Two years after he was ordained, he was in the habit of occasionally coming to preach at Madeley, and the year following, through the influence of Mr. Hill, he was appointed vicar, having chosen it in preference to a smaller parish with a larger income. Mr. Chambray, the then vicar, gladly accepting the living Mr. Fletcher declined, thereby making way for him. One of Mr. Fletcher’s pupils died, the other became M P. for Shrewsbury; afterwards he represented the county, and finally was made a peer, under the title of Baron Berwick of Attingham, the name the house now bears. He appears to have received his appointment to Madeley in March, 1759. The Rev. Robert Cox, M.A., one of Mr. Fletcher’s biographers, says:— “Previous to Mr. Fletcher’s presentation to the living, its inhabitants, with some honourable exceptions, were notorious for their ignorance and impiety. They openly profaned the sabbath, treated the most holy things with contempt, disregarded the restraints of decency, and ridiculed the very name of religion. It is to the reproach of England that such a description is but too frequently applicable to places where mines and manufactories have collected together a crowded population.” A desire to be extensively useful soon induced Mr. Fletcher to undertake extra-parochial duties, but in every way, indignities were offered by those on whom by contrast his piety, temperance, humility, and example more strongly reflected. The clergy went into titters and cried “Enthusiast!” The half-gentry chalked up “Schismatic!” and the magistrates sought to set the world on a grin by ticketing him a “Jesuit!” Need we be surprised to hear that Mr. Fletcher was seized, as he tells us, with the spirit of Jonah—and tempted to quit his charge! It was a passing temptation, yet such was his tenderness of conscience that the shadow of a doubt—intruded rather than entertained—disquieted him. About this time he had some doubts respecting a passage in the service for the baptism of infants, and also in that for the burial of the dead. He received much comfort however from his correspondence and interviews with John and Charles Wesley, whose preachers he welcomed into his parish. In a letter dated May, 1767, we find him inviting Whitfield to his parish for the same purpose. In this letter, May 18th, 1767, he speaks of Capt. Scott having preached from his horse-block, which seems to mark the first introduction of Wesleyan Methodism into Madeley. The Roman Catholics too, gave him trouble, by opening a mission in Madeley, and drawing over to them two of his converts. This appears to have been in March 1769, for in a letter to his friend Mr. Ireland dated the 26th, he says:—