Biography
Jean Guillaume de la Fléchère, known in England as John Fletcher, was born on September 12, 1729, in Nyon, in Switzerland, in a family of nobility. His father was an army officer, and the family was of French origin. He was well educated, and he studied at the University of Geneva. He had a quick mind and a love of learning. He was destined for a career in the military or in the church, but he did not feel drawn to either. In 1750, he left Switzerland and went to England, where he took work as a tutor in the family of a wealthy man named Thomas Hill, in Shropshire.
He was a young man of fine character, but he lacked a settled faith. During his time in Shropshire, he heard Methodist preaching and was impressed. Under the influence of a Methodist woman, he became troubled about his soul. He read the writings of the Methodists and went through a period of deep conviction. In 1754, after a long struggle, he found peace in Christ. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1757 and took the name John Fletcher. He sought to serve as a clergyman. He was a friend of John Wesley and joined the Methodist cause.
In 1760, he accepted the living of Madeley, a parish in Shropshire, a mining and ironworking village. The people were rough and poor, and the parish was in a moral state that had been neglected. He set himself to preach and to visit. He went from house to house in the village and spoke to the people about their souls. He walked with the miners and visited the sick. He preached in the church and in the open air, and he held prayer meetings. He ran schools for the children and took a deep interest in their welfare. He lived very simply and gave much of his income to the poor.
Wesley recognized his gifts and regarded him as his best friend. He hoped that Fletcher would be his successor as the leader of Methodism. Fletcher declined, owing to his weak health and his love of his parish. He served as the president of a college at Trevecca, in Wales, which had been founded by the Countess of Huntingdon, but he resigned in 1771 when a dispute broke out about doctrine. The dispute was between the Calvinists and the Arminians. Fletcher took up the defense of the Wesleyan position in a series of letters. They were published as Checks to Antinomianism, and they are a classic statement of the Arminian view. He wrote with great charity, despite the fierceness of the debate.
His own spirit was marked by gentleness. He was known for his deep spirituality. He rose before dawn to pray, and he sometimes spent whole nights in prayer. He fasted often and lived under strict discipline. He said that he wanted to be wholly the Lord's. Those who knew him spoke of a visible radiance in his face. He was regarded by many as the holiest man of his age.
In 1781, at the age of fifty-two, he married Mary Bosanquet, a woman of wealth who had given up her fortune to run an orphanage and a school. She was a woman of great gifts, and she became a preacher among the Methodists. The two had a short but happy marriage, for only four years. Together, they cared for the parish and the poor. She helped him in his ministry.
In 1785, there was an outbreak of typhus fever in Madeley. Fletcher visited the sick, as he had always done. He caught the fever and became very ill. He died on August 14, 1785, at the age of fifty-five. The villagers mourned him deeply. He was buried in the churchyard at Madeley. He left behind a model of pastoral care and holiness. His life shows that a man who gives himself wholly to his people may be loved as a saint and that holiness is a mark of a faithful pastor.