When Rev. Joseph Scott, the incumbent of All Saints, died, Robert Fletcher, his curate, asked to be considered for the living, stating that he had been employed as curate since 1804, and had lived since that time in the parish. His appeal was successful, and in 1818 he was made ‘Perpetual Curate of Daresbury’ the title which the incumbent then held.
He also took on the task, proposed some 40 years earlier by Rev. Joseph Blackburn and continued by Joseph Scott, to build a parsonage house. In 1820 he had succeeded, and was able to move with his young family into Daresbury parsonage. It meant that at last, the incumbent could now reside in the parish rather than merely visit occasionally on feast days, to administer the sacraments.
The parsonage stood on Morphany Lane, in Newton-by-Daresbury, but no longer exists, lost in a fire in 1880s, while it stood empty, after the Rev. William Henry Spencer’s death.
Robert Fletcher was baptised in 1776, at Holy Trinity church, Whitehaven, Cumbria, the eldest son of Isaac and Hannah Fletcher. He was ordained deacon at York in 1802, before coming to Daresbury in 1804. He was ordained priest the same year.
He married Martha Harrison at Runcorn in 1817, and their daughter, Martha was born the same year. A second daughter, Hannah was born in 1818, and both were baptised at All Saints in that year. Sarah, their 3rd daughter was born in 1820, followed by Robert in 1822, and finally Jonathan, in 1824. Hannah died when she was only 6 years old, and Sarah suffered mental impairment from birth.
Then Rev. Fletcher died in 1826, leaving his widow Martha and a very young family. He was buried at Daresbury on 20th December. When Martha died in 1831, at the age of 46, the children went to Whitehaven to live with their paternal grandmother Hannah Fletcher, and where they were surrounded by relatives. Sarah was looked after by her family, and lived into her sixties, and Robert became a linen and woollen draper, and Jonathan became a tea dealer.