Dr. John Fothergill

London Quaker and doctor. His ODNB entry makes no mention of connections to West Indian slave-colonies, nor does his will, as John Fothergill of Harpur Street, proved 12/01/1781, but he appears as trustee and creditor of John Boddie of Nevis (q.v.) in the latter's will, having sold an estate or share of an estate on Nevis to Boddie in 1772. This estate was Jory's, later known as Fothergill's, with which Fothergill's connection appears to have started in 1763, possibly as mortgagee of one or more of the legatees under the will of Frances Bladen (q.v.). The estate passed to John Fothergill's sister Ann Fothergill (q.v.) who sold it and the enslaved people attached to in 1791.

1. John Fothergale [sic] was one of the addressees with Benjamin Franklin and Charles Pearce in 1770 of two letters from Daniel Roberdeau concerning the sale of Roberdeau's estate named Pelham River in St Kitts to John Boyd. The letters imply that the addressees were the agents or attorneys of Roberdeau charged with the sale.

2. In his will, John Fothergill left £1000 apiece to his nephews William and John Fothergill and niece Alice Chorley on the death of his sister Ann Fothergill, and similarly £1000 each to his five nieces daughters of his brother Joseph Fothergill and to his niece Betty Chorley wife of Alexander Chorley, again on the death of his sister Ann. He left an annuity of £30 p.a. to his niece Ann Freeman wife of James Freeman; an annuity of £50 p.a. for five years or until the death of his sister Ann Fothergill, and then £1000, to his nephew Thomas Fothergill; and £500 to his nephew in law John Chorley. He instructed his sister Ann to pay off the mortgage owed by his brother Alexander Fothergill on the latter's estate on condition Alexander willed it to her for life and then to his nephew William, subject to an annuity of £50 p.a. for Alexander. He left the trustees of Ackworth School £100 p.a for 5 years after his death and then £50 p.a. 'for ever' to be secured by government or personal securities as his sister Ann saw fit.

3. John Fothergill M.D. was party to a 1776 suit of Fothergill v Cave, in the report of which he was said to have sold one moiety of an unnamed estate to John Boddie in 1772. The summary by Vere Langford Oliver of an indenture of 1763 to which this suit appears to relate shows Fothergill and his heirs and assigns being granted and assigned 'for ever one full or equal third part, customary share or dower of Mary Cave for the natural life of the said Mary.' The 1772 indenture between John Fothergill and John Boddie shows him as selling the whole of Jory's to Boddie: presumably the reference in the 1776 suit was simply to the moiety that had belonged to Mary Cave.

DeLacy, Margaret. "Fothergill, John (1712–1780), physician and naturalist." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 23 Sep. 2004; Accessed 15 Jul. 2020. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-9979.

1. 'From Daniel Roberdeau to Benjamin Franklin, John Fothergill, and Charles Pearce, 27 February 1770,' Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-17-02-0041-0002. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 17, January 1 through December 31, 1770, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1973, pp. 82–86.]; 'Daniel Roberdeau to Benjamin Franklin, John Fothergill, and Charles Pearce, 2 October 1770,' Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-17-02-0141. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 17, January 1 through December 31, 1770, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1973, pp. 237–239.]

2. PROB 11/1073/140. The detailed will of his sister and residuary legatee Ann Fothergill spinster of Bloomsbury Square proved 20/07/1802 (PROB 11/1377/239) contains no reference to 'slave-property'; neither does the article on Ann Fothergill by Christopher C. Booth, 'Ann Fothergill: The Mistress of Harpur Street', Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 122, no. 5 (1978): 340-54. Accessed July 21, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/986689.

3. Caribbeana Vol. II p. 238; Vere Langford Oliver, History of Antigua Vol. I p. 51.

We are grateful to Christine Eickelmann and David Small for sharing their work in tracing the history of the Jory's or Fothergill's estate, and to Audrey Dewjee for highlighting Dr John Fothergill's possible connections with slave-ownership to us.