Autobiography of the late J. Milner Fothergill, M.D / [J. Milner Fothergill].

  • Fothergill, J. Milner (John Milner), 1841-1888.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Autobiography of the late J. Milner Fothergill, M.D / [J. Milner Fothergill]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL MONTHLY: Devoted to Medicine, Surgery and Allied Sciences. Vol. XXI, No. 2. FEBRUARY, 1902. Whole No. 242. Original Communications. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE J. MILNER FOTHERGILI., M. D., LONDON, ENG. CHAPTER I. CHILDHOOD. THE Fothergills are an old family residing in Ravenstonedale,of old called Rissendale, a high lying dale on the Yorkshire border of Westmorland. In early days,Ravenstonedalewasacity of refuge and the legend is that a Mil¬ ner killed a Fothergili somewhere in Yorkshire and fled to Rissendale; whither the dead man’s brother pur¬ sued him. Milner settled down afraid to leave the refuge, and Fothergili set¬ tled down too to watch him. Side by side the two families have lived since in this dale, the Milners boasting that they were the first. It is quite clear if the primeval Milner had not gotten there first, neither name would ever have been known in connection with the dale. The time fixed for the ad¬ venture is the reign of King John. Tarn House, an ancient and not very extensive mansion, was the early home of the Fothergills. It looks down the pass in the hills leading southwards to Ledbergh in Yorkshire. Further in¬ to the dale stands Ashfell, the home of the Milners. The Fothergills were in a good social position at an early peri¬ od for Sir Wm. Fothergili was stand¬ ard bearer to Sir Thomas Wharton at the battle of Sollom Moss, in the time of King Henry the VIII. (The Whar¬ tons, of Wharton Hall, were the lead¬ ers of that area, having for their near¬ est neighbors the Musgraves of Hart¬ ley). Then, in the time of King Charles II, George Fothergili of Tarn House, (then the only slated house injihe parish), was clerk of the peace for Westmorland, and Queen’s receiver for Lancashire, Westmorland and Cum¬ berland. Then the Fothergills divid¬ ed into the Tarn House family, one at Lockholme, another at Brownber fur¬ ther into the dale (where John Fother¬ gili, the head of the family, still re¬ sides), and fourth at Wath, on the Leine, at the Orton border of the parish. Ravenstonedale boasts that it never hadagentlemanandneverhad abeggar. The inhabitants are a thrifty people; industrious and hard at a bargain. There was always a literary turn about the Fothergills, and Anthony Fother¬ gili of Brownber, son of Thomas Foth¬ ergili (probably the son’of the Queen’s receiver) was the author of several works in verse and prose, and a con¬ tributor to the Monthly Review. He died in 1761 at the age of 75, and a rec¬ ord of his work is to be*found in the parish church. Indeed, the Fother¬ gills, to judge from the^tablets in the church, were the leading'people of the place. From one of these it would appear that two of the Lockholme Fothergills attained||distinction at Ox¬ ford. Thomas Fothergili, D. D., was vice-chancellor and provost of Queen’s in 1772-75. in which last year he was made a prebendary of Durham. In 1790, George Fothergill£was principal of Edmond Hall, where there is to be seen a picture of him in his robes. An¬ thony Fothergili, M. D., F. R. S., was a fashionable physician at Bath, and a poet of 1 no mean order.^He left the Fothergili gold medal to the Medical Society of London. A scion went into Wensleydale in Yorkshire, and resided at Carr End, VY ensleydale. From him were descend¬ ed John Fothergili, M. D., F. R. S., the famous London physician of the latter part of the last century, the founder of the famous Quaker school at Ackworth, in Yorkshire. Dr. Foth¬ ergili, of Darlington, the temperance