[1] In his boyhood he was deeply impressed by the gospel, and after attending Chester grammar school, prepared for the ministry in the Independent church by studying, first at Hoxton Academy and then at the University of Glasgow, where he took the degree of M.A.

Receiving a call from the congregational church of Blackburn, Lancashire, he began his ministry the same year, and continued there till 1823, when he became minister of the Stepney Meeting House in London.

[2] In 1816 Fletcher added to his duties that of theological tutor in the Blackburn College for training ministers.

His papers gave proof of ample stores of information, and of a scholarly and powerful pen.

His lectures on the Principles and Institutions of the Roman Catholic Religion (1817) won appreciation, John Pye Smith, Robert Hall, and others expressing a high opinion of them.