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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    leader, belonged to the Wensleydale branch. To which branch of the Ravenstone- dale families belonged the first Foth- ergill who settled at Morland, is not quite clear, but the probability is he belonged to the Lockholme family. He possessed Midfield, Barugh, and some allotment in Lunbegai Tarn pasture. At Morland, lived the Westmorland branch of the Bachlinses, and Edward Bachlinse died in 1745. His only daughter married an Eeles, and had three daughters. These married a Fothergill, a Scourfield, and aWendal, who divided the Bachlinse property between them. Fothergill had three sons, Thomas, George and John, and a daughter Mary. This led to a sub¬ division again. Thomas the eldest, got the larger half of the Morland property; George got Barugh; Mary, Midfield, in the parish of Orton; and John a slice of the Morland es¬ tate called Grengill. John married a Mary Ellison of Barwise Hall, anAsh- ly family, cousin to John Elliotson, M. D., F. R. S., Professor of Medicine in University College, the leader in med¬ icine in London in his day, until elec¬ tro-biology led him into quicksands, and the sisters O’Key befooled him. He retired into private life about 1840. The property would not admit of more subdividing so John’s children had to do something for themselves. Several went west emigrating to Canada. Thomas held to the land being the eldest. George studied medicine. John, the youngest son, went into the church and Settled in British Guiana, where he became Archdeacon of Berlice. Aft¬ er fourteen years in Guiana he came home and died vicar of Boride kirk in Cumberland. George, the third son, went to London and walked the hospi¬ tals, being a student at the London Hospital in 1827-28-29. He took the qualification of licentiate of the Apoth¬ ecaries’ Hall in 1829, and then com¬ menced practice at' Orton in West¬ morland, near his bachelor uncle George, who had been at the expense of his education. Barugh on the Leine, was the prop¬ erty of the second son of the Mor¬ land Fothergills. The first Fothergill of Barpgh was a humorous man, fond of a joke, and many stories are told about him. The second was a quiet, amiable, upright man, respected by all, and noted as a skillful angler. He was fond of his nephew George, who had an extensive practice at Orton. The then vicar of Orton was the Rev. Rob¬ ert Milner, J. P. D. L., a prominent magistrate and sound lawyer, as be¬ came the man who lived in the house where Dr. Burn wrote his famous “Le¬ gal Treatises,” and his “History of Cumberland and Westmorland,” (con¬ jointly with Dr. Nicholson). This Robert Milner was the young-* est son of the owner of Ashfell, in Ravenstonedale, who had bought Coat- plate Hall, on the Leine, near Orton. He married Peggy Burr, the niece of the lawyer and historian, Dr. Burr, D.D., vicar of Orton. They had several children, of whom some died young, and the only son who lived to mature years was William Holme, who died vicar of Horncastle and prebendary of Lincoln. Sarah was the youngest surviving daughter, a tall, handsome girl with ringlets, who caught the young doctor’s eye. Before the en¬ gaged couple got married George Fothergill moved to Morland, where he practiced for the rest of his life. The pair had two children—Margaret, born on April 29, 1839, and John, born April 11, 1841. Thus it is to be seen that little Foth¬ ergill had literary blood in his veins. There were the literary tastes of the Lockholme Fothergills, while by his father’s mother he had Ellison traits in him. So much for the father’s side. Then the Milners furnished Isaac, dean of Carlisle, and Joseph, the church his¬ torian. But all this was unheeded, and no one dreamed of a literary character in the fat, chubby boy constantly get¬ ting into mischief. His mother’s sister, Esther,who died a spinster, always said he “would be a light in the world—but it would be as a lamp-lighter.” A lamp¬ lighter certainly lie came to be, but of a very different character from what his aunt prophesied. His earliest reminiscenses go back to his fourth year when he went to the girls’ school to fetch his sister home. There he himself was entered as a scholar when aged four years and a quarter. A Miss Kilner, a daughter of a neighboring statesman, taught the school, and she took charge of the little chap and did her best to spoil him. He was an apt scholar, always willing to learn, even when equally ready to
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