Tributes to founding father of education adventure

Ackworth School, near Pontefract, was founded in 1779 by Dr Fothergill just a year before he died to educate both boys and girls from a Quaker faith who “were not in affluence”.

Although it is now a fee-paying institution the Quaker ethos which he helped to create is still alive in the school today.

To celebrate the school’s history Ackworth’s staff and pupils have held a special event to mark 300 years to the day since their founder’s birthday in March 1712.

The occasion was marked with a giant cake bearing his named with a slice given to every member of the school community – from teachers to pupils to maintenance and canteen staff.

Dr Fothergill was born in a farm in Wensleydale and rose to prominence in the 18th century as both a doctor and a campaigner for good causes.

His treatments for patients with throat ulcers were credited with saving lives while his philanthropy extended to supporting hospitals in America and he counted among his friends one of the founding fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin.

He campaigned with Franklin for conciliation between Britain and the American colonies and Franklin once said of him: “I can hardly conceive that a better man has ever existed.”

One of his final acts in life was to create a boarding school on the site of disused hospital in Ackworth on behalf of the The Religious Society of Friends – Quakers. Although he was only able to visit the school three times before he died his legacy at Ackworth lives on where the school’s governors have remained accountable to the society for more than 230 years.

The school’s archivist, Celia Wolf, has created a display featuring documents and items from his life known as “Fothergilliana” to allow pupils to learn more about the man who created their school. Art students have created a gold chain containing a sign bearing the words: “Keep Bright the chain” which was a message Dr Fothergill had inscribed on a jug he gave to Franklin as a gift.

Ackworth’s headteacher, Kathryn Bell, said: “When pupils first come into the senior school every new scholar is given a session where they learn about the history of Ackworth.

“We are a traditional boarding school and because the history of our school exists in the corridors where each student of previous generations has walked our pupils really appreciate that and it gives us a great responsibility to maintain the heritage of the school.”

Mrs Bell said that although the school was now regarded as being traditional when it was founded Dr Fothergill’s vision of how it should operate was way ahead of its time.

She said: “He was always very concerned with the educating of the whole child – not just filling their minds with bits of knowledge. He felt very much that it was about looking after the whole child when he founded the school.

“Ackworth was seen at the time as being very much an experimental education adventure. When it was created he saw the school as a community. Although people talk about school communities a lot today this was 1779.

“The ideas of a family or a community from an education point of view just did not exist. He was also clear that he wanted girls to be educated in the same way.”

Now it is a day and boarding school with pupils from across Yorkshire along with international students. Around 10 per cent of pupils are Quakers or come from families with a Quaker background.

However Quaker teaching remains important. Periods of “reflective silence” form part of each day and each week there is a silent meeting for worship.

Mrs Bell said there were also parallels between the experience of overseas students being educated in another country and those of the original boarders at Ackworth, many of whom would face a two day journey from London to get to the north of England.

Dr Fothergill was born in March 1712 at Carr End Farm in Wensleydale. When he was six his mother died and he was sent to Cheshire before being educated at Sedburgh. He returned to Yorkshire to become an apprentice at an apothecary in Bradford when he was 14 and went on to study for a medicine degree at Edinburgh University.

After graduating he established a medical practice in London. In his spare time he became a leading botanist, growing rare plants from around the world from his garden, near Stratford.

He died aged 68 on Boxing Day 1780.