Fletcher of Mockerkin
The Fletcher family is a very highly researched one. There's lots on the web to provide a full account of this particular branch. However, it's my policy only to include material that I've researched or that is available on this site; so this account may seem light to some.
I'm writing this as I develop profiles, so this is very much a work in progress.
Henry Fletcher of Cockermouth Hall was a somewhat nouveau but exceptionally rich merchant that famously 'entertained' Mary Queen of Scots in Cockermouth on her fateful flight to England in 1568. His descendants played a major part in the history of Cumberland in the early-modern age.
As in any family, the process of inheritance, luck and ability created branches of very different social status and, indeed, of religion. In this area, the core family in this period was at Tallentire Hall, just outside Cockermouth, and was part of the triumvirate (Fletcher, Patrickson and Lamplugh) that effectively controlled the area in the mid-17th century. It became puritan. Another branch (the Fletchers of Hutton Hall) bought a baronetcy - it remained Anglican, and was an enemy of dissenters. The Fletchers of Mockerkin, a branch at a much lower social scale, became Quaker.
And there were other branches - the Fletchers had rather a lot of children!
The striking contrast between the Fletchers of Hutton Hall and those of Mockerkin, has led some to question whether the latter were of the same base family. I don't think that there is any reason to doubt it.
Lancelot Fletcher, Rector of both Dean and Lamplugh* (died 1635), was of the main family, grandson of the above Henry. There is no doubt of the relationship.
[His son, Lancelot Fletcher, took over the rectory of Dean, though not of Lamplugh, until his own death in 1663]
* I've only just noticed that I wrote Loweswater rather than Lamplugh in an earlier version. What might be called a mindo rather than a typo. Apologies if that has got into anyone's notes.
So, the first question about the Mockerkin branch is: was the first recorded member, Thomas Fletcher of Mockerkin the son of Lancelot (died 1635) or not?
The evidence is, to me, incontrovertible.
Assets
- however rich the head of a family at this time, assets were quickly dispersed as they moved down younger branches. The vast bulk of an estate went to the senior son. Though other sons were given as much help as possible to establish a career with an income (with maybe some fall-back capital), that was considered their share, and further asset support wouldn't have been forthcoming;
- Lancelot (a younger son of a younger son), educated at Oxford and the recipient of two purchased rectories, would have been a major investment. The rectories would have given him a comfortableliving, but certainly not a sumptuous one. His younger son, Thomas, wouldn't have been able to expect a vast inheritance, but would have had an excellent chance of marrying into a good tenancy somewhere in his father's parishes.
Literacy
- literacy was not widespread in this area c.1600. The big impetus came with the endowment of a grammar school at Dean in the 1590s by the goldsmith John Fox; but a generation later and there were still few yeoman who could even sign. Thomas Fletcher of Mockerkin was fully literate, the owner of books, a fact which suggests that the rector was his father.
Lancelot, the forename
- Lancelot became a common forename in the area, but that is because the two Lancelots above were rectors (a siginificant number of infants in this era, for one reason or another, were baptised with the name of the local priest). Thomas had a younger son baptised as Lancelot in 1631. Perhaps that's not enough to prove a connection, but the fact that the baptism took place in Lamplugh certainly does do more than suggest it. Mockerkin, Thomas' home, was in the parish of Loweswater, but the church at Lamplugh was physically closer than the parish one. Convenience wasn't enough to explain the baptism, but the presence of a grandfather there as rector and godfather certainly was.
Thomas Fletcher of Mockerkin (died 1658) was respected (he was Overseer for the Poor, one of the main parochial positions) and literate. It seems quite likely that he married into the Mockerkin property, which was at the upper end of valuations in the hamlet.
The farm that Thomas took over was a comfortable one. Unfortunately, his will was PCC so there is no surviving inventory; but the bond of his son William was set at £200 (suggesting an inventory of £100) and that of his grandson Lancelot set at £300 (with a known inventory of £146-13-00). Even more usefully, Lancelot's inventory shows a balanced mixed farm with the largest single asset being sheep.
Thomas was in the Protestation in Loweswater, where he was listed as Overseer for the Poor. He had three sons (William, Thomas, Lancelot) and three daughters (Janet, Margaret, and an unknown married to a John Pearson).
William Fletcher of Mockerkin (died 1688) inherited the farm from his father. He was old enough to be in the Protestation. Again he was literate, signing his own will.
He married Ann, daughter of John Tiffin of Mockerkin. The Tiffins were possibly the most important resident family in the village. Furthermore they became leading Quakers.
Ann was a Quaker (though William wasn't convinced) and the family were brought up as such.
They had four sons (Lancelot, Joseph, Peter, Thomas) and three daughters (Janet, wife of Richard Fletcher of Brigham; Mary, wife of John Robinson of Hill in Brigham; and Ann Watson). Peter became a tanner in Dublin, dying before 1698.
Lancelot Fletcher of Mockerkin (died 1698) inherited the farm from his father. He was literate and a Quaker.
At his death, he left a wife Sarah and four children (Joseph, Jane, Elizabeth and Ann). The daughters were minors at his death. Joseph died in 1701, so inheritance of the farm would have passed to the daughters - or the farm would have been sold off to provide them with respectable dowries.
Thomas Fletcher of Mockerkin died in 1714. He had children. I haven't yet seen his will.