Isaac Fletcher (MP)

Issac Fletcher (1827 – 3 April 1879) was an ironmaster and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1879. Fletcher committed suicide by revolver. On Thursday, 10 April 19, 1879.[1]

Issac Fletcher
Born	1827
Died	Thursday, 10 April 1879 Morley's Hotel
Cause of death	Suicide
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Occupation	MP for Cockermouth
Term	17 November 1868-1 April 1879

Personal life

Fletcher was born at Greysouthen, Cumberland into a Quaker family, the son of John Wilson Fletcher.[2] He was elected in the 1868 General Election as MP for Cockermouth as a moderate Liberal.

Isaac Fletcher had numerous business interests. He was (like his father and grandfather)[3] a coalowner (a 'large colliery proprietor' according to the Yorkshire Post);[4] like his brother William Fletcher (who succeeded him as MP for Cockermouth) he was a partner in the Clifton Colliery which, Whellan's The History and topography of the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland of 1860 noted, employed 600 hands, could raise up to 800 tons of coal a day and "the Workington harbour and the Cockermouth and Workington railway are both chiefly dependent for their revenue upon the Clifton Colliery".[5]^:481 Fletcher was a Trustee of Workington Harbour, and a major shareholder in the Cockermouth and Workington Railway. The Fletchers also had interests in the local iron industry, and in quarries and mines supplying it with limestone and iron-ore. He acted as chairman of the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway Company and of the Cumberland Mine-owners' Association[6] and as deputy chairman of the West Cumberland Iron and Steel Company Ltd.[7] He served as a justice of the peace for Cumberland,[8] on the nomination of William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale, the Conservative Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland; Fletcher later (when appealed to by a Conservative MP) defended the Earl against posthumous accusations of partisan bias in his appointments to the bench.[9]

Fletcher had interests in science, particularly astronomy. He built a private observatory at Tarn Bank (his home in Cumberland) initially equipped with a 4¼-inch aperture telescope of 6-foot focal length. He purchased a 9½-inch refracting telescope of 12-foot focal length from Thomas Cooke and Sons in 1857. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1849 and contributed sixteen papers to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.[8] Fletcher was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1855. He was also a fellow of the Geological Society of London[8] and established a network of rain-gauges in the Lake District, reporting annually the rainfall in the previous year.[10] He supported the scheme for supplying Manchester with water from Thirlmere.[11]

Fletcher had an interest in history and was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He studied the history of the industries of Cumberland[8] and in 1878 published a paper on "The Archaeology of the West Cumberland Coal Trade"[3] in the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society.

Suicide

On 3 April 1879 Fletcher committed suicide by shooting himself in the forehead with a revolver at Morley's Hotel, London.[12] According to his brother, there were no financial, family or personal problems, but Fletcher's health was poor ('a great derangement of the liver') and he was averse to taking medical advice; on occasions he had seemed withdrawn, as he had done in his childhood before epileptic fits to which he had then been liable. The surgeon who examined the body, questioned by the coroner, advised that persons with epileptic tendencies could well be seized by a suicidal mania; the jury accordingly found that Fletcher had killed himself whilst of unsound mind.[13] The Carlisle Patriot – opposed to Fletcher in politics – spoke of his 'amiable character, great attainments, and strong and vigorous intelligence'.[14]

References

1. "Inquest into suicide of Isaac Fletcher, MP". Berrow's Worcester Journal. 12 April 1879. p. 7. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
2. Bisset, Thom Adam (1876). The Upper Ten Thousand, for 1876: A Biographical Handbook of All the Titled and Official Classes of the Kingdom, with Their Addresses. Kelly and Company. p. 168.
3. Fletcher, Isaac (1878). "The Archaeology of the West Cumberland Coal Trade". Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. First Series. 3: 266–313. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
4. "Trade Disputes: The Coalowners of West Cumberland". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 9 September 1872. p. 3.
5. Whellan, William (1860). The history and topography of the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland, comprising their ancient and modern history, a general view of their physical character, trade, commerce, manufactures, agricultural condition, statistics. Pontefract: William Whellan. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
6. "Mr Kettle's Arbitration". South Wales Daily News. 1 June 1874. p. 2.
7. "West Cumberland Iron and Steel Company Limited". Manchester Times. 5 October 1872. p. 6.
8. Hingley, Peter D. (2013). "The Shuckburghs of Shuckburgh, Isaac Fletcher, and the History of the English Mounting". The Antiquarian Astronomer. Society for the History of Astronomy. 7: 17–40. Bibcode:2013AntAs...7...17H. Retrieved 17 February 2016. See pp. 34–37.
9. "LORD LIEUTENANT (CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORELAND)". Hansard House of Commons Debates. 195 (cc728-52). 13 April 1869. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
10. "Rainfall in Cumberland". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 21 January 1873. p. 7.- values reported there for 1872
11. Letter from Fletcher dated 'House of Commons, March 6th', printed as "The Thirlmere Scheme". Carlisle Journal. 8 March 1878. p. 6.
12. "Suicide of a Member of Parliament". The Cornishman (39). 10 April 1879. p. 7.
13. "The Suicide of Mr Fletcher, M.P.". Westmorland Gazette. 12 April 1879. p. 6.
14. quoted in "Suicide of Mr. I Fletcher, M.P.". Westmorland Gazette. 5 April 1879. p. 8.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Isaac Fletcher