Joseph Fletcher

Joseph Fletcher was a Baptist layman who served as treasurer of the Baptist Theological Education Society and the Baptist Building Fund. His address was listed both as Shooter’s Hill and the Union Docks, Limehouse--the former may have been his private residence and the latter his business residence, for he was involved in the shipping trade and was active in assisting the BMS Committee and its missionaries in matters pertaining to ships and passages to various destinations. When Edward Hewett was approved as a missionary in 1842, the BMS Committee granted £140 to outfit him and send Hewett and his wife to Jamaica; the Committee minutes also noted that “Joseph Fletcher Esq (in whose vessel they were likely to sail) had given up the Owners’ Share of the Passage Money.”  Fletcher was involved in the procurement and testing of the Dove as a suitable vessel for the BMS, contributing not only advice on the vessel but also £400 towards its purchase in 1844. For his help in this matter, the Committee thanked him “for the full & very important suggestions with which he has favoured them.” See Baptist Magazine 33 (1841): 408; 34 (1842): 664; 35 (1843): 265-266, 587, 654-655; 36 (1844): 583, 657; 38 (1846): 306, 522, 705-706; BMS Committee Minutes, Vol. H (Oct. 1841-Dec. 1842), f. 75; Vol. I (January 1843-May 1844), f. 188; Vol. J (30 May 1844-29 July 1847), ff. 7, 9, and 43.