William Fletcher

William Fletcher (1750–1823) was an Irish barrister, politician and judge. He sat in the Irish House of Commons and became a justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland). He was a man of strong opinions, which were forcefully expressed. He felt especially strongly about the condition of Ireland in his time, and a highly political address he delivered to a grand jury in 1814 caused much controversy and public comment. The Fletcher family He was the son of George Fletcher and Mary Meyler, eldest daughter of Stephen Meyler. He was born in Dublin, but the principal family residence was at Garr, near Rhode, County Offaly, and his father also had an estate at Clane in County Kildare. William himself later bought a house on Merrion Square in Dublin city centre, and an estate at Donnybrook, south of Dublin city. The Fletchers of Garr, who came to Ireland from Scotland in the 1690s, were a junior branch of the well-known Fletcher family of Saltoun, East Lothian, which had already produced two distinguished Scottish judges, Andrew Fletcher, Lord Innerpeffer (died 1650), and Andrew Fletcher, Lord Milton (1692–1766). Early career