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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fletcher, Joseph (1582?-1637)

​FLETCHER, JOSEPH (1582?–1637), religious poet, son of Thomas Fletcher, merchant tailor of London, was, according to his epitaph, sixty years old at the time of his death in 1637. There can be little doubt that he was four or five years younger. He was entered at Merchant Taylors' School on 11 March 1593–4, and was elected to St. John's College, Oxford, in 1600, matriculating on 23 Jan. 1600–1, at the age of eighteen. He proceeded B.A. in 1604–5 and M.A. in 1608. He took part in a burlesque pageant called ‘The Christmas Prince,’ played at Oxford in 1607, together with his fellow-collegiate, Laud (Triphook, Miscellanea Antiqua Anglicana, 1816). In the autumn of 1609 he was presented to the rectory of Wilby, Suffolk, by Sir Anthony Wingfield, and he died there on 28 May 1637, being buried in the church. A mural brass above his grave with verses inscribed upon it is still extant. He married, first, in May 1610, Grace, daughter of Hugh Ashley, vicar of St. Margaret's, Ilkettshall, a parish in the neighbourhood of Wilby. By her he had six children: Joseph (baptised 7 April 1611), William (baptised 13 April 1612), Grace (baptised 28 Dec. 1613), Marie (baptised 27 Aug. 1605), John (baptised 18 May 1617), and a sixth child, born in December 1618. Fletcher's first wife died in giving birth to the sixth child, and she was buried in Wilby Church on 4 Dec. 1618. Her husband, when entering her death in the burial register, added two elegiac poems, one in Latin and the other in English. Fletcher's second wife (Anne) survived him, and to her he left all his property by a will dated 1 May 1630.
Fletcher was the author of a volume of poetry—now very rare—entitled ‘The Historie of the Perfect, Cursed, Blessed Man: setting forth man's excellencie, miserie, felicitie by his generation, degeneration, regeneration, by I. F., Master of Arts, Preacher of God's Word, and Rector of Wilbie in Suffolk,’ London, 1628, 1629. This is dedicated to the author's patron, Sir Anthony Wingfield. A long prose address to the reader precedes the poem, which is written throughout in heroic verse, and rarely rises above mediocrity. Emblematical designs by Thomas Cecil are scattered through the volume. No copy is in the British Museum. A poem of far higher literary quality called ‘Christes Bloodie Sweat, or The Source of God in his Agonie, by I. F.’ (London, 1613), has also been attributed to Fletcher by Dr. Grosart and Mr. W. C. Hazlitt. The British Museum Catalogue accepts the identification of ‘I. F.’ with Fletcher's initials. But the authorship is very uncertain, and little of the fervour of the earlier work is discernible in the later. Dr. Grosart reprinted the two volumes in his ‘Fuller's Worthies Library’ as Joseph Fletcher's poetical works (1869).
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fletcher, Thomas

Many biographical details are changed in later editions.
​FLETCHER, THOMAS (1664–1718), poet, eldest son of John Fletcher of Winchester by his wife Mary Bourne, was born at Wirley Magna, Staffordshire, on 21 March 1664, and was educated at Winchester School and at New College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. on 10 April 1689, M.A. on 14 Jan. 1692, B.D. and D.D. on 25 June 1707. He was fellow of his college, and held for a time a mastership at Winchester School. A man of the same name held the prebend of Barton David in the church of Wells from 1696 to 1713, and is probably the same person, though the cathedral archives do notestablish the fact. Fletcher was an admirer of Bishop Ken, and wrote some fulsome verses to him on his promotion to the see of Bath and Wells in 1685. The prebend did not fall vacant until after Ken's deprivation, but it is probable that he still retained and exerted sufficient influence with the dean and chapter of Wells to secure Fletcher's appointment, the more so as they cordially detested his successor, Bishop Kidder. Fletcher died on 21 Feb. 1718. By his wife, Catherine Richards, he had three daughters and one son, Thomas. He is now represented by Thomas William Fletcher, esq., of Lawneswood House, near Stourbridge, Staffordshire.
Fletcher is the author of a small volume of verse entitled ‘Poems on Several Occasions and Translations, wherein the first and second books of Virgil's Æneis are attempted in English,’ London, 1692, 8vo. A dedication to the Rev. William Harris, D.D., ‘school-master of the college near Winton,’ explains that the poems are chiefly juvenile exercises. The first book of the Æneid is translated in heroic couplets, part of the second and also part of the fourth in blank verse. The volume also contains a translation of the second epode of Horace, and of part of the first book of Boethius's ‘De Consolatione Philosophiæ,’ the verses to Ken referred to in the text, a ‘pastoral’ on the birth of Christ, and some other pieces of a conventional stamp.
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fletcher, John (d.1848?)

​FLETCHER, JOHN, D.D. (d. 1848?), catholic divine, a native of Ormskirk, Lancashire, was educated at Douay College, and at the English seminary of St. Gregory in Paris. When the seminary was dissolved he proceeded to the college of St. Omer, of which his great-uncle, the Rev. William Wilkinson, was for some time president. Fletcher was one of the professors at St. Omer throughout the imprisonment of the members of the college at Arras and Dourlens. Upon their release in 1795 Fletcher accompanied them to England, and was successively missioner at Hexham, Blackburn, and Weston Underwood. He was created D.D. by Pope Pius VII on 24 Aug. 1821, in recognition of his missionary merit and excellent sermons. Fletcher became chaplain to the Dowager Lady Throckmorton, and served the mission at Leamington. In 1844 he removed to the mission at Northampton, which he resigned in 1848, owing to his advanced age. He died shortly afterwards.
His works are: 1. ‘Sermons on various Religious and Moral Subjects, for all the Sundays after Pentecost,’ 2 vols., London, 1812, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1821. Prefixed is ‘An Essay on the Spirit of Controversy,’ which was also published separately. 2. ‘The Catholic's Manual,’ translated from the French of Bossuet, with preliminary reflections and notes, London, 1817, 12mo, 1829, 8vo. 3. ‘Thoughts on the Rights and Prerogatives of the Church and State; with some observations upon the question of Catholic Securities,’ London, 1823, 8vo. 4. ‘Comparative View of the Grounds of the Catholic and Protestant Churches,’ London, 1826, 8vo. 5. ‘The Difficulties of Protestantism,’ London, 1829, and again 1832, 8vo. 6. ‘The Catholic's Prayer-Book,’ London, 1830, 12mo. For some time this manual was extensively used. It was chiefly compiled from the manuscript of ‘A Prayer-Book for the Use of the London District,’ 1813, by the Rev. Joseph Berington [q. v.] 7. ‘The Prudent Christian,’ London, 1834, 12mo. 8. ‘Guide to the True Religion,’ a series of sermons, 2nd edit., London, 1836, 8vo. 9. ‘Transubstantiation, &c. A Letter,’ London, 1836, 8vo. 10. ‘Short Historical View of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Anglican Church,’ London, 1843, 8vo.
He also published translations of several works, including Father Edmund Campion's ‘Ten Reasons’ (1827), Antonio de Dominis's ‘Motives for Renouncing the Protestant Religion’ (1827), and De Maistre's ‘Letters on the Spanish Inquisition’ (1838).
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fletcher, Joseph (1784-1843)

​FLETCHER, JOSEPH, D.D. (1784–1843), theological writer, was born 3 Dec. 1784 at Chester, where his father was a goldsmith. In his boyhood he was deeply impressed by the gospel, and after attending the grammar school of his native city, prepared for the ministry in the independent church by studying, first at Hoxton and then at the university of Glasgow, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1807. Receiving a call from the congregational church of Blackburn, Lancashire, he began his ministry the same year, and continued there till 1823, when he became minister of Stepney meeting, in the metropolis. In 1816 he added to his duties that of theological tutor in the Blackburn college for training ministers. While discharging the duties both of the congregation and the chair, with marked ability and success, Fletcher was also a voluminous writer. The ‘Eclectic Review’ had just begun its career, and Fletcher was one of its regular contributors. His papers gave proof of ample stores of information, and of a scholarly and powerful pen. On particular subjects Fletcher published tracts and treatises that won considerable fame. His lectures on the ‘Principles and Institutions of the Roman Catholic Religion’ (1817) won great appreciation, Dr. Pye Smith, Robert Hall, and others expressing a very high opinion of them. A discourse on ‘Personal Election and Divine Sovereignty’ (1825) was also much commended. A volume of poems (1846) was the joint production of himself and his sister, Mary Fletcher. In 1830 the senatus of the university of Glasgow conferred on him the degree of D.D. He was chairman of the Congregational Union in 1837. Without reaching the first rank, he showed a combination of reasoning power and emotional fervour which made him an instructive preacher. As a writer who gave birth to all his literary offspring amid the whirl of constant practical work and endless engagements he did little more than show what he might have done with leisure and other facilities for literary work. He died 8 June 1843.
Joseph Fletcher the younger (1816–1876), congregational minister, Dr. Fletcher's fourth son by his wife Mary France, was born at Blackburn 7 Jan. 1816; was educated at Ham grammar school, near Richmond, Surrey; went from a Manchester counting-house in 1833 to study at Coward College; was called to the congregational church of Hanley in 1839; was transferred to Christchurch, Hampshire, in 1849, in succession to Daniel Gunn [q. v.]; resigned his charge owing to paralysis at the close of 1873, and died at Christchurch 2 June 1876. He kept a school for a time at Christchurch, but the death by drowning of seven of his pupils in May 1868 caused him to close his establishment. He published, besides the memoirs of his father in 1846, ‘Six Views of Infidelity,’ a series of lectures given at Hanley in 1843; ‘History of Independency,’ an important work in 4 vols. 1847–9, reissued 1853; and ‘Life of Constantine the Great,’ 1852 (Congregational Year-Book, 1877). He is also credited with the libretto of an oratorio entitled ‘Paradise,’ by John Fawcett the younger [q. v.]
W. G. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fletcher, Joseph (1813-1852)

​FLETCHER, JOSEPH (1813–1852), statistician, born in 1813, was educated as a barrister. From the age of nineteen he was engaged upon works and reports in connection with the health, occupations, and well-being of the people. He acted as secretary to the handloom inquiry commission, and afterwards to the children's employment commission. His valuable reports of these commissions formed the basis of useful legislation. The disclosures of the children's employment commission in particular established the necessity of parliamentary control. In 1844 Fletcher was appointed one of her majesty's inspectors of schools; and his voluminous reports were among the most serviceable contributions to British educational statistics. For many years Fletcher was one of the honorary secretaries of the Statistical Society of London, and in this post he earned wide recognition among statists at home and abroad. He was also during the same period editor of the ‘Statistical Journal,’ and responsible for the collation and arrangement of the vast collection of documents published in that journal. Fletcher was a member of the council of the British Association, and on several occasions acted as secretary to the statistical section, contributing also a series of memoirs to the association reports. In 1850 Fletcher published a ‘Summary of the Moral Statistics of England and Wales;’ and in the following year a work on ‘Education: National, Voluntary, and Free.’ He paid great attention to foreign educational systems, and issued (1851–2) two treatises on ‘The Farm School of the Continent, and its Applicability to the Preventive and Reformatory Education of Pauper and Criminal Children in England and Wales.’ Fletcher died at Chirk, Denbighshire, 11 Aug. 1852. He was an ideal statistician, having in a singular degree the power of grasping facts and realising their relative significance. He ​was buried in the graveyard of Tottenham Church.
[Gent. Mag. 1852; Journal of the Statistical Society, 1852; Athenæum, 1852.]
G. B. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fletcher, Robert

​FLETCHER, ROBERT (fl. 1586), verse writer, seems to be identical with a student of Merton College, Oxford, who came from Warwickshire, proceeded B.A. in 1564, and M.A. in 1567. He was admitted a fellow in 1563, but in 1569 quarrelled with Bickley, the new warden. ‘For several misdemeanors he was turned out from his fellowship of that house (i.e. Merton) in June 1569,’ whereupon he became schoolmaster at Taunton, and afterwards ‘preacher of the word of God’ (Wood). He wrote two works, both very rare, viz.: 1. ‘An Introduction to the Looue of God. Accoumpted among the workes of St. Augustine, and translated into English by Edmund [Freake], bishop of Norwich that nowe is … and newlie turned into Englishe Meter by Rob. Fletcher,’ London (by Thomas Purfoot), 1581, dedicated to Sir Francis Knollys. 2. ‘The Song of Solomon,’ in English verse, with annotations, London, by Thomas Chard, 1586. A third very rare volume—a copy is in the Grenville Library at the British Museum—by a Robert Fletcher, who may be identical with the author of the two former volumes, is entitled ‘The Nine English Worthies … beginning with King Henrie the first, and concluding with Prince Henry, eldest sonne to our soueraigne Lord the King,’ London, 1606, dedicated to Prince Henry, and to the Earls of Oxford and Essex, ‘and other young lords attending the princes highnesse.’ Fletcher commends Ascham's advice as to the need of learning in men of high rank. Prefatory verse is contributed by R. Fenne, Thomas, lord Windsor, Sir Will. Whorewood, John Wideup, Jo. Guilliams, Paul Peart, and others. A brief life of each monarch in prose is followed by an epitaph in verse, except in the last case, where the life is wholly in verse.
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Forbes, Francis

​FORBES, Sir FRANCIS (1784–1841), chief justice of New South Wales, born in the Island of Bermuda, North America, in 1784, was the eldest son of the Hon. Francis Forbes, a member of the privy council of Bermuda. Admitted at Lincoln's Inn on 26 May 1806, he was called to the bar in Easter term 1812 (Lincoln's Inn Registers). He became attorney- and advocate-general at Bermuda in 1813, and was promoted to the office of chief justice of Newfoundland in 1816. On 1 June 1823 he was nominated chief justice of New South Wales, his being the first appointment to that office. He promulgated the new charter of justice at Government House and elsewhere on 17 May 1824, and took his seat on the bench the same day. Under this charter a supreme court of criminal jurisdiction was opened by Forbes on the following 10 June, and by his exertions trial by jury was obtained in quarter sessions on 14 Oct. He was appointed to the legislative council by sign-manual, 11 Aug. 1825, and became a member of the executive council during the same year. Thanks to his strong remonstrances an attempt by Governor Ralph Darling [q. v.] to gag the colonial press in 1826 proved only partially successful. His health breaking down under the strain of his varied duties, he left for England in April 1836. ​He was knighted 6 April 1837, but, failing to recover his accustomed strength, he resigned his office in July, and returned to the colony soon afterwards. He died at Leitrim, near Sydney, 9 Nov. 1841. In 1813 he married Amelia Sophia, daughter of David Grant, M.D., of Jamaica, who long survived him.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Forbes, James (1629?-1712)

​FORBES, JAMES (1629?–1712), nonconformist divine, a Scotchman, was born in or about 1629. He was educated at Aberdeen, where he proceeded M.A., being subsequently admitted ad eundem at Oxford. In 1654 he was sent to Gloucester Cathedral, where he preached ‘ with great success, but to the apparent danger of shortening his life.’ At the Restoration he was speedily ejected from the cathedral, but he still continued at Gloucester, ‘ministering privately as he could.’ Struck by his talents, Robert Frampton [q. v.], then dean, but afterwards bishop of Gloucester, ‘courted him to conformity in vain.’ In consequence of Yarrington's, or rather Packington's, plot, he was committed to Chepstow Castle, where he was long kept in a ‘strait and dark’ room. On regaining his liberty he returned to his pastoral charge, in the pursuit of which he was often imprisoned in Gloucester, on one occasion for a whole year. During the reign of Charles II he was indicted upon the Corporation Act, the penalty of which was imprisonment. He was also indicted on 23 James I, the penalty of which was 20l. a month, and upon 35 Elizabeth, of which the penalty was to abjure the realm or suffer death. At the same time, also, he was excommunicated, and the writ de excom. capiendo was out against him. At the time of Monmouth's rebellion he retired to Enfield, Middlesex, and there continued unmolested in his ministry. He was afterwards recalled to Gloucester, where he continued to labour until his death, ‘though to his disadvantage.’ Altogether, he exercised his ministry in Gloucester for fifty-eight years ‘wanting but one month.’ He died 31 May 1712, aged 83, and was buried under his own communion-table. His funeral sermon was preached by John Noble of Bristol. Calamy, who represents him as the model of a nonconformist divine, states that at his death he left many gifts to charitable uses, including his library, which was of considerable value. Forbes ​was the author of: 1. ‘Nehustan; or, John Elliot's “Saving Grace in all Men” proved to be No Grace, and His Increated Being in All, a Great Nothing. By J. F.,’ 4to, London, 1694. Elliot, who was a Gloucester quaker, published a reply in the following year, ‘The Grace of God asserted to be Saving and Increated.’ 2. ‘A Summary of that Knowledge and Practice that leads to Heaven,’ 8vo, London, 1700. 3. ‘God's Goodness to His Israel in All Ages. Being the Substance of some Sermons on Psalm lxxiii. 1. By J. F., minister of the Gospel,’ 8vo, London, 1700. 4. ‘Pastoral Instruction: being some Remains of the Reverend James Forbes, M.A., late Minister of the Gospel in Glocester. Containing I. A Farewel-Letter of Advice to his People. II. The Sum of the Last Sermon he preach'd before the Ministers of his County, June 19th, 1711. III. His Short Counsel to Youth. To which is added his Funeral-Sermon, preach'd at Glocester, June 3d, 1712. By J[ohn] N[oble],’ 8vo, London, 1713. His portrait has been engraved (Evans, Cat. of Engraved Portraits, ii. 156).
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Forbes, Henry

​FORBES, HENRY (1804–1859), pianist and composer, a pupil of Smart, Hummel, Moscheles, and Herz, had greater success as executive artist and professor than as composer. When organist of St. Luke's, Chelsea, he published (1843) ‘National Psalmody,’ containing some original numbers. His opera, ‘The Fairy Oak,’ was condemned by the critics, although, in spite of, or perhaps in consequence of, its want of originality, it held the stage with the approval of the public for a week or two after the production at Drury Lane, 18 Oct. 1845. A cantata, ‘Ruth,’ was performed in 1847. Forbes was frequently associated with his brother, George Forbes (1813–1883), in concerts, and was between 1827 and 1850 conductor of the Società Armonica. He died on 24 Nov. 1859, in his fifty-sixth year.
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coventry, Henry (d.1752)

​COVENTRY, HENRY (d. 1752), miscellaneous writer, a native of Cambridgeshire, born about 1710, was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1729, and was elected to a fellowship, proceeding M.A. in 1733. He was the author of ‘Philemon to Hydaspes, relating a conversation with Hortensius upon the subject of False Religion,’ in five parts, 1736–37–38–41–44, 8vo. Warburton accused Coventry of making unfair use of information, confidentially communicated, which was about to be published in the second volume of the ‘Divine Legation.’ A pamphlet entitled ‘Future Rewards and Punishments believed by the Antients,’ 1740, has been attributed to Coventry, who was also one of the contributors to the ‘Athenian Letters.’ He died 29 Dec. 1752. Cole, who had met him frequently in the society of Conyers Middleton and Horace Walpole, remarks: ‘He used to dress remarkably gay, with much gold lace, had a most prominent Roman nose, and was much of a gentleman.’ The five parts of ‘Philemon to Hydaspes’ were republished in one vol. 1753, by his cousin, Francis Coventry [q. v.]
[Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, iii. 43, v. 564–71, ix. 801; Cole's Athenæ; Walpole's Letters, ed. Cunningham, i. 7.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coventry, Thomas (1547-1606)

​COVENTRY, Sir THOMAS (1547–1606), judge, second son of Richard Coventry of Cassington, Oxfordshire, was born in 1547, and educated at Balliol College, Oxford, of which he was a fellow, and where he graduated B.A. on 2 June 1565. He studied law at the Inner Temple. His first appearance as a pleader is in a case reported by Croke in Michaelmas term 1589. He was elected reader at the Inner Temple in the autumn of 1593, but, in consequence of an outbreak of plague, his reading was postponed over the winter, and a new serjeant, John Heale, being appointed in the spring, took precedence of him, so that he did not read until the autumn of 1594. In the canvass for the post of solicitor-general, which took place on Coke's appointment to the attorney-generalship (1594–5), Coventry played an active part, and was suspected of having bought Sir Robert Cecil's interest for two thousand angels, as appears from a very blunt letter from Bacon to Cecil, which though undated is probably referable to this period. In 1603 he was appointed serjeant-at-law, in 1605–6 king's serjeant, and in the same year justice of the common pleas, and knighted. He died on 12 Dec. 1606. He was buried at Earle's Croome, otherwise Croome d'Abitot, Worcestershire. According to Dugdale he descended from John Coventrie, mercer, co-sheriff of London with Robert Wydington (no connection of R. Whittington) in 1416, and lord mayor of London in 1425. By his wife, Margaret Jeffreys, of Earle's Croome, he had 3 sons and 4 daughters. His eldest son, Thomas [q. v.], was lord keeper in the reign of James I; from the youngest, Walter, the Earl of Coventry traces his descent.
[Reg. of Univ. of Oxford, i. 258; Wood's Fasti Oxon. i. 167; Dugdale's Orig. 166, Chron. Ser. 101, 103; Croke's Reports (Eliz.), p. 158; Spedding's Life and Letters of Bacon, i. 288, 348, 355; Collins's Peerage (Brydges), iii. 744; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 459; Foss's Judges.]
J. M. R.