Posthumous literature usually carries little weight. It often assumes virtues to which the deceased were strangers, and not unfrequently libels the dead. The simple epitaph on the plain iron plate which covers Mr. Fletcher’s remains in the Madeley churchyard is not of this class, but is so modest an expression of facts that it requires to be read by the light which the records of contemporaries throw upon it, and which will be found to be more on a level with the merits and virtues of the deceased.
The Shrewsbury Chronicle of August, 1785, in recording the death of Mr. Fletcher had the following:—
“On the 14th instant, departed this life, the Rev. John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, in this county, to the inexpressible grief and concern of his parishioners, and of all who had the happiness of knowing him. If we speak of him as a man, and a gentleman, he was possessed of every virtue and every accomplishment, which adorns and dignifies human nature. If we attempt to speak of him as a Minister of the Gospel, it will be extremely difficult to give the world a just idea of this great Character. His deep learning, his exalted piety, his never-ceasing labours to discharge the important duties of his function, together with the abilities and good effect with which he discharged those duties are best known, and will never be forgotten, in that vineyard in which he laboured. His charity, his universal benevolence, his meekness, and exemplary goodness, are scarcely equalled amongst the sons of men. Anxious, to the last moment of his life, to discharge the sacred duties of his office, he performed the service of the church, and administered the holy sacrament to upwards of two hundred communicants, the Sunday preceding his death, confiding in that Almighty Power, which had given him life, and resigning that life into the hands of Him who gave it, with that composure of mind, and those joyful hopes of a happy resurrection, which ever accompany the last moments of the just.”
“Fletcher is a seraph who burns with the ardour of divine love; and spurning the fetters of mortality, he almost habitually seems to have anticipated the rapture of the beatific vision.”—Robert Hall.
“A pattern of holiness, scarce to be paralleled in a century.”—Minutes of Wesleyan Conference, 7, 183.
“I was intimately acquainted with him for above thirty years. I never heard him speak one improper word, nor saw him do any improper action. So unblamable a character, in every respect, I have not found, and I scarce expect to find such another on this side of eternity.”—John Wesley.
“Fletcher, I conceive to be the most holy man who has been upon earth since the apostolic age.”—Dr. Dixon.
“No age or country has ever produced a man of more fervid piety, or more perfect charity; no Church has ever possessed a more apostolic minister.”—Robert Southey.
“He was a saint, a saint such as the Church of every age has produced a few samples, as unearthly a being as could tread the earth at all.”—Isaac Taylor.
“Almost an angel in human flesh, prayer, praise, love, and zeal were the element in which he lived. His one employment was to call, entreat, and urge others to ascend with him to the glorious Source of being and blessedness.”—Joseph Benson.
The following is a copy of the entry in the parish register:—
“John Fletcher, clerk, died on Sunday evening, August 14th, 1785. He was one of the most apostolic men of the age in which he lived. His abilities were extraordinary, and his labours unparalleled. He was a burning and shining light, and as his life had been a common blessing to the inhabitants of this parish, so the death of this great man was lamented by them as a common and irreparable loss. This little testimony was inserted by one who sincerely loved and honoured him. Joshua Gilpin, vicar of Wrockwardine.”
Epitaph on Gravestone.
“Here lies the Body of
the REV. JOHN WILLIAM DE LA FLECHERE,
Vicar of Madeley.
He was born at Nyon, in Switzerland,
September 12th, MDCCXXIX,
and finished his Course in this Village,
August 14th, MDCCLXXXV, where his
unexampled labours will be long remembered.
He exercised his Ministry for the Space
of Twenty five Years in this Parish,
with uncommon Zeal and Ability.
Many believed his Report and became his Joy
and Crown of Rejoicing:
While others constrained him to take up
the Lamentation of the Prophet,
‘All the Day long have I stretched out my Hands
unto a disobedient and gainsaying People;
yet surely my Judgment is with the Lord,
and my Work with my God.
(He being dead yet speaketh.’)”
MRS. FLETCHER,
OF MADELEY.
Long before the question of woman’s mission came to be debated, there were useful and pious women who quite came up to the standard modern champions of the sex have raised. History brings before us the names of many whose thoughts and doings had a vital influence upon the society in the midst of which they moved. The fidelity, zeal, and usefulness of some appear as a silver-thread woven into the past, showing that there is no sex in piety or in intellect. When the down trodden vine of Christianity had to be raised, tended, and made to entwine around the sceptre of the Cæsars, there were “fellow-helpers” of the apostles, “honourable women, not a few,” who distinguished themselves. So in the days of the Wesleys and Fletcher, there were women who greatly aided in the work of christian revival. Mrs. Fletcher was one of these. She was born at Forest House, once the residence of the Earl of Norwich, on the 1st September, 1739. The Cedars, another fine old mansion in Leytonstone, built by Charles II., was her property. She was therefore a Lady by birth and fortune; and she chose to be useful in her day and generation. She was the subject of early religious impressions, which gave tone and character to her life. The first use she made of her wealth and influence upon coining into possession of her property was to convert the spacious building she inherited into an Orphanage, and her income was devoted to the support of this and similar institutions. She held religious meetings, and exhorted among the Wesleyans, of which body she became a member. She heard frequently of Mr. Fletcher, and Mr. Fletcher of her, through the Wesleys; and a presentiment seems to have been felt by each that they were designed for each other. Twenty-six years however elapsed before proposals were made or an intimacy sprung up. They were married on the 12th of November, 1781, at Batley church, near Cross Hall, at that time the residence of Miss Bosanquet, and in January, 1782 she says in one of her letters:—
“On January 2nd, 1782, we set out for Madeley. But O! where shall I begin my song of praise! What a turn is there in all my affairs! What a depth of sorrow, distress, and perplexity, am I delivered from! How shall I find language to express the goodness of the Lord! Not one of the good things have failed me of all the Lord my God hath spoken. Now I know no want but that of more grace. I have such a husband as is in everything suited to me. He bears with all my faults and failings, in a manner that continually reminds me of that word, ‘Love your wives as Christ loved the church.’ His constant endeavour is to make me happy; his strongest desire, my spiritual growth. He is, in every sense of the word, the man my highest reason chooses to obey. I am also happy in a servant, whom I took from the side of her mother’s coffin, when she was four years old. She loves us as if we were her parents, and is also truly devoted to God.”