Issac Fletcher (1827 – 3 April 1879) was a British ironmaster and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1879. Fletcher committed suicide by

revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...

on Thursday, 10 April 19, 1879.

Personal life

Fletcher was born at

Greysouthen Greysouthen ( ) is a village and civil parish between the towns of Workington and Cockermouth, in Cumbria, North West England, historically part of Cumberland, near the Lake District National Park. The village has an historic association wit ...

, Cumberland, into a Quaker family, the son of John Wilson Fletcher. 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) a coalowner (a 'large colliery proprietor' according to the

Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

); 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". 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 and as deputy chairman of the West Cumberland Iron and Steel Company Ltd. He served as a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for Cumberland, See pp. 34–37. 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. 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 A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens (optics), lens as its objective (optics), objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptrics, dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope d ...

of 12-foot focal length from Thomas Cooke and Sons in 1857. He was elected a fellow of the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

in 1849 and contributed sixteen papers to the

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'' (MNRAS) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in astronomy and astrophysics. It has been in continuous existence since 1827 and publishes letters and papers reporting orig ...

. Fletcher was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1855. He was also a fellow of the Geological Society of London and established a network of rain-gauges in the Lake District, reporting annually the rainfall in the previous year.- values reported there for 1872 He supported the scheme for supplying Manchester with water from Thirlmere. Fletcher had an interest in history and was a fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

. He studied the history of the industries of Cumberland and in 1878 published a paper on "The Archaeology of the West Cumberland Coal Trade" 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 Morley's Hotel was a building which occupied the entire eastern side of London's Trafalgar Square, until it was demolished in 1936 and replaced with South Africa House. It was next to St Martin-in-the-Fields Church. It was designed by the archit ...

, London. 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. The

Carlisle Patriot Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...

– opposed to Fletcher in politics – spoke of his 'amiable character, great attainments, and strong and vigorous intelligence'.quoted in

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Isaac 1827 births 1879 deaths British politicians who committed suicide Fellows of the Geological Society of London Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Cumberland Suicides by firearm in England UK MPs 1868–1874 UK MPs 1874–1880 Suicides in London