AO (Foster); ODNB (Article: 9739); ACAD (Venn) (FLTR562R); Gordon McMullan, The Politics of Unease in the Plays of John Fletcher (Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1994), ch. 1; Hannah Yip.
AO (Foster); ODNB (Article: 9739); ACAD (Venn) (FLTR562R); Gordon McMullan, The Politics of Unease in the Plays of John Fletcher (Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1994), ch. 1
Richard Fletcher was born in Watford, Hertfordshire. His exact birth date is unknown. He was admitted pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge on 16 November 1562, graduating B.A. in 1566. He was awarded an M.A. degree from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1569. In the same year, he was elected to a Fellowship at Corpus Christi, which he held until 1573. Fletcher was also ordained deacon and priest by Edmund Grindal at London on 19 September 1569. He became town preacher of Rye in 1574. In 1576, Fletcher proceeded B.D. and, four years later, D.D. He became bishop of Bristol on 14 December 1589, bishop of Worcester on 10 February 1593 and, finally, bishop of London on 10 January 1595. However, following his second marriage, which took place against Elizabeth I's wishes, Fletcher was formally suspended from his episcopal functions in the same year. Fletcher died on 15 June 1596 in Chelsea. His surviving sons included John Fletcher, the renowned dramatist.