Fletcher of Madeley

BY THE REV. FREDERIC W. MACDONALD, Theological Tutor, Handsworth College, Birmingham.
London: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXXV.
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.

I have to express my obligations to the Rev. L. Tyerman for the help I have received in writing this little book from his life of Fletcher, published two years ago under the title of Wesley's Designated Successor. Mr. Tyerman's labours in the sphere of Methodist history and biography are too well known to require any word of commendation from me. It may be enough to say that he has made it impossible for any one to study the history of the great movement with which the names of Wesley, Whitefield, and Fletcher are associated, without having recourse to his volumes. There may be differences of opinion respecting Mr. Tyerman's judgments upon men and things; there can be none whatever as to his patient, laborious research, and perfect honesty in the use of his ample materials.
I am also much indebted to my friends the Rev. George Mather, now of Falmouth, and Mr. George Stampe, of Great Grimsby, for the opportunity of examining a considerable number of Fletcher's manuscripts, hitherto unpublished. It was not to be expected that fresh light could be thrown on Fletcher's character, but these papers have enabled me to supply some links, and add a few details to the story of his life.


There is reason to think that the interest felt in the Evangelical Revival of the last century, after declining for awhile, is again steadily increasing. It may be said that this quickened interest is but part of a larger intellectual movement, of a reaction, in which we have passed from undue disparagement of the eighteenth century to an exaggerated estimate of its importance and value. Nor is it likely, when eighteenth century forms of literature, philosophy, and social life are being studied with so much sympathy, that the most prominent event in its religious history would escape attention.