“Fletcher Family History“, Edward H. Fletcher, pub. 1881, Randy Avery & Co., 117 Franklin Street, Boston, MA
“ROBERT FLETCHER-1, the immigrant ancestor from whom are reckoned the generations recorded in the following pages, was born in 1592, as appears from the record of his death found upon the town records of Concord, Mass. The part of England whence he came has not been certainly ascertained. One circumstance has indicated Shropshire. The family tradition makes it Yorkshire, one of the northern counties of England. The name has been, and still is, common there.
Rev. Elijah Fletcher of Hopkinton, N.H. (b. 1747, d. 1786), the first, so far as we know, who made genealogical collections of the family, believed that our great ancestor came fro Yorkshire; and that account was gathered when RobertÙs great-grandchildren were living.
He settled in Concord, Mass., in 1630; in which year seventeen ships arrived in Massachusetts Bay and at Plymouth, swelling the number of settlers to 21,000. He was then thirty-eight years of age, and had two sons, Luke and William, and it may be supposed a wife, and his daughter, Cary (AuthorÙs note, see Cary below*). It was said by Gardner Fletcher (3136), that the tradition in his branch was that Robert had a brother William, who came at the same time. The only traces found of a William who could have been brother of Robert are two; one from the Records of Middletown, Conn.: “Rev. Samuel Stow, m. Hope, dau. Of William Fletcher, Esq., of Chelmsford, 1649;” and the other relates to William of Saco, Me., (p. 508).
It was five years later that Concord was organized, the twentieth town incorporated within what are now the limits of Massachusetts, and his name appears in the earliest records of that town. In the court files of Middlesex county his name frequently occurs as petitioner for bridges, as juryman. &c. He was a wealthy and influential man, and died at Concord, April 3, 1677, ae. 85.
* Cary. Her name was probably Grisell rather than Cary. “Fletcher Lineage“, Winnifred Lovering Holman, S.B., 1928. “The error has been many times repeated that his daughter was named Cary, perhaps due to the error in WymanÙs notes in the Middlesex Court Files. The original papers have been lost. Mrs. Mary Lovering Holman, in a work soon to be published for Mrs. Charles Milsbury of Minneapolis, has straightened up the matter of Grizzell and her five husbands and gives proof that Grizzell was the sister of William, and the daughter of Robert Fletcher.”
“Fletcher Lineage”, Winifred Lovering Holman, pub. 1928
A brief abastract of Robert's will follows:
“the 4th of February 1672”
…..I Robert Fletcher of Concord…being about fourescor years of adge…declare this to bee my last will and Testament…my body…to be decently buryed by my three sons… and for the rest of my estate…my Sonn frances and his loving and loved wife doe take the speciall care of my loving wifefor long as the lord shall Continue her and them in the land…and in Case Shee shall stand in neede of or see Cause to make use of oney part of this estate here after to be mentioned for her own Comfort that Shee shall hereby have lawfull power for to doe and after her decease my will is that I may be devided as followeth videlicet unto two equall parts and my will is my Sonns William and Samuell may have on of the parts equally deivided betwixt them and that my sonn frances shall have the other part whom I do hearby appoint to bee my wholl executor to this my last will…and I do appoint for overseers…my Trusty and loving friends deacon Robert Merrian deacon Luke Potter of Concord…”Witnesses: John hoars “Robert Flecher” signed by mark and sealed.
Nathaniell Mow attested to 19 June 1677.
BIRTH: From "Fletcher Family History, pub. 1881:
i. Luke, b. in England; d. in Concord, Mass., May 21, 1665; probably unm. (unmarried).