John Fletcher of Madeley,
John Wesley's Designated Successor and "Equal Partner"
by
Laurence W. Wood
Frank Paul Morris Professor of Theology
When Wesley was 58 years old and John Fletcher was 32 years old, he asked Fletcher to be his “ equal partner” and successor.
Wesley was disappointed when Fletcher chose to become the vicar of Madeley, hoping instead that Fletcher would have become his co-leader of Methodism. In 1761, Wesley pleaded with Fletcher to be a co-leader with him.
In a letter to Charles Wesley (written in French), Fletcher explained this offer: "Your brother [John Wesley] has finally done me the favour of writing to me. An extract [l’extrait] from his letter is this: ‘It is not right for you to be alone. You would do more good and gain more benefit from being among us. Come, then, and if you do not wish to be an equal partner with me, I will be ready to serve under you’.” [Fletcher’s Letter to Charles Wesley, August 19, 1761, contained in the “Fletcher Volume” (p. 14) in the Fletcher-Tooth Archival Collection of the John Rylands Library of Manchester University].
Wesley was seventy years of age in 1773 when he again urged Fletcher to travel with him and be trained as the leader of the Methodist movement, which had begun thirty eight years earlier. This was a well calculated decision based on his intimate knowledge of Fletcher as a person of integrity, excellent leadership skills, and superior native intelligence. Wesley also noted that Fletcher’s knowledge of “Methodist doctrine” qualified him to be the leader. Wesley believed that Fletcher alone could serve as his replacement. There is a close correlation between Fletcher as Wesley’s “Vindicator” and as Wesley’s “Designated Successor.”
Melville Horne (a clergyman of the Church of England who was a close friend of Wesley and Fletcher and actively involved in the Methodist movement) described Wesley’s relationship to Fletcher in this way: “Mr. Wesley was his confidential Aristarchus. He revised, corrected, approved, printed, and sold, Mr. Fletcher’s Works.” Wesley’s critics also noted that Fletcher’s writings were written with Wesley’s Imprimatur. Richard Hill, who was one of Fletcher’s primary controversialists, noted that “Mr. Wesley revised, corrected, and gave his own imprimatur to all Mr. Fletcher’s checks, throughout which, Mr. John is the Alpha and the Omega.” Charles Wesley also gave his Imprimatur to Fletcher. In a letter, October 11, 1783, Charles Wesley said to Fletcher: “You had from the beginning my Imprimatur.”
John Wesley said to John Fletcher on March 22, 1775, that “I know not whether your last tract The Last Check where Fletcher featured Christian perfection as received through the baptism with the Spirit] was not as convincing as anything you have written.” Wesley himself used the term, “vindicated," to indicate that his Minutes of the conference were "effectually" defended. This can be seen in Wesley's reply to one of his critics: “Mr Fletcher has so effectually vindicated [the doctrinal Minutes] that I wonder Mr. Hill should mention them any more.” Wesley assumed responsibility for labeling Fletcher as his Vindicator, which was the title ascribed to Fletcher as the author of The Checks to Antinomianism.
For further discussion of the significant but forgotten importance of John Fletcher for Methodism, see:
See John Fletcher Rediscovered
See Pentecost and the Wesleyan Doctrine of Entire Sanctification