William Rathbone : a memoir / by Eleanor F. Rathbone.

  • Eleanor Rathbone
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: William Rathbone : a memoir / by Eleanor F. Rathbone. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    centre of Europe. A passenger desiring in August to go to Norway was obliged to travel to London on horseback, “ as it was not expected that a ship would sail for Norway from Liverpool that year.” Moneys owed in Chester or Man¬ chester could not be collected until some one chanced to be coming thence to Liverpool. This William Rathbone died in 1746, or, as a contemporary notice words it, “ was removed from this probationary life by a fever in the fiftieth year of his age.” The same notice explains that he had been a member of the Established Church until about the year 1730, when he was convinced of Friends’ principles, and was received into unity with their Society, of which he died an upright, faithful member, leaving a testimony in the hearts of many survivors that his life had corresponded with his holy profession. His father, William Rathbone of Gawsworth, “received the truth” soon after his son. The third bearer of the name was a very typical Ouaker merchant of the eighteenth century. There are several descriptions of him in con¬ temporary letters and memoirs, but an extract from one of them will suffice. It is from the pen of Dr. Rutter, a well-known Liverpool physician. My dear Cousin—In compliance with thy request that I would state in writing what I mentioned to thee