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Document Request: From the George Ada papers (Scan 116.jpeg)
Document Description: Extract from an unidentified history of the Fletchers of Dover
Transcription URL: https://ada.surnametree.com/library/vdocs/D_65#65
Document Transcription:
[extract from an unidentified history of the Fletcher's of Dover] Ten months later John and Sofia took their first child to the church and christened her Catherine (a Catherine Marsh witnessed John and Sophia's wedding so it's possible she was somehow connected to the Fletchers or Hollands), the day after Catherine's second birthday a baby sister was born and her parents named her Sophia. I imagine she was a great comfort to her parents when the older child died five months later. A third daughter – Hannah - was born in 1812 and a fourth - Ann - was christened just after John and Sofia's seventh wedding anniversary. Poor John – he must have been wondering what to do with all those females! But in 1817 John and Sophia finally stood before the vicar of Saint Mary's and announced that their son's name was John. The subsequent arrival of Jane, William, Mary, and Joseph Ismay Fletcher completed the family. In March 1812 Sophia Fletcher, a few months shy of her 21st birthday, wed William Ada of Stonehouse at the church where she'd been christened. George informs me that William was actually born in Kent… The two of you know more about that than I do. Apparently William took his bride back to Stonehouse where they produced three children in short order - Sophia Fletcher, William and Elizabeth. Next was John (five years after Elizabeth so perhaps there is another child in there somewhere) then Hannah and Martha who were born in Arundel, Sussex. I'm curious to know what William Ada did for a living. Evidence suggests that Sophia Fletcher Ada remained close to her Dover family. Her daughter Sophia appears visiting at the Biggin Street household of her uncle William and maiden aunts and and Jane in 1851. And the girls Hannah and Martha were visiting the grandparents at 17 Hawkesbury Street, near the harbour, at the time of the 1861 census (which is how I uncovered their existence). I have not yet seen the 1871 census for Dover but I have hopes of more connections there. In 1842 Sophia's brother John (my own great great grandfather) opened an ironmongers shop on Biggin Street in Dover. His brother William contributed his tinsmithing skills - John was a coach builder by trade but changes in transportation obviously opened his eyes to new possibilities. I've been unable to locate business records but within a few years the shop appears to have been run by both brothers so I don't know who actually owned it. William lived over the shop until his death in 1861 when John took over the living quarters; their younger brother Joseph Ismay Fletcher appears not to have been involved in the business at all, preferring to concentrate on his tasks as alderman for the Pier Ward of Dover. Apart from Sophia, I found no marriage records for the Fletcher sisters. Research is ongoing. John Fletcher senior died 26 December 1869 and was buried in the churchyard of Saint Mary's; the widow Sophia joined him 15 months later. John's will was dated 47 years before his death and, oddly, never amended. He named as executors his cousin Thomas Ismay the younger, and John Browne, a searcher for his Majesty’s Customs. He left to his ‘beloved wife Sophia’ all his household furniture, plates, linen, China and books ‘for her absolute use and benefit’ as well as his estate for her enjoyment until death or remarriage; everything else was put into trust for his sons and daughters. The fact that the will was never re-drawn, despite the maturity of his children and the deaths of both executors, suggests that John Fletcher had little to dispose of and led a quiet private life. I don't believe there are descendants of our Fletcher - or Ismay – families in Dover today. My great grandfather William Fletcher, son of John Fletcher the Ironmonger, worked in the family business which was still located on Biggin Street in 1891, according to Pike’s Blue Book for Dover (although the April census shows number 30 as unoccupied). My great grandfather appears as a ‘master Ironmonger’ on the census records for 1891 but I don't know if the family business remained open and in a new location, or if William worked for someone else. My mother didn't know her grandfather William – she barely knew her father, who died as a result of his war work (fireman) in Dover. She didn't know that her family once had a thriving business (she recalls, from her girlhood, W&R Fletcher’s butcher shop at 10 Biggin Street but I haven't found a connection - William’s wife came from a butcher-ing family so there might be) and she met only a few of her Fletcher relations.

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