Of his friend of many years, Dr. John Fothergill, Benjamin
Franklin wrote: "I can hardly conceive that a better man has ever
existed." Fothergill's letters provide a fascinating perspective of
his time--a totally different view from that given by his
contemporaries Horace Walpole and Dr. Johnson.
The "Quaker internationalist" (as his editors aptly call him)
was during the middle decades of the eighteenth century one of the
half dozen leading physicians of London, a horticulturist of great
distinction, an educational reformer, a patron of many
philanthropic causes, and a tireless friend of Americans and the
cause of American rights. He was exceedingly generous as a patron
of scientific undertakings and of young Americans abroad. He
founded a famous Quaker school for boys and girls which is still
flourishing; he helped found various benevolent and educational
institutions in America and he continually subsidized worthy books
and gave them to worthy recipients.
All these activities and others are recorded in the some two
hundred letters here selected for publication. They throw light on
Quaker history on both sides of the Atlantic, on advances in
medical science and institutional care of the sick, on discoveries
in natural history, and on political developments from the Jacobite
Rebellion through the American Revolution. From the beginnings of
the rift between colonies and mother country, Fothergill served as
a vigorous advocate of conciliatory measures and commonwealth
status for America, speaking with equal frankness and impartiality
to leaders on both sides until well after hostilities began.
A few weeks before he died (at the end of 1780), he wrote
Franklin in France to say that with all Europe leagued against
England nothing could be hoped for her from this war, but that the
world might hope for the establishment of a tribunal to settle
disputes among nations and preclude war as an instrument of
policy.
Corner and Booth have furnished a substantial introduction, and
they have annotated the letters with great skill and authority.
Lyman Butterfield, well known editor of the "Adams Papers," says,
"I have never encountered annotation on bibliographical,
biographical, medical, botanical, and topographical matters that is
more unfailingly readable per se. The transatlantic combination of
editors was obviously just right. Toward understanding one
prominent strand in the cultural history of the 18th century, this
book is a uniquely valuable contribution."
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