pupils a very useful and competent introduction to the 
 various posts in commercial and civil life which they have 
 filled," and " many good men, fearing God and hating 
 covetousness, have been instructed in the School, many of 
 whom look back to their instruction there in things moral 
 and religious and to the circumstances which surrounded 
 them there, with grateful recollections." We think it may 
 be further said that the type of character fostered at Ack- 
 worth has been one greatly needed in English society — 
 distinguished by its thoroughness, its love of justice, 
 its dislike of priestcraft in every form, its appreciation of 
 men by their intrinsic worth rather than by their adventi- 
 tious distinctions. These things, far more than the circum- 
 stance that a very few of its sons have attained to eminence, 
 are the real glory of Ackworth, and constitute its claim to 
 continued support and confidence. One result of the founda- 
 tion of Ackworth School, not foreseen a century ago, has 
 been the pecuniary harvest that its pupils have reaped, from 
 the knowledge it has imparted and the habits it has im- 
 planted. The diminution of pauperism amongst Friends, 
 in the present century, is largely due to the influence of 
 Ackworth School. 
 
 But there is another side to the picture. Too many 
 Ackworth pupils have belonged to an opposite class to that 
 already described. Dr. Fothergill and his colleagues 
 would, we believe, have been disappointed could the 
 returns of 1843 have been laid before them, and they had 
 seen how many had left the religious Society to which 
 they belonged, and, what is far more to be lamented, in too 
 many cases had left also the walks of virtue. With human 
 
i66 THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 nature as it is, a certain amount of failure must always be 
 counted on in any school. Amongst the special causes of 
 failure in the early history of Ackworth, were an exaggerated 
 view of what could be attained by the isolation of children 
 from manifestly evil influences, of the power of the Church 
 as distinct from the parent to mould the characters of its 
 children, and a forgetfulness of the place of the affections 
 in the complex nature of a child, which need cultivation 
 hardly less than the conscience and the intellect. It is a 
 danger, perhaps an inevitable danger, of all great schools, 
 that the individuality of children's characters be over- 
 looked, and an unelastic discipline be applied to all, without 
 reference to the peculiarities of mental and physical tem- 
 perament. • The same class of mistakes are apparent in 
 the Church economy of the day, which separated so many 
 from, church-fellowship for the act of marriage contracted 
 in a way not recognised by the Society. The direction of 
 changes in the last fifty years has been, in the main, an 
 admission of these errors. The tone of moral and religious 
 teaching has become more positive, the school it is felt, 
 must be the ally and handmaid of the parent, not his 
 substitute. A more generous treatment of the body, and 
 a broader culture of the mind, are now enjoyed by the 
 Ackworth pupils than in any past time. Necessarily, 
 these changes bring their accompanying dangers. Ack- 
 worth School has its own traditions to cherish, and its own 
 character to maintain and improve, not to throw overboard 
 in the hope of obtaining a fresh one. It should jealously 
 guard its ancient character for thoroughness in what it 
 .undertakes. It would be a grave mistake to exchange 
 thoroughness for superficial breadth. Clear, legible hand- 
 
yOHN S. ROWNTREB'S SKETCH. 167 
 
 writing is more to be prized than a little aptitude in 
 drawing; accurate account keeping, good reading, correct 
 spelling, would be badly exchanged for a smattering of 
 French or Latin. It were, too, greatly to be regretted if 
 Ackworth School became so expensive as to unfit it for 
 those for whom it was first founded — " the children of 
 parents not in affluence" — or if " plain living" were aban- 
 doned to the detriment of " high thinking.'' And, again, 
 Ackworth School must emphatically be a Friends' School. 
 It is true it cannot be unaffected by the movements of 
 religious thought and life, any more than by those of social 
 and domestic life. It were useless to attempt to reproduce 
 in the nineteenth century precisely the type of religious 
 character laboured after in the eighteenth. It will probably 
 be too much to expect that all its pupils will, in after-life, 
 remain in communion with the Society to which they are 
 indebted for their education. But they will carry with 
 them that which is above all price, and which is the 
 essence of Friendly teaching, if, when they leave Ackworth 
 School, there is impressed upon their hearts and consciences 
 that deep sense of personal responsibility, and that loyalty 
 to duty, which spring from faith in the abiding presence 
 of Christ with men, irrespective of outward rite, of con- 
 secrated place, or of priestly ceremony. If with this faith 
 is blended that love of justice, and of civil and religious 
 freedom, and respect for the rights of men, without regard 
 to race or language, which have characterised the noblest 
 and the best of Ackworth Scholars, England herself will 
 have cause to rejoice in the continued prosperity of this 
 great School. 
 
 The measure of that prosperity rests, to no small degree. 
 
i68 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 in the hands of her own scholars. Munificent friends may 
 find needful funds, Committees may wisely administer the 
 affairs of the Institution, and teachers may labour with 
 self-sacrificing devotion — but these efforts will be fruitless 
 unless the pupils themselves worthily respond to what is 
 done for them. The bee, it is said, ceases to store its 
 honey in lands without a winter — so children, surrounded 
 by every aid for the right training of spirit, mind, and 
 body, may fail to profit by these aids, for want of that 
 diligence and persevering application, which no external 
 aids can ever take the place of. 
 
 Our history would have have been untrue to fact had it 
 represented the past century of Ackworth life as having 
 realized all its founders' anticipations, or all that we hope 
 for in the coming century. This implies no harsh judg- 
 ment on past labourers, of many of whom the inspired 
 words are true, in a very blessed sense, " Their works do 
 follow them." Their failings were in the main those of 
 their age, or sprang out of prevailing currents of thought 
 for which they were but slightly responsible. None would 
 desire more than they that their successors should profit 
 by their experience, and so be enabled to work in a fuller 
 and a clearer light. And truly — 
 
 " The blessing of liim whom in secret they sought 
 Has owned the good work which the fathers have wrought. 
 To Him be the glory for ever ! " 
 
SIXTH-DAY. , 169 
 
 This paper, written at the request of the Centenary 
 Committee, carries its own character with it for literary 
 and other excellence. It was repeatedly and warmly ap- 
 plauded. It took up about an hour and a quarter in the read- 
 ing, yet it may truly be said that the attention of the auditors, 
 and their interest, were unflagging. The proposal of the 
 reader to leave out a portion, at one period, being met by 
 energetic cries of " No, no ; go on." 
 
 The Chairman : My friends, I think we shall all feel 
 that an Institution which has such a pedigree— such a 
 lengthened period of existence, and such a long line of 
 descendants — has also historians who are worthy of it ; 
 and I am sure you will all have listened with the greatest 
 interest to what our friend John Stephenson Rown- 
 tree ha& so modestly called " A Sketch of the History of 
 Ackworth School." As we have yet to sit for a long time 
 before the present meeting' will be brought to a close, and 
 as some little change of position may be a relief to many 
 of us, I propose that the children shall sing a hymn, arid 
 that we shall all stand, to change our posture before going 
 on with the meeting. 
 
 The whole company then rose to their feet and remained 
 standing whilst the scholars sang the hymn, commenc- 
 ing — 
 
 " Abide with me, fast falls the eventide, 
 The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide." 
 
 The Chairman : I do not know that we should fail to 
 acknowledge a very great deal of hard work and earnest 
 labour given in our cause ; and as the friend on whom I 
 
170 THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 am going to call to address you is one who has for months 
 been writing and labouring and thinking for this day, I am 
 sure we shall all give him a cordial welcome. I shall now 
 call upon William Coor Parker, of Darlington, one of the 
 .Secretaries to the Centenary Committee, to address you. 
 (Loud applause ) 
 
 William Coor Parker said : — Dear Friends and School- 
 fellows, — I want, as briefly as I can, to tell you a few facts 
 that have come to my knowledge vvhilst fulfilling the 
 pleasant duty allotted to meby the Centenary Committee. 
 But, before doing so, I wish to say what great encourage- 
 ment has been given me from day to day by receiving from 
 old scholars, along with promises of donations, fervent 
 expressions of gratitude for the benefit derived from 
 Ackworth School; and how a thrill of pleasure has passed 
 through my mind as I have noted the various donations, 
 many of which, I feel quite certain, have been the result 
 of self-denial. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 It may be interesting to many here to be informed who are 
 the oldest Ackworth scholars now living. (Hear, hear.) So 
 far as information on this point has reached me, it appears 
 that George Wood, of Chelmsford, numbered 1,838 on the 
 list, who came to this School in 1796, and left in 1801, and 
 who is now living at Chelmsford in his 93rd year, is the 
 oldest Ackworth Scholar now living. (Applause.) The 
 next is very near to him, No. 1,921, John Whitlark, of 
 Rotherhithe, who came to the School in 1797, and left in 
 1801, and is now living at Finedon, in Northamptonshire, 
 in his 91st year. (Applause.) The oldest "girl" of 
 whom I have heard — (laughter) — I do not like to call her 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 171 
 
 a woman — is No. 2,260, my cousin, Elizabeth Binks, now 
 living at Wakefield, in her 89th year. It is probable there 
 may be some older " old scholai-s," and if there are I 
 should be glad to hear of them at some future time. 
 
 With reference to the Chairman's remarks about old 
 Ackworth scholars being scattered over the face of the 
 world, I have thought it might be pleasant to revive the 
 memory of some of them by mentioning facts in connection 
 with them which have come to my knowledge. On the 
 Continent of Europe I only know of one old Ackworth Scholar 
 — Joshua Smith Wood — who is actively connected with the 
 railway system in Denmark. I have a letter from William 
 Wetherald, of Ontario, Canada, who settled there with his 
 father in 1835, in which he says, " How I should rejoice 
 to meet with you and renew my brotherhood with some 
 whose names are yet familiar to me. It is no disparage- 
 ment of the past of Ackworth to echo the prayer of J. G. 
 Whittier in his grand. Centennial Hymn : — 
 
 ' Cast in some diviner mould, 
 Let the new cycle shame the old.' " 
 
 On the same Continent we have also James Bowron, who 
 is engaged in developing a great iron industry in Ten- 
 nessee, initiated by our late lamented friend Thomas 
 Whitwell. I have also a letter from an old Ackworth 
 scholar ;now in New York, Henry Dickinson, expressing 
 his great interest in the School. He says, " Ackworth 
 School will ever be dear to me ; I spent three very sorrowful 
 months there ; then, by the kind attentions of dear Thomas 
 Brown, Henry Brady, and Edwin Laundy, I became recon- 
 ciled and comforted, and was doubtless greatly helped 
 by the remaining twenty-one months I spent there." 
 
172 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 There are many Ackworth scholars in Australia a!nd New 
 Zealand, with whom communication has been opened, but 
 there has not been time to hear from many of them. 
 Donations to .the Centenary Fund have, however, been 
 received from Melbourne, Adelaide, and Tasmania, and a 
 handsome contribution from Sydney in New South Wales. 
 In the city of Sydney, Dr. John Le Gay Brereton, an old 
 Ackworth scholar, is practising medicine successfully; and 
 we have others in the same neighbourhood, including 
 Thomas Lidbetter, once the Captain of the Swarthmore, 
 and who was certainly a great favourite wherever he was 
 known. I must also allude to Dr. John CashNeild, of Sydney, 
 a scholar here and afterwards an apprentice, who will 
 probably be remembered by some now present as the best 
 skipper in the School. (" Hear, hear," and applause,.) 
 After leaving here he studied medicine and surgery, and 
 graduated with great honour. He practised in Bristol for 
 many years, and then,' on account of the, health of his 
 family, he emigr-nted with them to New Zealand in 1853, 
 and prospered there until the Maorie war in i860. He was 
 for five months in a beleagured town amid all the perils and 
 horrors of savage warfare, and then he removed to Sydney, 
 where he has been greatly blessed, not only in outward 
 affairs but also in his family. He will now be about sixty- 
 three years of age, and in writing to me he says : — " And 
 now I am here, intending no further removal till the great 
 final one which all of us must make, and for which I 
 humbly hope I am not unprepared." 
 
 In the course of the eight months which have elapsed 
 since we got vigorously to work in this matter, some of our 
 old school-fellows have departed this life. Amongst them 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 
 
 173 
 
 I would notice Thomas Firth, a schoolfellow of Walter 
 Wilson, who spoke at our meeting last night. Just 
 previous to his decease he wrote out fifteen pages of 
 recollections of his school-life, which have been placed in 
 the hands of Henry Thompson for such use in the forth- 
 coming History of the School as he thinks fit. He sealed 
 the papers up, directed them to me with a letter, affixed 
 the stamps, but did not live to post them, and his interest- 
 ing recollections and letter were sent to me by one of his 
 executors. I will mention one item to which he refers 
 He speaks of the way in which scholars were made useful 
 at Ackworth in his day, and says that he was employed 
 in rolling a field with the big bull, which he says was not 
 right, and in harrowing with two oxen. (Laughter.) 
 
 Knowing the estimation in which J. B. Braithwaite is 
 held, I think I may mention what he says. He writes : — 
 " I should like to see a thoroughly good library established 
 for the use of the teachers, in addition to any scientific 
 apparatus, &c." And again he says:—" It is a matter in 
 which I very heartily sympathise, and which I desire may 
 be crowned with the blessing that can alone give the per- 
 manent increase." 
 
 In looking over the list of old Ackworth scholars, 
 which I have frequently done, I have been struck, not so 
 much with the great and distinguished names which are 
 on every lip this day, such as Bright — (cheers) — Howitt, 
 Wiffen, Miller, and others ; but the fact which has made 
 the greatest impression on' my mind is the extent to which 
 education throughout the country is indebted to Ackworth 
 School. (Hear, hear.) I have been agreeably surprised at 
 the great number of educators, not only in the public 
 
174 THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 schools of our Society but also in many of the highly useful 
 private schools, who owe the foundation of their education 
 to Ackworth School ; and I cannot but think of the untold 
 and ever-increasing blessings which are likely to result 
 from their labours. 
 
 In speaking to J. W. Pease, M.P., he said to me, — " I 
 consider th'kt this Centenary is not only interesting to old 
 Ackworth scholars, and to the members of the Society of 
 Friends, but it appears to me to be an event of national 
 interest and importance ; for go where I will throughout 
 the length and breadth of this land I find within a distance 
 of a few miles some old scholar from Ackworth School who 
 is doing good work and service for those around him." 
 (Hear, hear.) I do, not think that statement is much 
 exaggerated, and I very much desire that, as just, expressed 
 by; John Rowntree, . we may continue the useful and 
 thorough character of the education given here ; — practical 
 education for the work of this life, and that sound Scriptural 
 education which isof such high value to all of us. (Hear, hear.) 
 I also desire that we may. not confine our ideas within any 
 narrow groove, but let us endeavour to make the education 
 given here such as will fit the scholars for the needs and 
 requirements of the present day, changing as we know they 
 constantly are. (Hear, hear.) I think if we act in this broad 
 and liberal spirit we shall be best carrying out the wise and 
 fruitful words of the beloved founder of our religious 
 Society when he desired that the children of this .people 
 might be taught all things civil 'and useful in the creation. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 The Chairman : A number of old Ackworth scholars 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 175 
 
 will now say a few words to us. We are all so full of the 
 subject that we don't know where to start, and we could go 
 on telling tales of our schoolboy days until night. As- 
 time will not permit of that, we must limit each succeeding 
 Speaker to ten minutes, and when nine minutes have ex- 
 pired I shall unflinchingly touch this bell, so that the 
 speaker may have one minute's warning to wind up his 
 remarks. (Laughter.) 
 
 Henry Thompson, of Kendal, said : John Stephenson 
 Rowntree has stated that if Dr. Fothergill could look over 
 the papers of his late lamented father he would probably 
 be somewhat disappointed with the results he there found 
 depicted ; but I have been thinking that if Dr. Fothergill 
 and some other of his large-minded associates had been 
 here this morning where we are now favoured to sit,: and 
 had looked upon this large congregation, they could not 
 have been disappointed in what they saw. (Hear, hear.) 
 It is my duty to make a few observations on the quality 
 of the education that was in existence during the first fifty 
 years of this School, and also with reference to what in all 
 probability may be wise in the future. We all know that 
 this School has been of enormous value for our Society, 
 and that value is not confined to what has resulted imme- 
 diately from this School, but from the Schools entrusted 
 to men trained in it. Amongst the many virtues and traits 
 of the late Robert Whitaker's character was the gift to 
 appreciate the powers of the young people committed to 
 his care, and his ability to instil into them his own senti- 
 ments, and to enable them to become like-minded with 
 himself. The result of this was that before he had been 
 
176 THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 here many years he had gathered around him a number of 
 men of his own training, capable of carrying out his own 
 ideas of education in a very remarkable manner. From 
 1812 to 1828 there was a state of animation amongst the 
 young teachers which it would be difficult to find surpassed 
 amongst the teachers of the present day. The spirit thus 
 infused into the teachers produced a spirit of like enterprise 
 amongst the children, and the amount of energy and vitality 
 which then prevailed must have affected the interests of 
 the School to a very remarkable extent. 
 
 (The speaker was then compelled to bring his remarks to 
 a close, as the bell intimated that the time allotted to him 
 had expired.) 
 
 Henry Ashworth, of Bolton, was the next speaker. He 
 said : — For me to appear before an audience like this is 
 very embarrassing, and I am scarcely able to express 
 myself. In the .first instance let 'me say that it behoves 
 this meeting to acknowledge in very grateful terms the 
 acceptable character of the centennial proceedings of last 
 night and this morning. Some of the friends who spoke 
 last night, and others who have addressed you this morning, 
 have given you very interesting accounts of their own early 
 connection with this School, and their proceedings when at 
 Ackworth. I have not much to say to you, so far as regards 
 my own connection, which was for one year only as a pupil 
 at this School. The residence of my parents was a long 
 way distant from any Friends' school, and the early portion 
 of my education was received in an institution founded by 
 Humphrey Cheetham, a name well known for benevolence 
 in Lancashire. At that school I dare say if I had been 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 177 
 
 under examination I should have shown myself very pro- 
 ficient in a knowledge of the Church Catechism, and 
 perhaps also of the Thirty-nine Articles. (Laughter.) My 
 parents became solicitous in regard to this fact, and at 
 thirteen years of age I was sent to Ackworth School with 
 a view no doubt to obliterate some of that theology which 
 I had already been taught, and to acquire a knowledge of 
 those principles which are more in accordance with the 
 views of a member of the Society of Friends. The evening 
 readings of the literature of Friends, before the boys retired 
 to bed; was then one of the most prominent of the School 
 regulations. I, remember quite well, and shall as long as I 
 live, some of the most impressive portions of the life of 
 George Fox and other early members of our Society, not 
 only with regard to the principles they preached, but also 
 in regard to the sufferings they endured ; and before I had 
 been here twelve months I had become so impressed and 
 indoctrinated with the principles of the Society of Friends 
 that, if called upon, I believe I should have been ready to 
 suffer as others had done on behalf of those principles. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 With regard to the future, let us look forward to a, higher 
 scale of teaching within the Ackworth institution. A library 
 has been announced, and generously subscribed for, and 
 means are proposed whereby to give a higher education 
 and advanced position to those children who may be asso- 
 ciated at this School, although it has been remarked that 
 •Ackworth scholars have in after life distinguished them- 
 selves in most parts of the kingdom as well as in other 
 parts of the world. Let us, by way of contrast, take thought 
 of the advantages that those leaving Ackworth School had 
 
already received, in a higher scale of teaching than those 
 amongst whom they were called upon to mix and to com- 
 pete in public life, and thus we may account for much 
 of their success. We have now come to a period when 
 popular education is being undertaken on a very large 
 scale, and it may hereafter be found necessary in these 
 times of progress that the Society of Friends should en- 
 deavour to keep ahead as far as possible of those children 
 who have benefited by the schooling of public institutions. 
 There has now been opened out a very wide "field for 
 advancement in life by means of intelligence such as had 
 not been opened out in some of our earlier school days. In 
 those days we used to hear at our Monthly and Quarterly 
 Meetings that boys and girls leaving Ackworth School 
 were wanting situations as handicraftsmen or as female 
 domestic servants ; but in the progress of time it has been 
 shown that we have now less need to provide an education 
 for mere handicraftsmen or female domestic servants, 
 and I may remark that at the present time I do not 
 know of a single individual as an Ackworth Scholar who 
 is either a handicraftsman or a domestic servant in the 
 Society of Friends in my own neighbourhood, or who 
 has any need to take such positions in life. (Applause.) 
 Let us bear in mind that it is of the highest im- 
 portance that the intelligence imparted here will have 
 to encounter a wide field of competition in after life 
 in the prosecution of those means of earning a liveli- 
 hood, which all of us are called upon in duty to fulfil. 
 Whilst on the subject of school training for useful life, let 
 us take a forecast of the future on behalf of the youth of 
 this Institution, and consider the wide range of industrial 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 179 
 
 and other pursuits which are ever requiring the use of 
 heads and hands. In the ordering of Providence it will be 
 found that there is no lack of useful occupations— the pro- 
 ductions of the various portions of the earth's surface are 
 not alike, one country is made to provide one article .and 
 another another, whether for food or raw material of manu- 
 facture, and in the interchange of these commodities the 
 various occupations of commerce are provided. Looking 
 in another direction, and keeping in mind the Divine pur- 
 pose, we find that "out of the hills '' we " dig brass," and 
 under our feet are found abundant supplies of minerals 
 and metals, all of which are made to furnish an incalculable 
 extent of occupation and employment for the skill, the 
 industry, and the use of man. Thus by manipulation, and 
 in a wonderful manner, we have found ourselves provided 
 with all the utensils and implements required in every-day 
 life, together with the wondrous power of locomotion and 
 navigation now so universally adopted. Don't let it be 
 supposed that the Ackworth scholar is unequal to any of 
 these pursuits. It is well known that most of our great 
 inventors who have ministered so largely and so benefi- 
 cially to our welfare have for the most part, if not entirely, 
 been men of very moderarte education and not those of our 
 universities. 
 
 Thomas Puplett, of Ackworth, said : If my friend 
 William Coor Parker could commence his remarks with 
 the words, " My dear old schoolfellows," I can address 
 a still larger number now present as my dear old pupils : 
 and I wish to express my grateful feelings to you, my 
 old pupils, and to you my younger ones, for the very 
 
 N 2 
 
i8o THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 kind reception you have accorded me at this General 
 Meeting, and this Centenary. I had the privilege, which, 
 probably, no one else in this tent has enjoyed, of spending 
 forty-three years, with a slight break by way of change, in 
 this. School. Much the largest portion of that time was 
 spent as a teacher, and, as a teacher, I would make a very 
 few remarks to you now. When my school-days were 
 drawing to a close, a strong desire came over my mind to 
 be a teacher. I especially remember one wet F'irst-day 
 morning, as the boys were walking up and down in the 
 shed with their chosen companions; this feeling came upon 
 me with unusual force and power. But I had not courage 
 enough to speak to any one on the subject, and there was 
 every probability of my being placed in the shop of a 
 confectioner, with whom my friends, with that view, were 
 already in correspondence. Just in time, however, to rescue 
 me from this, my late beloved and honoured friend, Thornas 
 Pumphrey, knowing nothing of what had been passing in 
 my mind, called me one day into the office and asked me if 
 I should like to t)e a teacher. I was ready at once with an 
 answer, but he wished me, in a matter of so much import- 
 ance, to take a few days for serious consideration, and then 
 to wait upon him again. This was attended to ; I gladly 
 gave in my decision, and in due time I became a junior 
 teacher in Ackworth School. I was with Thomas Pum- 
 phrey, in one capacity or other, during the whole period of 
 his lengthened service here; and perhaps I can testify 
 more fully than most now present, to the untiring effort, 
 the ability, the skill, the love, and the energy, with which 
 he devoted himself to the interests of this dear old 
 School, a scene of labour from which he retired to die, 
 
SIXTH-DAY. iSi 
 
 a very few months afterwards, in an adjoining cottage. 
 (Hear, hear.) 
 
 As regards the office of a teacher, I can magnify that 
 office without magnifying myself. It is an honourable and 
 a useful calling ; and I solemnly declare in this large 
 assembly, that if health and strength and youth and 
 vigour were again mine, and I had to make choice of an 
 outward occupation, the vocation of a teacher is that which 
 I would again seek. But with what deepened feelings 
 would I approach my labour ! On bended knee at the 
 throne of grace I would implore moi'e perseverance, more 
 self-denial, more qualification in all respects to labour for 
 the varied interests of my precious charge. Never have I 
 been so deeply impressed with the high privileges of the 
 teacher's office as during the two years I have been with- 
 drawn from active service. I commend the calling to those 
 who are seeking it. It is an occujpation on which the Divine 
 blessing largely rests. I took it up with pleasure; — I laid 
 it down with deep regret, if that be a word not unsuitable 
 to use. Still, I appropriate nothing to myself; I know I 
 was a poor blundering teacher, but I had great enjoyment 
 in my occupation, and that I can say from my very heart. 
 
 The dear old ship of Ackworth School, if at times she 
 has encountered rough seas, has had on the whole a 
 prosperous voyage. She has come now into a snug little 
 harbour. There let her rest awhile, then let us launch her 
 again ! She will carrj', as she has often carried before, 
 a very precious living freight : she will be manned by an 
 able and a willing crew : she will have on board a brave 
 young captain^applause) — well-skilled in the science of 
 scholastic navigation ; and he can wire at any moment to 
 
iR2 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 .any one of his six-and thirty directors stationed at various 
 points on the land. But, above all, let us commit her to 
 Him whom wind and waves still obey, who can clear away 
 the dangerous mists, reveal the sunken rock, and give 
 ability to aVoid the angry breakers. Yes, let us launch her 
 again, trusting that He who has blessed her hitherto will 
 continue to speed her on her way, not only during another 
 year, but throughout another century should so lengthened 
 a course be again allotted her. (" Hear, hear," and ap- 
 plause.) _ 
 
 Robert Henry Marsh, of London, an old Ackworth scholar 
 and teacher said : I have the misfortune — for I suppose it 
 must be considered so when addressing a meeting such as 
 this — of belonging to a period in the history of the School 
 when rebellions were things of the past, and we were content 
 to wonder at the traditions of the doings of our predecessors 
 without ourselves attempting any resistance to the powers 
 that were. We have all however, I feel sure, greatly 
 enjoyed hearing to-day of the sins of our fathers. Our 
 reminiscences — and I speak for those who, like myself, 
 have been here in the course of the last fourteen years — 
 are very mild and uneventful in comparison with theirs. 
 We did not enter the great building, which I have heard 
 compared to a huge workhouse, b}' a narrow passage 
 between high stone walls, resembling the entrance of a 
 prison. I remember well the first evening I saw Ackworth 
 School in the light of a summer sunset, and I remember, 
 too, the warm welcome that I, and every child, received 
 from the Superintendent and his wife, causing us to feel at 
 home at once, and making that " settling-in " — like all 
 
SIXTH DAY. 183 
 
 succeeding ones — so pleasant and easy. Of course we had 
 our small troubles, in those days even. I always had the 
 happy faculty of discovering a wrong way of doing things, 
 and I well remember my experiences on the first morning 
 that I spent at Ackworth. Firstly, I studied practical bed- 
 making for twenty-five minutes with very poor success, and 
 at length, giving up in despair, I set off to discover the way 
 downstairs. Needless to say, I weri^f in the wrong direction, 
 and finding myself in the " Reading-room " was greatly 
 impressed by the sight of the endless rows of empty forms, 
 and have never since been able to enter that room without 
 a feeling of awe. Continuing my explorations I arrived in 
 the " Great-Kitchen " — (laughter) — and was even more im- 
 pressed by my surroundings there than I had been in the 
 " Reading-room " ; but, finally, I made my way on to the 
 play-ground — without having discovered the " washing- 
 cellars," thinking in my heart that cleanHness could hardly 
 be numbered among the many virtues of Ackworth School. 
 (Laughter.) Now — thanks to the liberality of the Friends 
 who have provided the new lavatories— such misapprehen- 
 sions are no longer possible. 
 
 I have spoken of the pleasure it has given us to hear of 
 the sins of our forefathers, but still greater has been our 
 pleasure in hearing of their triumphs. The outburst of 
 enthusiasm evoked by the mention of the name of John 
 Bright, proved — if anything were necessary to prove— the 
 pride which we all feel in the achievements of old Ackworth 
 scholars. Such a meeting as this, is not, I suppose, the 
 place to make any political allusions; but we are confidently 
 hoping that when the present Prime Minister shall be 
 pleased— or shall be compelled— to dissolve Parliament 
 
i84 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 and the result of the poll at the next election for the 
 borough of Chelsea shall be declared, another Ackworth 
 scholar will be counted among the members of the House 
 of Commons. (" Hear, hear," and applause.) 
 
 Our reminiscences, if not exciting, are yet most happy 
 ones, nor shall we forget our Ackworth walks, or our 
 splendid slides ; and, as I have to-day met one old school- 
 fellow after another — happy in revisiting Ackworth once 
 again — it has seemed more like a "great " family gathering" 
 than anything else, united as we all are by happy recollec- 
 tions of our school-days, and by our love for the old School. 
 We have all listened with the greatest pleasure to the 
 speech of Thomas Puplett — (hear; hear) — and, lacking words 
 of my own, I will, with his kind permission, which I have not 
 asked before, for the very good reason that I feared it might 
 not be granted, conclude by quoting from a poem written 
 by him on the occasion of the " Leaving Party" at the 
 School, ten years ago : — 
 
 " Time's tooth hath touched thee. Many a scar appears, 
 And wrinkles graven by the lapse of years ; 
 And where the chisel's choicest work was made — 
 Cornice and plinth and column's crowning head — 
 There first thy sandy atoms fall away, 
 In silent, unobserved, yet sure decay. 
 Still thou art strong, and children yet untold 
 Shall seek thy shelter, herd within thy fold ; 
 The Past, the Present, pour their grateful song, 
 The Future shall the joyous note prolong ; 
 Mother august, at Justice' high behest, 
 Thousands of sons shall rise and call thee blest !" 
 
 (Loud cheers.) 
 
 George Frederick Linney, of Croydon, said : My 
 dear friends and fellow-scholars, I presume I have been 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 185 
 
 asked to address a few words to you because the name of 
 Linney has been known in connection with this School for 
 fifty years, this year. (Applause.) In 1829, my dear father 
 commenced to serve this School ; and he served it to the 
 best of his ability for nearly forty years. Since that time 
 one or other of his sons has been in the service of the 
 School, in one position or another. It is my great 
 pleasure to testify that to Ackworth School I owe 
 what I have and what I am ; and with this School, 
 through the blessing of God Almighty, my interests are 
 closely associated. Being now at the head of another 
 educational institution, I am still proud to stand here and 
 testify my loyalty to this School, and I am pleased to meet 
 such a large number of old Ackworth scholars. I remember 
 Ackworth School when it was in a very different condition 
 frorn what it is now. I remember the old prison-like 
 entrance ; I remember the old stable ; I remember the fine 
 old trees at the entrance being cut down ; and I remember 
 all the changes in the buildings, and the old bath. (Hear, 
 hear.) I did not dislike the old bath, but enjoyed it always; 
 and I was one of the first bathers in the new bath. It has 
 been my pleasure and my duty for ten years to be asso- 
 ciated with another School whose position and prospects 
 have been very different from those of Ackworth. Only 
 yesterday the last stick of my old home at Croydon was 
 removed, and now I am here without a home. We are to 
 enter upon our fresh one at Saffron Walden in a few days. 
 Ours has been a home of change, but Ackworth was more 
 of a resting-place. I come here to receive from old friends 
 encouragement from the past, and hope for the future. I 
 have met many old Ackworth scholars here, and I know 
 
iS6 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 that some of them have had both their ups and their 
 downs in life. Let us remember that in this Hfe we are all 
 subject both to these ups and downs. The grain we 
 send to the mill to grind if not well ground does not come 
 out superfine flour, and the better it is ground the better is 
 the quality of the stuff when it is finished, therefore, do not 
 let us be discouraged if the stones grind hard, for there is a 
 God above who watches the grinding. Let us look forward 
 with hope, and remember that the words of the poet are 
 still true, "The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind 
 excesdingly small." I can look back with much sorrow 
 and with some discouragement at some of the time I spent 
 here as a teacher ; but I want every one to remember that 
 teachers require, and value the kind and the constant 
 support of the parents of the children. I have nothing 
 to complain of in this respect. I believe the time is 
 coming when parents will take a deeper interest in the 
 education of their children, and will understand and 
 sympathise with the occupation of the teacher; when the 
 occupation of the teacher will be looked forward to, and 
 looked up to, as something more honourable than it has 
 been in the past, and I would say to the young, in con- 
 clusion, " Don't be always looking to an occupation which 
 will necessarily enable you to make money, because — 
 although money is a good thing and we can't do without 
 it — there is another thing to remember, doing good to your 
 fellow-men ; and you can't do that better than by teaching 
 the human mind and training the human soul for heaven. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 J. S. Hodgson, of Manchester, read extracts from two 
 
SIXTH DAY. 1S7 
 
 letters of Mary Howitt, and one from Anna Mary Watts 
 (William and Mary Howitt's daughter), relative to the in- 
 terest taken by the late William Howitt in the Centenary, 
 and to his illness and death. 
 
 " Rome, Feb. iflh, 1879. 
 
 " I write for my husband, who is just now labouring under 
 an attack of bronchitis, or you would have heard from himself 
 before now. . . . 
 
 "He sympathises warmly with the movement regarding the 
 Centennial of Ackworth School. . . . 
 
 (Signed) " Mary Howitt." 
 
 "Rome, Feb. z\th, 1879. 
 " My dear husband, who is still confined to bed by his 
 illness, wishes -me to write the following from his dictation — 
 ' My indisposition continuing, it would be impossible for me to 
 send you anything for your lecture on Ackworth in March — but 
 I trust before the Centennial 1 shall be able to write you a paper 
 containing my views of Ackworth School and the principles of 
 Friends generally— together with my contribution.' . . . 
 
 (Signed) " Mary Howitt." 
 
 From William Howitt's daughter, Anna Mary Watts. 
 
 "Rome, March loth, 1879. 
 " You will ere this have heard that my beloved father, 
 William Howitt, has passed to the higher Life. His end was 
 peace, and the spirit of perfect love, patience, gentleness, meek- 
 ness, and hope in a future life which he displayed throughout his 
 illness can alone be pictured by those who, like ourselves were 
 privileged to attend upon him during the last weeks of his life. 
 
 " The morning before his decease he said ' There is a passage 
 in Scripture which exactly describes my present state — "The 
 
i88 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 whole head is sick and the whole heart faint,"— but remember 
 that, when I have got rid of this clod of a body, and have gone to 
 my generation, you must rejoice with me.' 
 
 " Though he was weakened in body, his mind retained its bright 
 intellect undimmed to the last hour of his existence here.- His 
 last words addressed to us were thanks to the Almighty for all 
 His infinite goodness to him, and blessing upon us all— upon his 
 friends — upon, as he said, ' all the world.' " 
 
 "At various times during his illness he referred with the 
 greatest pleasure and interest to the proposed Ackworth School 
 Centenary. In the earlier period of his illness, when he hoped 
 for recovery, he several times spoke of the letter or address which 
 he had on his mind to write for you. It evidently was a subject 
 of pleasurable contemplation to him. 
 
 " On the Sunday (March 2nd) preceding his decease he asked 
 me to get pen and paper and write a few words, 'for I have still 
 one thing on my mind to say.' ' In looking back upon my life 
 nothing gives me more satisfaction than the recollection that in 
 all my writings I have sought to carry out the principles of the 
 Society of Friends, and I have sought to carry out always those 
 principles in life as well as in my writings, believing them 
 to be the complete expression of the pure Christianity of the 
 Gospels. 
 
 " ' There is one work not generally known to be mine to which 
 I would like to direct your special attention, " The Pictorial 
 History of England," published by Cassell, the greater portion of 
 which is written by me. It is a happy recollection to have thus 
 widely spread, in the form of a History of England, the principles 
 of the Society of Friends— principles which have ever been so 
 dear to me.' 
 
 " It may interest you to know that the last work upon which 
 my dear father was occupied was ' The Life of George Fox and 
 his Friends,' with which he was more or less busied for the last 
 ten years. In almost my last conversation with my father he told 
 me that he had greatly hoped to have been permitted to com- 
 plete this work during the course of the present year. That he 
 
SIXTH DAY. 189 
 
 had brought the narrative up to the Swarthmore period. The 
 question was, he said, whether or not the work should be pub- 
 lished as a fragment after his decease. 
 
 (Signed) " Anna Mary Watts." 
 
 J. F. BoTTOMLEY FiRTH said that he had been very much 
 interested in examining the specimens of writing in the 
 Fothergill room. Many people knew what an excellent set 
 of writers Ackworth turned out in the last generation, and 
 in that room there were examples of the work of the writing- 
 masters of those days. Whatever might be said with 
 respect to the improvement of Ackworth in other things it 
 could not be said that it had improved in its writers. 
 
 No doubt the improvements in many things were very 
 marked, but with them all it perhaps might be open to 
 some question whether they would succeed in turning out a 
 finer generation of men than were produced under the old 
 system, with its sanded floors and its harder methods of life. 
 There were many people who expressed the opinion that 
 the cost of education in Ackworth was too high. As to 
 that, he was of the opinion that the Board Schools of the 
 country were likely to run the Institution very close in the 
 matter of a simple secular education ; but Ackworth was 
 not kept on foot simply as a secular institution, but also as 
 a denominational school ; and therefore, from our point of 
 view, it was to serve a higher purpose than a simple public 
 school. It was also to train children up in the tenets of a 
 particular religious faith. For such a purpose a much 
 rarer type of teacher was required than was required for 
 the teaching of secular subjects merely. When teachers 
 were obtained, able and willing to impart both kinds of 
 
igo THE ACKWOKTH CENTENARY. 
 
 teaching, they should be well paid, and at a higher rate 
 than ordinary teachers, because a double qualification was 
 required from them. 
 
 If the teachers selected for the School possessed this 
 double qualification he considered that it would be im- 
 possible to over-estimate the power for good which rested in 
 their hands. There could not, in his judgment, be a 
 higher and better mission than that of training and sending 
 out into the world large numbers of children well grounded 
 in those principles of civil and religious liberty, and con- 
 stitutional freedom, which are the foundation of all true 
 national life. 
 
 William Taylor, of Middlesborough, said : The few 
 minutes allotted to us allow space for neither apologies nor 
 prefaces from the speakers ; neither am I about to follow 
 the example of a previous speaker and convert this plat- 
 form into a confessional. I was a scholar here in the 
 year of the Jubilee, and in referring to it I would say that 
 I act upon the maxim of that old gamekeeper who said, — 
 " What is hit is history, and what is missed is mystery." 
 (Laughter.) As to the Jubilee itself, I need only say it 
 differed as much in its celebration from the festivities of 
 to-day as the costumes of the fair visitors present to those 
 that assembled then. There are three points in connection 
 with that year of Jubilee to which I would like to refer for 
 a few moments. In the few minutes of leisure I have had 
 here I have compared the writing at this School forty or 
 fifty years ago with that of the present day, and, after 
 doing so, I say that the writing of to-day does not strike 
 me as manifesting any considerable improvement on that 
 
SIXTH DAY. • 191 
 
 of forty or fifty years ajfo. (Laughter.) With respect 
 to the reading, some of the old scholars would place the 
 reading of fifty years ago in competition with the reading 
 we heard yesterday; but I must at the same time add that 
 fifty years ago it would have been too daring to attempt a 
 recitation like that we heard yesterday. 
 
 Thomas Puplett has alluded, in language which has 
 gone home to the hearts of many of us, to the past 
 history of this School, and I have always great pleasure 
 in looking back to the advantages, the kindnesses, and 
 the blessings, I received at this School. (Hear, hear.) I 
 think that Ackworth School is destined to be of great 
 use in the work of Sabbath-school teaching, and it would 
 have been very interesting to us to-day to have heard 
 the number of old Ackworth Scholars who are now em- 
 ployed in teaching in our schools on First-day. (Hear, 
 hear.) I acknowledge, on behalf of many hundreds of 
 our Sunday School teachers, that as we come Sabbath 
 morning after Sabbath morning to our duties, our minds 
 go back to the time we spent here and the truths 
 impressed upon us here ; and my earnest desire is that 
 Ackworth's highest ambition in the future shall be that 
 from amongst her sons and her daughters there shall go 
 out many into all parts of this great world so prompted by 
 the teaching they have received here as to induce them to 
 identify themsel\>es with the great Sabbath School move- 
 ment; and that it shall be Ackworth's greatest glory in 
 the future that from her have flowed the truths of the 
 Bible, and that those who have gone from this School have 
 helped to swell that great and noble army (which shall 
 still increase and swell), and have assisted in spreading 
 
192 , THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 throughout the world a knowledge of our Lord and 
 Saviour, that highest knowledge of which man can be 
 possessed. I trust that this may be Ackworth's ' greatest 
 ambition and noblest work, until that time arrives when the 
 " earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the 
 waters cover the sea." 
 
 George Satterthwaite- — who was for eleven years 
 the Superintendent of the School — said : I know not whether 
 I can command my feelings sufficiently to give expression 
 to a few thoughts on this deeply-interesting occasion : 
 meeting with so many old associates, teachers, and 
 scholars, recalls so vividly the eleven years I and my dear 
 wife held the reins of office. I well remember one who 
 had been a teacher and done good service to the dear old 
 School — Henry Wilson — now of Kendal, whose name has 
 not been mentioned to-day — (hear, hear,) — saying to me, 
 soon after my appointment, " I hope thine will be a quiet 
 reign, for I know how much of Thomas Pumphrey's time 
 and energies have been taken up during his administration 
 with the great alterations and additions to the premises, of 
 which you are now reaping the great advantage;" inti- 
 mating that what was then needed was more of quiet 
 insight into the daily routine and inner life of the School. 
 I soon felt how much of indebtedness was incurred by 
 those who succeeded our late dear friend for all he had 
 planned and undertaken during his lengthened superinten- 
 dence, and was, and am, thankful that some years of quiet 
 rule were permitted, unworthy as I felt, and still feel, of 
 the privilege of forming one link in the chain of those by 
 whom the great ship has been guided. 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 193 
 
 Reference has been made to the Masters'' Meetings in 
 the olden time, and the probable dread they inspired. I 
 well recollect, by way of contrast, that, whilst we had not 
 unfrequently to deliberate on delinquencies and penalties, 
 other and more pleasing subjects also claimed our attention. 
 We discussed the point of trusting to the boys' honour a 
 little more in various ways, and of allowing certain privileges 
 on holiday afternoons as one way of evidencing this trust ; 
 and I have a pleasant remembrance of the time when the 
 boys who went out alone the first time one Seventh-day 
 afternoon lighted a bonfire on Went Hill, in commemora- 
 tion of the event, and much more in the same direction 
 has been successfully done since rny time. 
 
 I agree with John S. Rowntree in the description he has 
 given of the probable over-estimates of the influence of 
 boarding-schools, apart from parental care, in the earlier 
 patrons of Ackworth School ; but I ,wish to take this 
 opportunity of saying a little on the benefit of boarding- 
 school life and its associations. There are friendships 
 formed here and at other schools which are life-long. How 
 is it when we come here in large numbers as to-day ? With 
 the great majority is it not a pleasurable reminiscence, 
 despite some hardships, the memory of which still remains ? 
 The opportunity for influencing others for good is a privi- 
 lege of boarding-school life, to be availed of by teachers and 
 elder scholars, which no other position can so adequately 
 give. I thank many of the teachers who are here to-day 
 for their kind support and upholding of the hands of myself 
 and my wife. I trust with regard to the future of Ackworth, 
 " in an educational point of view, that what Joseph John 
 
 Gurney described, in speaking of views of religious truth will 
 
 o 
 
igf THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 be pursued, " The true middle course is always the safest 
 and best," or similar words. We must keep pace with the 
 times, and at the same time guard against going too fast. 
 Let us ever maintain the standard of a good sound English 
 education being well-grounded into the scholars. Public 
 examiners have always testified to this being our character. 
 Let it continue, and with the present tone of the School, 
 and the Superintendent and teachers co-operating in the 
 heart-education as well as the intellectual, as I believe 
 they do, I look hopefully forward to the future. (" Hear, 
 hear," and applause.) 
 
 William Jones, of Middlesborough, said : It is now 
 forty years since I arrived at this School, and I may truly 
 say that the feelin,gs of my heart this day, in remem- 
 brance of that time, are those of deep and humble thank- 
 fulness to God that I was ever permitted to come to the 
 Institution. Never in the whole annals of the School did 
 there come a more hopeless case than that of the little slim 
 lad out of a remote place in North Wales. At nine years 
 of age, with scarcely a dozen words of English, I landed 
 amongst i8o boys; and the Superintendent in his first 
 report to my parents wrote that " William was as wild as a 
 goat off the Welsh hills." 
 
 I had an older brother in the School, but, in spite of the 
 well-meant efforts of our master, Robert Doeg, who "for- 
 bade us to whisper" in the bedrooms except in Welsh, all 
 conversation was cut off, my brother having forgotten his 
 native tongue, and I had not acquired English. 
 
 The ex-Superintendent, Robert Whitaker also invited us 
 to his house to read to him in the Welsh Bible, of which 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 195 
 
 he was very fond, having lived for some years at Llanidloes, 
 in North Wales. It is an interesting psychological fact, 
 that in about six months my mother-tongue was entirely 
 gone, and replaced by the English, as I distinctly remember 
 my uncle from Hereford bringing a cousin to the School, 
 and making vain attempts to get up a Welsh conversation. 
 At a tender age languages are easily lost, or easily ac- 
 quired, conversationally. 
 
 In the Latin class at Ackworth the foundation was laid 
 for that taste for languages which was developed in later 
 years, and which proved of great service to myself and 
 others in connection with the work of the War Victims' 
 Fund during the Franco-German War, and with a similar 
 mission on behalf of the Society of Friends to Turkey and 
 Bulgaria. 
 
 The speaker then referred to some amusing incidents in 
 connection with his school-days at Ackworth, and concluded 
 a very interesting address by reciting the Lord's Prayer in 
 the Welsh language, having, as he stated, re-acquired the 
 language in later years. 
 
 Frederick Andrews, the Superintendent, was now called 
 on — " The young Captain," so styled in a quotation from a 
 previous speaker. 
 
 Frederick Andrews said : In addressing the students 
 
 at a large school a few days ago, Mr. Gladstone spoke of 
 
 " the noble and ancient memories connected with many 
 
 great schools in the country. They ought to appeal with 
 
 resistless force to all those who belong to them not to prove 
 
 unworthy of these great memories." If old Ackworth 
 
 scholars recognise the force of these remarks, surely we — 
 
 o 2 
 
igS THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 the present teachers and scholars — must feel that the 
 School has greater and grander memories than even we 
 previously conceived. (Hear, hear.) Though we labour 
 under many disadvantages, let us all do our best to prove 
 worthy of the great memories which have been recorded 
 in our hearing this morning. A few weeks ago I wrote to 
 our Quaker Poet, John Whittier, and asked him to write 
 an ode for this occasion. Whilst declining, on account of 
 ill-health, he said he could regard it as a privilege to aid 
 in the proposed commemoration of the useful and venerable 
 School ; and he concluded by expressing a hope that the 
 Institution would remain true to the idea of its worthy 
 founders. If there were time I should like to show that 
 during the twenty years I have been connected with this 
 School, although it has been advancing in many directions, 
 it has yet remained true to the idea of its worthy founders. 
 I was here during the latter part of Thomas Pumphrey's 
 long and successful reign. George Satterthwaite followed, 
 and in his time I saw the gradual breaking down of the 
 spirit of antagonism between teachers and boys. I knew 
 the School during the course of Josiah Evans's reign; and;^ 
 following him, I found the curriculum of the School, whilst 
 retaining the thoroughness characteristic of the old 
 Ackworth education, considerably widened. Josiah Evans 
 infused increased vigour into the teaching, and I believe 
 for years to come his reign here will be remembered with 
 gratitude by those who were scholars at the time. (" Hear, 
 hear," and applause.) 
 
 Only a few days ago I read a letter written by some 
 school girls to the Poet Longfellow, in which they asked 
 him how he could write so many things which sounded as 
 
SIXTH-DA Y. 197 
 
 if he was as happy as a boy ; and Longfellow replied by 
 referring them to a pear-tree in the neighbourhood, two 
 hundred years old, which still bore fruit not to be distin- 
 guished from the young tree in flavour. " I suppose," said 
 he, " the tree makes new wood every year, so that some 
 part of it is always young; perhaps that is the way with 
 some men when they grow old. I hope that is so with 
 me." (Hear, hear.) At this time we have seen many 
 old Ackworth scholars growing young again in the recol- 
 lection of their school-days. This sympathy with young 
 life must be the continual experience of teachers, because 
 when they lose the power to make new wood the sooner 
 they retire from their positions the better. (Hear, hear.) 
 This School — to apply the simile to it — has been planted 
 for a hundred years, and has made new wood every year, 
 and every year has turned out from sixty to a hundred 
 scholars. We must use our best efforts that this may con- 
 tinue to be so in the future, and that the vitality of the old 
 School be in no degree lessened. Thus, upon a review of 
 the past historj' of the School, we can assuredly agree 
 with the lines of Whittier, written for an occasion similar 
 to the present : — 
 
 " Not vainly the gift of its founder was made ; 
 Not prayerless the stones of its corner were laid; 
 The blessing of Him whom in secret they sought, 
 Has owned the good work which the fathers have wrought ; " 
 
 and can re-pcho with earnest goodwill his aspiration : — 
 
 " Long live the good School, giving out year by year. 
 Recruits to true manhood and womanhood dear ; 
 Brave boys, modest maidens, in beauty sent forth, 
 The living epistles and proof of its worth." 
 
 (Cheers.) 
 
The dinner bell had long since rung, and, to those who 
 knew the regularity of Ackworth rules, it seemed an awful 
 thing that it should be unheeded. 
 
 Moreover the children awaited their centenary meal, and 
 simple as it was it was still an improvement on ordinary 
 fare. What children are insensible to such a consideration ? 
 
 Thought for them had led not only to a rigid adherence 
 to' the rule of the Committee that speeches should be 
 limited to ten minutes each, but also to some final curtail- 
 ment of the proceedings ; nevertheless the proposal of a 
 vote of thanks to the indefatigable members of the 
 Centenary Committee, and more especially to the Secre- 
 taries, met with three hearty and well-merited cheers in 
 response. 
 
 Edward Gripper (of Nottingham) proposed a vote oi 
 thanks to the Centenary Committee and to William Coor 
 Parker and Alfred Simpson, the two Secretaries to the 
 Committee. 
 
 George William Binns (of Croydon) seconded the 
 motion. He said : We shall all be willing to bear testi- 
 mony to their services during the past few months, and it 
 is only due to William Coor Parker and Alfred Simpson to 
 say that we are extremely grateful to them. 
 
 The motion was carried with three cheers. 
 
 William Coor Parker returned thanks, and the meet- 
 ing was brought to a close. 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 199 
 
 The large assembly now poured out of the tent, and 
 proceeded in search of dinner, wherever their instincts or 
 the hospitality of their kind friends at Ackworth prompted 
 them. 
 
 The Refreshment Tent received many visitors. 
 
 After dinner there was an interesting ceremony : the 
 planting at the bottom of the Green, in commemoration of 
 the Centenary, of two purple beech trees, which had been 
 presented by an old scholar, — Robert E. Giles, of Derby. 
 One tree was planted by the youngest child in the School, the 
 infant daughter of the Superintendent. She performed her 
 part very creditably, her mother guiding her hand, amidst 
 a throng of admiring spectators ; a silver trowel having 
 been provided for the purpose by another old scholar, 
 —Joseph Simpson, of Ashbourne. This was presented to 
 the little planter, and a commemorative inscription has since 
 been engraved upon it. 
 
 The second tree was planted by one of the youngest boys 
 in the School, Herbert Clark, of Manchester. 
 
 After the planting of the first tree, the Superintendent 
 said that it had been intended at that time to present each 
 girl and boy with a Commemoration medal, but only a 
 sufficient number had then come to hand to supply the girls. 
 Those for the boys were expected to arrive later in the day, 
 and would be presented afterwards. This was done the 
 next day. The medals were the gift of Smith Harrison, of 
 London, George Stacey Gibson, of Saffron Walden, and 
 James Reckitt, of Hull. Each of the girls received one 
 from the hands of the last-named Friend, he making a 
 few appropriate remarks. These pleasant ceremonies, and 
 
THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 announcements, were accompanied by great applause on 
 the part of the juvenile spectators. 
 
 William Coor Parker also announced that James Hack 
 Take wished to present a commemoration medal in bronze 
 to each teachef in the School. 
 
 A little before three o'clock, a spectator standing on the 
 hill close to the Flounders Institution would have had a 
 lovely view. The country around, verdant exceedingly, 
 even for "leafy June," bathed in such sunshine as June only 
 gives, yet the heat tempered by the most refreshing breeze. 
 The School, no longer altogether drab, but gay in its holi- 
 day attire, with its flags floating out in the wind, as if they 
 knew that everyone was joyful, and that Ackworth School 
 was IOC years old. In the field immediately below, figures 
 are seen, people begin to gather, men in dark clothes, 
 women dressed in every variety of shape, and there are 
 other figures, puzzling at first, but which our spectator 
 makes out to be athletes. Drawn by the attraction com- 
 mon to his species, he goes down hill for a nearer view. 
 The crowd increases, and formsi a large hollow square, the 
 inner rank sitting, and mostly composed of ladies, the outer 
 ranks standing, all interested in the athletic games which 
 now begin. We fear our unpractised pen cao do no 
 adequate justice to the powers of the youthful competitors, 
 and that we must leave to the imagination of posterity to 
 conceive how well they maintained the credit of Ackworth 
 scholars for muscular training, in their contests, as they 
 ran, jumped, and finally played their game at football ; 
 some of them also affording specimens of those perform- 
 ances under difficulties which prove amusing alike to the 
 rustic and the grave Quaker mind. Avaunt thee 1 Ascetic, 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 
 
 we are enjoying our holiday. What need is there of 
 thee? 
 
 And so ended our Olympic games, by bard unsung ? 
 Who can tell ? 
 
 So many were the objects of interest and pleasure this 
 bright day, that we are in some danger of forgetting that it 
 was not on land alone that our athletes competed. Before 
 the meetmg in the marquee, an aquatic entertainment was 
 provided, in the large swimming-bath, the sides of which 
 were thronged by spectators. A number of prizes for skill 
 in swimming and diving were offered by visitors, and 
 received by the successful competitors. Robert B. Oddie, 
 of Ackworth, was here Master of the Ceremonies. The 
 final rush into the water, on the part of Friends and boys, 
 was an amusing spectacle. 
 
 Amongst the day's amusements we should record the 
 raising of several balloons, which were rapidly blown away ; 
 and an exhibition on the School premises of telephones 
 in working order, by Edwin Blakey, of Halifax. 
 
 The conclusion of the festivities consisted of an enter- 
 tainment, given by the children of the School to the visitors. 
 How true it is that in giving others pleasure we ourselves 
 are pleased ! And this gathering formed no exception to 
 the rule. The children most thoroughly enjoyed it; and 
 even the older Friends caught largelj* the contagion of their 
 enthusiasm. We had in this meeting very eminently the 
 " sympathy of numbers." 
 
 In entering it the struggle was as little like the usual mode 
 of Friends coming into their meeting-houses as could well 
 be conceived, and one who had, the misfortune to wait till the 
 scuffle was over bears witness that there seemed, after the 
 
ACKWORTU CENTENARY. 
 
 meeting gathered, not one square foot available, even for his 
 head, and he was fain to betake himself to a seat outside 
 to await the exit of some one obliged to leave early. 
 
 For some time before the Centenary Meeting the chil- 
 dren, in their play-time, had, with the help of some of their 
 teachers, been preparing this entertainment for Friends. 
 The whole of the scholars were arranged in "the gallery" 
 and front seats of the Meeting-house, Friends occupying 
 the other seats. Originally the tent had been intended for 
 the place of this meeting, but it was found that the children 
 could not be heard there. The entertainment consisted of 
 singing by the whole School at once, in which they were 
 ably conducted by one of their teachers, Joseph Parsey, 
 varied by capital recitations from several of the boys. 
 Both songs and recitations were mostly composed by 
 teachers— either now or formerly in the School Some of 
 the recitations were old legends of Ackworth, in verse, — 
 all had a connection with the School. 
 
 About the middle of the entertainment the Superinten- 
 dent of the School— who was the Chairman — announced 
 that a paraphrase of " Auld Lang Syne " would be sung, 
 that Friends alone, led by the conductor, would sing the 
 usual chorus, and that then both Friends and children 
 would join in a new chorus, "Should Ackworth ever be 
 forgot ? " This was readily complied with, all being 
 pariiceps criminis, as the Chairman observed, in plain 
 English. It Was a "take in" as regards the old folks, 
 which the children lustily cheered. We trust no one was 
 any worse for it the next morning, and that even those 
 who were shut out forgave it, not " letting the sun go down 
 upon their wrath." 
 
SIXTH-DAY. 203 
 
 The programme of the entertainment was as follows : — 
 
 1. " Centennial Chorus," by J. S. R. Parsey. 
 
 Sung by the Children. 
 
 2. " Ackworth Centenary," by J. A. Barringer. 
 
 Recited by P. Sewell. 
 
 3. " The Popgun," by Thomas Hunton, B.A. 
 
 Recited by C. E. Stansfield. 
 
 4. Part Song, — •" Escape from the City." 
 
 Sung by the Children. 
 
 5. " The Lament of the Old Clock Face," by Anna M. 
 
 Andrews. 
 . Recited by G. F. Armitage. 
 
 6. " Ackworth Scholars' Song," by Robert W. Wells. 
 
 Sung by the Children. 
 
 7. "A Legend of Ackworth School," by Charles 
 
 E. Smith. 
 Recited by W. Whitten. 
 
 8. Song,— "The Foot-traveller." 
 
 Sung by the Children. 
 
 g. "In Memoriam — John Fothergill," by B. Scott. 
 Recited by E. S. Burrow. 
 
 10. " Auld Lang Syne," with Ackworth variations. 
 
 By the whole company. 
 
 11. "A Rat, a Rat," by Charles E. Smith. 
 
 Recited by A. H. Taylor. 
 
 12. " Letter of a discontented Schoolboy," by Thomas 
 
 Puplett. 
 Recited by E. B. Reynolds. 
 
204 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 13. Song, — " Hasten from the busy Town." 
 
 Sung by the Children. 
 
 14. "The Bell's Defence," by the late Thomas 
 
 PUMPHREY. 
 
 Recited by Charles Brookes. 
 
 15. " A Table for Schoolboys," by John Morley. 
 
 Recited by W. A. Salter. 
 
 16. " Centennial Hymn," by Robert W. Wells. 
 
 Sung by the Children. 
 
 17. " New Year's Day, 1855," by the late Thomas 
 
 Pumphrey. 
 Recited by Theodore Tylor. 
 
 18. Concluding Hymn. 
 
 Sung by the Children. 
 
 After a short pause, and a few words of prayer offered 
 by the Superintendent, the large company dispersed, and 
 the happy children retired to bed. 
 
 There were in many hearts the echo of the last verse of 
 the " Centennial Hymn." 
 
 And Thou, all-gracious Father, 
 
 To whom so much we owe, 
 Be Thou with all Thy children 
 
 Wherever they may go ; 
 That Ackworth's sons and daughters, 
 
 Spread far o'er land and sea, 
 May ever sing Thy praises 
 
 And render thanks to Thee. 
 
 And so, with an enthusiasm which none could shake off, 
 finding expression outside in ringing cheers, Friends parted 
 from each other, as carriage after carriage left the gates. 
 
 And now our task is done of recording Ackworth's festival. 
 
SIXTH -DAY. 205 
 
 Old School of ours, thou hast been blessed with many 
 blessings 1 Thine, the long line of good men, whose teach- 
 ing through the generations has seemed the echo of the 
 Apostle's words, " Finally, . . . whatsoever things are 
 true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are 
 just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 
 lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be 
 any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these 
 things. Those things which ye have both learned and 
 received and heard and seen in me, do ; and the God of 
 peace shall be with you." 
 
 May Ackworth never lack caretakers worthy of these! 
 
206 THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 The following Poem was distributed among the scholars 
 immediately after the Celebration : — 
 
 SEEDTIME AND HARVEST. 
 
 The record of a Hundred Years of sowing; — 
 Such is our Ackworth's Story; — but no pen 
 Of mortal can indite that Chronicle ; — 
 And yet its hundred volumes all are writ, — 
 An Everlasting History. Now and then 
 A paragraph or section meets the eye, 
 Perhaps a chapter, — and we see how seed, 
 Sown painfully, with effort and with tears. 
 Hath yielded a rich harvest to the praise 
 Of Him who gave the increase, and thus blessed 
 The faithful sower's work. Varied the fields. 
 And varied too the increase ; thirty-fold 
 Sometimes, and sometimes sixty-fold the gain ; 
 A hundred even, where some special good 
 Of soil and circumstance, of sun and shower, 
 Wrought to a special blessing. 
 
 Ackworth's sons 
 And daughters have been scattered through the land, 
 And there are of them whose careers have been 
 So public we may trace them. First in rank 
 We place the men and women who have filled 
 The highest, noblest office man can hold, — 
 " Ambassadors for Christ," the " King of Kings," 
 
Or in their own dear land, or 'neath the palms 
 Of India, or in Afric's Martyr Isle. 
 Others with busy hands, have v/rought to clothe 
 The naked, feed the hungry ; — with swift feet 
 Have visited the sick, and sought to raise 
 The outcast from despair ; or borne with joy, 
 "The spoiling of their goods," and some have been 
 " The prisoners of the Lord " for conscience' sake. 
 Others have done good service to the State ; — 
 Of such pre-eminent, on England's heart 
 And history, one name is " written large ; " 
 Her " Tribune of the People," whose wise words. 
 Truthful as eloquent, are weapons keen 
 In the great strife for Freedom and the Right. 
 And linked with him the Alpha of the League 
 That freed from tax a Nation's daily bread : 
 While one with them in aim, was he whose pen 
 •Wrote to good purpose, and who served the State 
 In dusky India, where his ashes rest. 
 
 Nor of less value to the State their work 
 Who teach its children ; many such have gone 
 From Ackworth, and their forming touch will tell 
 For good, upon the England yet to be. 
 
 The wide domain of Literature hath sent 
 Its sheaves, full-eared and golden, by the hand 
 Of him who sleeps in Rome, whose vigorous pen 
 Death seized, ere he his loving tribute writ ; — 
 The pen that could with genial grace portray 
 The " Rural Life of England," — boldly write 
 
2bS THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 The " History of Priestcraft," or enchain 
 
 The ear of boyhood with its country tales ; 
 
 Also by him who felt the powerful spell 
 
 Of the Italian Muse, and bade her sing 
 
 In our more rugged English ; while the Muse 
 
 Of Christian History claimed his brother's pen, 
 
 And fired his spirit to recount the deeds 
 
 Of Spain's Reformers ; and one gently sought 
 
 The Women of her country to inspire 
 
 With noblest motives and with highest aims. 
 
 From the fair fields of Science precious spoil 
 
 Hath been ingathered : one of Ackworth's sons 
 
 Shared in the Chatmoss victory ; and one, 
 
 With dauntless courage, and with equal skill. 
 
 Rescued from icy grasp of Arctic Seas 
 
 The helpless remnant of a hapless crew, [sprung 
 
 And brought them home. From out her ranks have 
 
 The skilled in brain and hand to bring relief 
 
 To sufferings of the flesh, or minds distraught ; 
 
 The wise in subtle chymic laws that rule 
 
 The elements ; those who through crystals clear 
 
 Revealed a world of wonder to our sight ; 
 
 Or, who, on Nature's marvellous page, have read 
 
 Creation's miracle in tree and flower. 
 
 And precious too have been the harvests reaped 
 In lowly fields unnumbered, all unknown 
 To fame, the while they yield the daily bread 
 Of our great Country's common, general life, 
 That life on which depends, and out of which 
 
SEEDTIME AND HARVEST. 2og 
 
 Must grow the higher, wider life of those 
 Who, called to special service for their kind. 
 Stand forth conspicuous to the general eye. 
 
 Thus ends the Century with thankfulness 
 For Heavenly blessing upon earthly work ; 
 Not only increase given to good seed, 
 But finite errors and mistakes o'er-ruled 
 By Power, and Love, and Wisdom Infinite. 
 So stand we on the Present, looking back 
 And forward, — ^to the Hath-been and To-Be ; 
 And with us two celestial visitants, 
 Their bright wings furled as meaning to remain 
 And dwell with us, sweet Gratitude and Hope. 
 
 Elizabeth B. Prideaux. 
 
THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 Among the numerous objects belonging to Dr. Fothergill 
 exhibited at Ackworth during the Centenary, none had 
 more interest than a small pocket-Bible which belonged 
 to his mother before her marriage, and respecting Ayhich 
 there is a tradition that it was in after days the companion 
 of her husband, John Fothergill, during his journeys in 
 America, and made use of by him when preaching. It is 
 now the property of William Fothergill, of Darlington. On 
 the last fly-leaf the follqwing inscription occurs :-- 
 
 Margaret Hough. Her Book, 
 
 and she was Born ye 30'h day 
 
 of ye 3rd Month, 1679. 
 
 On the first page of the New Testament Dr. Fothergill's 
 birth is recorded — ■ 
 
 John Fothergill was born the 8* of ist mo. (o.s.) 
 1712. 
 
 Joseph Fothergill was born i6th of 12th rno., 
 1712-13. 
 
 The Bible (small 32mo) was printed by John Field, Printer 
 to the Parliament, 1653. 
 
 In addition to the Old and New Testaments, there is 
 also "the whole Book of Psalms, collected into English 
 meeters [sic] by Thomas Stirnhold and John Hopkins, and 
 others, 1654." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 In addition to the very beautiful Wedgwood bust of Dr. 
 Fothergill, in black basalt, exhibited at the meeting — a 
 specially fine specimen, which shows the delicacy and 
 care taken in the execution of the mould, by the veins on 
 the forehead, which were no doubt prominent in Dr. F.'s 
 nervous and delicate face — Wedgwood also executed one 
 or more very fine Cameo portraits, in white biscuit-ware 
 on jasper (blue) grounds. One of these has been repro- 
 duced, and is well worth possessing from its intrinsic merits, 
 and is the one from which the portrait engraved for this 
 Memoir is copied. We are much indebted to J. Spence 
 Hodgson, of Altrincham, for inducing the present firm of 
 Wedgwood & Co., Etruria, to reproduce these beautiful 
 works of art. The moulds were shown to me at the works 
 last summer, and are as- perfect as when made, nearly a 
 century ago. 
 
 A life-size plaster bust was also exhibited at the Cen- 
 tenary, which Was presented, with other objects of interest, 
 to Ackworth School, by I. M. Williams, of York. This 
 varies very materially from the Wedgwood bust, and must 
 have been taken when Dr. F. was much younger. Although 
 it is stated that Dr. F. would never sit for his portrait, 
 there are many paintings and engraved likenesses extant. 
 The Royal College of Physicians of London has a portrait 
 in oils, taken by Hogarth, and as this artist died in 1764, 
 it must represent the Doctor as he appeared when about 
 
THE ACKWORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 fifty years of age. There does not seem to be any clear 
 authority for calling this a portrait of him, though it probably 
 is so. 
 
 On the back is written — 
 
 Johannes Fothergill, M.D., F.R.S. 
 Hogarth Pinxit. 
 Ex dono Gulielrrii Cribb, 1865. 
 Exhibited Nat : Portrait Gallery. 
 There is also an oil Portrait of Dr. Fothergill in the 
 London Medical Society's Rooms, artist unknown, and 
 poorly executed ; evidently taken in later life, if not copied 
 after death from an engraved portrait, and very similar to 
 the numerous engraved likenesses. There are nearly a 
 dozen of these, of which the following are most noteworthy — 
 Portrait, prefixed to his Memoir by Dr. Lettsom, 1782. 
 
 Painter, R. Cosway ; engraver, Bartolozzi. 
 Oval do., from a bust in possession of Dr. Lettsom. 
 (In 4th edition of Lettsom's Life.) Painter, Livesay ; 
 eng;raver, Bartolozzi. 
 Oval do., from a bust by Mr. Wright (in possession of 
 Dr. Lettsom). Painter, C. Blackbird ; engraver, John 
 Hall. Published in " Literary Magazine," 1790. 
 Folio Engraving, 1781, Painter, Stewart; engraver, 
 V. Green. Published by Stewart & Green, London. 
 Engraving of Dr. F., with the " Good Samaritan " under- 
 neath. Engraved by Cook. 
 Another was published in Dr. Lettsom's " Hints on 
 Benevolence." 
 
THE ACK WORTH CENTENARY. 
 
 fifty years of age. There does not seem to be any clear 
 authority for calling this a portrait of him, though it probably 
 is so. 
 
 On the back is written — 
 
 Johannes Fothergill, M.D., F.R.S. 
 Hogarth Pinxit. 
 Ex dono Gulielrrii Cribb, 1865. 
 Exhibited Nat : Portrait Gallery. 
 There is also an oil Portrait of Dr. Fothergill in the 
 London Medical Society's Rooms, artist unknown, and 
 poorly executed ; evidently taken in later life, if not copied 
 after death from an engraved portrait, and very similar to 
 the numerous engraved likenesses. There are nearly a 
 dozen of these, of which the following are most noteworthy — 
 Portrait, prefixed to his Memoir by Dr. Lettsom, 1782. 
 
 Painter, R. Cosway ; engraver, Bartolozzi. 
 Oval do., from a bust in possession of Dr. Lettsom. 
 (In 4th edition of Lettsom's Life.) Painter, Livesay ; 
 engraver, Bartolozzi. 
 Oval do., from a bust by Mr. Wright (in possession of 
 Dr. Lettsom). Painter, C. Blackbird ; engraver, John 
 Hall. Published in " Literary Magazine," 1790. 
 Folio Engraving, 1781, Painter, Stewart; engraver, 
 V. Green. Published by Stewart & Green, London. 
 Engraving of Dr. P., with the " Good Samaritan " under- 
 neath. Engraved by Cook. 
 Another was published in Dr. Lettsom's " Hints on 
 Benevolence." 
 
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