“On the 14th instant, departed this life, the Rev. John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, in this county, to the inexpressible grief and concern of his parishioners, and of all who had the happiness of knowing him. If we speak of him as a man, and a gentleman, he was possessed of every virtue and every accomplishment, which adorns and dignifies human nature. If we attempt to speak of him as a Minister of the Gospel, it will be extremely difficult to give the world a just idea of _this great Character_. His deep learning, his exalted piety, his never-ceasing labours to discharge the important duties of his function, together with the abilities and good effect with which he discharged those duties are best known, and will never be forgotten, in that vineyard in which he laboured. His charity, his universal benevolence, his meekness, and exemplary goodness, are scarcely equalled amongst the sons of men. Anxious, to the last moment of his life, to discharge the sacred duties of his office, he performed the service of the church, and administered the holy sacrament to upwards of two hundred communicants, the Sunday preceding his death, confiding in that Almighty Power, which had given him life, and resigning that life into the hands of Him who gave it, with that composure of mind, and those joyful hopes of a happy resurrection, which ever accompany the last moments of the just.” “Fletcher is a seraph who burns with the ardour of divine love; and spurning the fetters of mortality, he almost habitually seems to have anticipated the rapture of the beatific vision.”—_Robert Hall_. “A pattern of holiness, scarce to be paralleled in a century.”—_Minutes of Wesleyan Conference_, 7, 183. “I was intimately acquainted with him for above thirty years. I never heard him speak one improper word, nor saw him do any improper action. So unblamable a character, in every respect, I have not found, and I scarce expect to find such another on this side of eternity.”—_John Wesley_. “Fletcher, I conceive to be the most holy man who has been upon earth since the apostolic age.”—_Dr. Dixon_. “No age or country has ever produced a man of more fervid piety, or more perfect charity; no Church has ever possessed a more apostolic minister.”—_Robert Southey_. “He was a saint, a saint such as the Church of every age has produced a few samples, as unearthly a being as could tread the earth at all.”—_Isaac Taylor_. “Almost an angel in human flesh, prayer, praise, love, and zeal were the element in which he lived. His one employment was to call, entreat, and urge others to ascend with him to the glorious Source of being and blessedness.”—_Joseph Benson_. The following is a copy of the entry in the parish register:—