ART. I.—A Chronological Summary of events and

circumstances

connected with the origin and progress of the doctrine and practices of the Quakers.

A. D.

Continued from p, 288

at

The Subscription recommended last year having succeeded, a 1779. Public School is opened in the Seventh Month of this year Ackworth, for the education of the children of Friends ' not in

affluence.'

"YEARLY MEETING, 5th Month 26th, 1779. On considering the Report of the Meeting for Sufferings in relation to the intended School at Ackworth, it is agreed that the further consideration of this matter be resumed at the next sitting of this Meeting. This Meeting adjourns to the 4th hour to-morrow afternoon. The 26th of 5th Mo. 4th hour, met pursuant to adjournment: This Meeting having deliberately considered the Report of the Meeting for Sufferings, in relation to the intended School at Ackworth, agrees thereto, (a) and recommends it to the several counties and places, to promote the Subscription proposed by this meeting last year, for the purchase of the estate at Ackworth and establishing the intended School at that place. The sum of six thousand pounds is already subscribed, and the further sum of three

(a) This appears redundant, the Report in question having been agreed to at the preceding Yearly Meeting. Ed.

thousand pounds will be wanted to complete the same: and the Meeting for Sufferings is directed to send this Minute, together with such further information as they may think expedient, to the different counties and places; and desire them to send up their subscriptions as speedily as may be; in order that suitable provision may be made for effecting this Establishment. And as there are divers Friends now in Town, who may be disposed to contribute liberally to this design, it is ordered that the Subscription Books, which were begun last year, be kept open in the fore-chamber, during the sitting of this Meeting.

"Fifth Mo- 29th. This Meeting desires the several counties and places to choose one or more Friends, to join with the Committee to be appointed by the Meeting for Sufferings in the management of the School to be opened at Ackworth; and to be present at the meetings to be held for that purpose, as it may suit their convenience.

"It is proposed, that the first meeting be held at Ackworth the 29th of 7th month, next, at ten in the forenoon.-Thomas Gould is directed to send a copy of this Minute, as speedily as may be, to the several counties."

A. D. The First Report of the management of Ackworth School is 1780. presented to the Yearly Meeting. The Annual General Meeting held there is established.

"YEARLY MEETING, 5th Mo. 19th, 1780. David Barclay brought in the following Report from an adjournment of the General Meeting for Ackworth School, viz.

"To the Yearly Meeting in London: Pursuant to the directions of the last Yearly Meeting, a General Meeting was held at Ackworth the 29th of 7th Mo. last, for the management of the School at that place; consisting of twenty-nine friends, appointed by several of the counties; and six of the Committee of the Meeting for Sufferings in London; together with divers other Friends from different parts of the nation; when several matters relative to the undertaking were deliberately considered, the result transmitted to the Meeting for Sufferings, and by them to the several counties and places.

"The [following] Report from the Committee at Ackworth, dated the 1st of the 5th month last, will inform you of the progress and state of this Institution at that period.

To the adjournment of the General Meeting for Ackworth School to be held in London the 15th instant [5th Mo. 1780.]

"We the Committee appointed to make the necessary preparations and provision for admitting the family and children into this House, to have the immediate care and inanagement thereof, and to act in conjunction with the Committee appointed in London by the Meeting for Sufferings, report; That we have endeavoured to fulfill the trust reposed in us, and have provided the necessary accommodations for a family much more numerous than we could reasonably expect:-The number of children now in the House is as follows:

The rest of the family are the Housekeeper, two Schoolmasters, one Schoolmistress, and her Assistant, and divers other necessary servants.

'We have found the great want of a Superintendant, qualified according to your description; and much desire your attention to that object. Divers of us have frequently resided at the place, in order in some measure to supply that deficiency: in which service some women friends, at our request, have acceptably lent their assistance; and our Friend John Hill, at the request of the London Committee, hath also resided here several months, and his Wife a part of the time; whose close application for the benefit of the Institution has been very useful and acceptable.

The want [which existed] of such an Establishment seems already evident, from the ready disposition with which Friends have embraced the privilege of providing their children with the means of obtaining a pious and guarded education: insomuch that many have been sent hither [from places] at very great distances, in the midst of a severe winter and nothing could more fully demonstrate the necessity of it, than the good effects that have already been conspicuous on the minds and manners of divers, who at their first admission seemed utterly unacquainted with good order, and of very unpromising dispositions.These encouraging circumstances, and the great satisfaction attending the minds of many Friends who have been led to visit this place; and the openness they have found in the flowings of Gospel love to impart

counsel and admonition to the whole family, are confirmations to us, that the Establishment (if conducted under a due regard to Divine Direction) may be rendered a blessing to the rising youth of the present and succeeding generations:

'We are your friends and brethren; Signed on behalf of the said Committee,

by William Tuke

Clerk to the Committee at this time.' Follow, various particulars of the state of the new Institution. It appears that 190 Children were [in 7th mo.] in the schools; that a sum exceed. ing £6000 had been received in donations (b); that the subscriptions by Annuitants amounted to above £3000; and that about £2250 had been expended on account of the Estate and family, in improvements, stock, repairs and charges: the Report thus concludes: "This Meeting thinks it necessary further to acquaint you, that it is proposed a Meeting for the good government of this Institution should be held annually at Ackworth, consisting of the Committee appointed by the Meeting for Sufferings in London and the Committee at Ackworth; together with such Friends as may be appointed by the several counties and places, as directed by the Yearly Meeting; with any other Friends who are free [in mind] to attend; who, together, are to choose a Committee of Friends in the Country, to have the immediate inspection and management of this Institution, in conjunction with the Committee appointed by the Meeting for Sufferings in London. (c)

"And it is proposed that this Meeting be held annually, on the last Fifth-day in the Seventh Month, at the Tenth hour in the forenoon. London the 15th of the 5th Month, 1780." "

"These Reports having been read are agreed to, and the accounts contained in them are satisfactory to this Meeting: It is referred to the Meeting for Sufferings to disperse the same for general information, as may be judged most expedient."

By the close of this year (as appears from the first printed Report of the series in Friends' hands) many convenient alterations had been made in the house and offices, part of which had been converted into a Meeting-house; the garden of five acres had been laid out, and a part of it planted as an orchard (d); and various improvements made in the Farm: though out of the stock of twenty four Cows, provided for the use of the family, THREE HAD BEEN ALREADY DISTRAINED FOR TITHE.

The year 1780, then, is the Era of a Reformation in our Religions Society; begun by the instruction in useful learning of a large body of children of both sexes, from all parts of the country, under the watch ful care of Friends. And this at the expense, in great measure, of the church itself:-a most important step towards a better practice, and

(b) Two Friends had given £300; five, £200; and twenty, £100, each. Ed. (c) Since become a self-electing body, but subject to the General Meeting. (d) Five hundred bushels of apples are not unfrequently now gathered from

it in a season.

the fruit of the labours of men of liberal minds and enlightened judgments. Among these undoubtedly stands foremost the name of John Fothergill, whose removal very soon afterwards, from this changeable world, to his reward in a better, we have now to record.

My account of this eminent public character and consistent quaker must be chiefly occupied (agreeably to the plan of my Work) with what exemplifies his personal character: and I must take the opportu

Note. The first Superintendant and Treasurer was our Friend John Hill (whom I remember well in his venerable grey hairs, in the midst of the family) and the first Mistress of the Family his wife Judith. There were now (in 1780) besides, five Schoolmasters and three Schoolmistresses, a House-steward, a [female] Housekeeper and a Nurse; besides the necessary servants, &c. about sixteen in number. The first teacher engaged for the Schools was our Friend Joseph Donbavand : he was Writing-master to the Institution, until obliged by the infirmities of age to retire, which he was enabled to do by a liberal pension from its Funds. His son John was apprenticed to the School, and became a teacher in the Institution. About his twenty-first year, being in this office, he was drawn for the Local Militia. Being certified to the Bench of Magistrates as of the persuasion of the people called quakers' (according to the lax terms purposely used in the Act, as an indulgence to us) he appeared, and refused to take the oath or serve; and, having no effects to answer the fine of £10 by a distraint, he was committed for a month to prison at Wakefield by warrant signed Francis L. Wood and William R. Hay. Here he had for company five other young men professing with Friends, only three of whom were actually members. The first of these who was taken thither was turned among the criminals, habited in the prison dress, and subjected to hard labour: but a Friend of the town interceding with Justice Heywood, that Christian spirited magistrate (who had read George Fox's Journal) relieved this prisoner, and the rest after him, from the needless infliction of penal severities; and they had only to suffer a confinement which, mitigated thus, was not without its hardships. Under this indulgence (it is our painful duty to add) some of the six behaved themselves in a manner inconsistent with the strictness of the principles they professed, and for which they were understood to be suffering; it may be, that idleness was here, as in most other cases of the kind, the mother of evil.'

From whatsoever cause it happened, there appeared afterwards a disposition in the Bench to bear hard upon Friends: for before the expiration of four years, our Friend before named was again ballotted, together with an apprentice and a servant of the Institution (both members of the Society) and had to undergo, with them, a second imprisonment of twenty-four days. He was in weak health and lame from an abscess; so that he could not walk three miles to the appearance, but was obliged to ride: yet the Surgeon in attendance passed him as fit and capable to serve!

One of the others from the School, having on a pretty good suit with a hat somewhat high in the crown, was told that he was no quaker by his appearance, and that the clothes he had on were worth the fine!

Thus circumstanced, our Friend I. D. (who had been an exemplary character, and at times had spoken and prayed in Meeting, exercising a religious care over the children) endured his second imprisonment with Christian patience; thankful to the Almighty for his grace and goodness, at seasons extended to his spirit, and to his Friends for their frequent attentions to him. He died of a fever in 1824, aged thirty-five years: his first confinement was in 1810. There is an account of him in Piety promoted,' the Eleventh part. Ed.

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