“I have attempted to build a house in Madeley-Wood, about the centre of the parish, where I should be glad if the children might be taught to read and write in the day, and the grown-up people might hear the word of God in the evening, when they can get an Evangelist to preach it to them; and where the serious people might assemble for social worship, when they have no teacher.
“This has involved me in some difficulties about discharging the expense of that building, and paying for the ground it stands upon; especially, as my ill health has put me on the additional expense of an assistant. If I had strength, I would serve my church alone, board as cheap as I could, and save what I could from the produce of the living to clear the debt, and leave that little token of my love, free from encumbrances, to my parishioners. But as Providence orders things otherwise, I have another object which is, to secure a faithful Minister to serve the church while I live. Providence has sent me dear Mr. Greaves, who loves the people, and is loved by them. I should be glad to make him comfortable; but as all the care of the flock, by my illness, devolves upon him, I would not hesitate for a moment to let him have all the profit of the living, if it were not for the debt contracted about the room. My difficulty lies, then, between what I owe to my fellow-labourer, and what I owe to my parishioners, whom I should be sorry to have burdened with a debt contracted for the room.
“I beg you will let me know how the balance of my account stands, that, some way or other, I may order it to be paid immediately: for if the balance is against me, I could not leave England comfortably without having settled the payment. A letter will settle this business, as well as if twenty friends were at the trouble of taking a journey; and talking is far worse for me than reading or writing. I do not say this to put a slight upon my dear friends. I should rejoice to see them, if it would answer any end.
“Ten thousand pardons of my dear friends, for troubling them with this scrawl about worldly matters. May God help us all, so to settle all our eternal concerns, that when we shall be called to go to our long home and heavenly country, we may be ready, and have our acquittance along with us. I am quite tired with writing; nevertheless, I cannot lay by my pen, without desiring my best Christian love to all my dear companions in tribulation, and neighbours in Shropshire.”
Mr. Fletcher was now, as will be seen, in ill-health, and being ordered by his physician to a warmer climate, he wrote before leaving Bristol, another and longer pastoral letter to his Madeley parishioners. In 1778 we find him writing other letters from Nyon, in Switzerland, detailing information he had collected in passing through France, concerning the deaths of Voltaire and Rousseau, and inclosing notes to be read to societies at Madeley, Dawley, The Bank, &c.
The building at Madeley Wood cost more than he expected, and we find him saying:—
“I am sorry the building has come to so much more than I intended; but as the mischief is done, it is a matter to exercise patience, resignation, and self-denial; and it will be a caution in future. I am going to sell part of my little estate here, to discharge the debt. I had laid by fifty pounds to print a small work, which I wanted to distribute here; but as I must be just before I presume to offer that mite to ‘the God of truth,’ I lay by the design, and shall send that sum to Mr. York. Money is so scarce here, at this time, that I shall sell at a very great loss; but necessity and justice are two great laws, which must be obeyed. As I design, on my return to England, to pinch until I have got rid of this debt, I may go and live in one of the cottages belonging to the Vicar, if we could let the vicarage for a few pounds; and in that case, I dare say, Mr. Greaves would be so good as to take the other little house.”
Mr. Fletcher returned to England in the spring of 1781, better, but without having regained his health; and in the course of the summer he had an interview with Miss Bosanquet, at Cross Hall, Yorkshire, which led to marriage in November, and both arrived at Madeley in January, 1782. With good nursing his health returned, so that he was able to write to Mr. Wesley in December of that year, to say—“I have strength enough to do my parish work without the help of a curate.” This was one of those years of bad harvests and scarcity of provisions, which usually led to disturbances, and we find him in the same letter saying:—“The colliers began to rise in this neighbourhood: happily, the cockatrice’s egg was crushed before the serpent came out. However, I got many a hearty curse from the colliers for the plain words I spoke on the occasion.”
Acting upon the proposals of Mrs. Darby, he established a Sunday-school in Madeley Wood. These proposals were:—
“I.—It is proposed that Sunday-schools be set up in this parish for such children as are employed all the week, and for those whose education has been hitherto totally neglected.
“II.—That the children admitted into these be taught reading, writing, and the principles of religion.
“III.—That there be a school for boys, and another for girls, in Madeley, Madeley-Wood, and Coalbrook-Dale: six in all.
“IV.—That a subscription be opened, to pay each Teacher one shilling per Sunday, and to buy tables, forms, books, pens, and ink.