William Fletcher
Mayor of Oxford 1782/3, 1796/7 and 1809/10
William Fletcher (1739–1826) was the son of James Fletcher, a bookseller of the University of Oxford, whose shop was in Turl Street. He was a sickly child, and sent to Yarnton to be nursed by the wife of the parish clerk. (He grew to love this village: he made many benefactions there and chose to be buried in its church.)
On 25 March 1755 Fletcher was apprenticed to William Wickham, a mercer who had himself served as mayor, for seven years, in his shop opposite University College. He was granted his freedom on 14 June 1765, and went into partnership with Wickham (apparently running a separate mercer's shop at 93 High Street).
Fletcher was chosen as a cloth-searcher and one of the 24 councillors in 1766; one of the five keykeepers in 1767; Mayor's Chamberlain by Isaac Lawrence in July 1769; and Junior Bailiff in 1773.
In early 1775, Jackson's Oxford Journal stated that the partnership of Wickham & Fletcher Mercers had been dissolved in July 1773, and that henceforth the business would be carried on by Fletcher alone.
Jackson's Oxford Journal announced on 24 March 1781 that William Fletcher of 93 High Street had entered into partnership with another mercer, John Parsons, but that business would initially continue in both shops.
This Fletcher & Parsons business was soon to expand into 92 High Street. By 1790 it moved over from mercery to banking
For over two hundred years 91–92 High Street remained a bank. In its latter days, until 1998, it was called Barclays Old Bank, and thus has been known as the Old Bank Hotel since 1999.
In June 1781 Fletcher was elected one of the Mayor's eight Assistants, and in September 1782 he started his first term as Mayor, choosing James Shipton as his Chamberlain and James Adams as his Child.
From 1787 to 1826 Fletcher lived at 46 Broad Street. He also owned the house next door, 47 Broad Street, which he let out to tenants. He was an antiquarian, and had a private museum in his home that included many Oxford objects. He adorned its corridors with 40 paintings illustrating the Dance of Death.
Fletcher was elected Mayor a second time in 1796, choosing John Sheard as his Chamberlain and Thomas Henry Taunton as his Child.
In April 1798 Fletcher was chosen as an Alderman "by scrutiny".
Fletcher served his third term as Mayor in 1809/10, much against his will: he wished to stand down on grounds of ill health and pay a fine, but was not allowed to do this.
In 1817 Fletcher had the parish clerk's house and adjoining schoolroom built at the north-west end of Church Lane in Yarnton. His arms appear on the south gable.
Fletcher served on the council for 60 years, from 1788 to 1826, and for some time was senior Alderman and Father of the Corporation. He died at the age of 87 at his Broad Street home on 27 December 1826, having kept "the noiseless tenor of his way" through his life. He was remembered as one of the last men in Oxford to wear his hair in a pigtail.
Fletcher was buried at the west end of Yarnton Church. There is a figure of an Alderman in his official robes and a brass plate inscribed:
Yarnton, my childhood's home!
Do thou receive
This parting gift –
My dust to thee I leave.
William Fletcher Primary School in Yarnton is named after him.
Below: Record of a bequest of Fletcher on the wall of the former Church of St Peter-in-the-East:
"1827 Alderman Fletcher left £5 annually to a poor widow of a Freeman of the age of fifty years or upwards who has resided at least 12 Months in this Parish previously"
Below: Record of another bequest of Fletcher on the wall of Yarnton Church.:
William Fletcher Esqr. Alderman of the City of Oxford by deed Dated Feb. 5 1823, Left a Sum of Money to the Mayor & Corporation of Oxford for various Purposes. Amongst others to pay 30 yearly in every Year on St Thomas's Day to the Vicar & Churchwardens of Yarnton to be by them distributed every Year as follows.£10 Amongst the Poor Inhabitants in Bread & Meat on Christmas Day.
£4 In Bread of the same,
£1 in Cakes for their Children, on the 4th of January the day of his Burial.
£8 To the Parish Clerk for tolling the great Bell on the 4th of January 87 times the number of Years he lived.
£2 To the Parish Clerk as Rent for the School Room
£5 For the Repair of the Clerk's House if wanted, if not, for the support of the School.
Fletcher, who never married, left the bulk of his fortune to the children of his sister Rebecca, who had married the Revd Thomas Robinson, Master of Magdalen College School, in 1776. His nephew and nieces erected the memorial to him in Yarnton Church shown below. (His nephew Thomas Robinson was already a partner in the bank, and was also in turn to become Mayor.)
See also:
- Jackson's Oxford Journal, 30 December 1826, p. 3b (obituary)
- Gentleman's Magazine, February 1827: obituary of Fletcher by his friend, the Revd Vaughan Thomas of Yarnton
- Annual Biography & Obituary for the Year 1828, Vol. 12, pp. 434–5 (reproducing the article from the Gentleman's Magazine)
- John Parsons, Mayor in 1788 and 1898 (Fletcher's banking partner)
- Thomas Robinson, Mayor in 1817 (Fletcher's nephew and heir)
- L.F. Bradburn, The Old Bank (92 and 93 High Street) Oxford (Oxford, 1977)
- Portrait of William Fletcher, 1798, in the Council Chamber of the Town Hall
- Three portraits of William Fletcher in the National Portrait Gallery entitled "The father of the Corporation of Oxford. Omnibus Carus". Hand-coloured etchings, published in March 1808 by Robert Dighton (NPG D9446; D13284; and D13448: in archive collection and not on display)
- Brass rubbing (made in 1919) at the Ashmolean Museum of the 1826 monumental brass to William Fletcher at Yarnton Church (ref. Oxfordshire 8/1, not on display)
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entry numbered 2093
- Jackson's Oxford Journal, 30 December 1826, p. 3b: Announcement of Fletcher's death
- Jackson's Oxford Journal, 6 January 1827, p. 4b: Obituary of Fletcher
- PCC Will PROB 11/1723 (Will of William Fletcher, Alderman of Oxford, proved 16 March 1827)
- Museum of Oxford, St Aldate's: Bust of Fletcher, and three of his "Dance of Death" paintings, showing a skeleton dancing with a lawyer, a physician, and a canon
- Bodleian Library and Yarnton Church for Fletcher's collection of stained glass