James Fletcher senior (1710–1795; fl. 1730–1795)
James Fletcher senior, bookseller and publisher in the Turl, Oxford.
A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1726 to 1775, by Henry Plomer et al. (1932)
FLETCHER (JAMES), senior, bookseller and publisher in Oxford, The Turl, 1730–95. Born at Salisbury in 1710, and possibly brother of Stephen Fletcher [1714–27. See Dictionary, 1668–1725]. Was appointed "Privilegiatus bookseller" on January 13th, 1729/30. [Foster's Alumni.] He leased his shop in the Turl from the City in 1731. Took his son, James, into business in 1769. They also had a shop in Westminster Hall in Term time, as well as a branch shop at the Oxford Theatre in St. Paul's Churchyard. From this latter address they published, in 1754, a satirical work called The History of the Robinhood Society. [B. M. 741 a. 12.] James Fletcher was the Rev. Thos. Warton's publisher, and his shop in the Turl was resorted to by all the literary men of the day, as well as by undergraduates seeking books. An eight-page catalogue of his publications in 1757, containing upwards of 100 titles, occurs at the end of the Rev. James Snowden's Sermon, preached at the Parish Church of St. Peter in the East, in Oxford, on Friday, February 11th. James Fletcher died in Oxford in 1795, aged 85.