Clan Fletcher

Arrow-makers to the great clans, patriots in their own right.

Origin: Argyll & the West Coast, Scotland
Motto: Dieu pour nous
Famous bearer: Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1653–1716), patriot and political theorist
Register: Scottish clan

Territory of Fletcher

The seat of Clan Fletcher

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Clan Fletcher community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Clan Fletcher has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Fletcher clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

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Motto

Dieu pour nous

“God for us”

What does the Fletcher name mean?

From the French 'flèche', arrow. The Fletchers were arrow-makers, and clans across Scotland included a Fletcher sept.

The history of Clan Fletcher

The name derives from the French 'flèche', arrow. Fletchers are found across Scotland because they followed the clans for whom they made arrows: with the Campbells and Stewarts in Argyll, with the MacGregors in Perthshire.

Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1653–1716), the great Scottish patriot, fiercely opposed the Act of Union of 1707 from his seat in the Scottish Parliament. During the 1745 Rising, Fletchers fought on both sides.

In the early 1800s, hundreds of Fletcher clansfolk were cleared from the Highlands by the Campbells of Breadalbane to make way for sheep, most driven off the land they had farmed for centuries and scattered into emigration as part of the wider Highland Clearances.

Champions of the Fletcher name

The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.

Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun
The East Lothian laird whose 1703 Speeches in the Scots Parliament against the proposed Union with England framed the foundational arguments of Scottish constitutional independence, and whose Account of a Conversation introduced into political philosophy the line that the maker of a nation's songs has more power than the maker of its laws.

Notable bearers of the Fletcher name

Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1653–1716), patriot and political theorist

Stories of Clan Fletcher

Fletcher of Saltoun against the Union
1707
In the long autumn session of the Scottish Parliament of 1706, in the Parliament House on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, fifty-three years old, the East-Lothian laird and senior intellectual figure of the anti-Union party in the Scots Estates, delivered the twenty-three speeches against the Treaty of Union with England that had been negotiated by the Scottish Commissioners with the Westminster government in the summer of 1706. Fletcher's speeches, preserved in the Defoe History of the Union and in his own Political Works of 1737, are the foundational defence of an independent Scottish polity in early-eighteenth-century political thought. The Treaty of Union nevertheless passed the Scottish Parliament by 110 votes to 67 on the sixteenth of January 1707, came into force on the first of May 1707, and dissolved the Scottish Parliament for the next two hundred and ninety-two years (until the Scotland Act 1998 re-established a devolved Scottish Parliament at Holyrood in 1999). Fletcher's most-quoted line from the 1706 speeches, I would venture to assert that, if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation, is in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and has been the foundational maxim of cultural-political-nationalism in modern political theory.
Read the story →

Frequently asked

What does the surname Fletcher mean?

From the French 'flèche', arrow. The Fletchers were arrow-makers, and clans across Scotland included a Fletcher sept. The name derives from the French 'flèche', arrow.

Where does the Fletcher family come from?

The Fletcher family is rooted in Argyll & the West Coast and Perthshire, in Scotland. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in Lorn & the Inner Isles and Atholl & Strathearn. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Is Fletcher a Scotland surname?

Yes, Fletcher is a Scotland surname. Its editorial home in this atlas is Scotland, where the historical territory and family record of the name are concentrated.

How old is the Fletcher surname?

The name derives from the French 'flèche', arrow. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Fletcher name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Fletcher family known for?

Arrow-makers to the great clans, patriots in their own right. The name derives from the French 'flèche', arrow.

What is the Fletcher motto?

The motto of the Fletcher family is "Dieu pour nous", which translates as "God for us". Family mottoes were registered with the chief of the name and carried on the heraldic arms and battle-banners.

What does "Dieu pour nous" mean in English?

"Dieu pour nous" is the motto of the Fletcher family. In English it means "God for us". The phrase is typically rendered in Latin, though some Highland families carry their motto in Gaelic and some Norman lines in Old French.

Who is the most famous Fletcher?

The best-known bearer of the Fletcher name is Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1653–1716), patriot and political theorist. Their life and connection to the family are profiled in full on the dedicated champion page.

What stories are told about the Fletcher family?

The Fletcher family is associated with Fletcher of Saltoun against the Union. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

What is the story of Fletcher of Saltoun against the Union?

In the long autumn session of the Scottish Parliament of 1706, in the Parliament House on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, fifty-three years old, the East-Lothian laird and senior intellectual figure of the anti-Union party in the Scots Estates, delivered the twenty-three speeches against the Treaty of Union with England that had been negotiated by the Scottish Commissioners with the Westminster government in the summer of 1706. Fletcher's speeches, preserved in the Defoe History of the Union and in his own Political Works of 1737, are the foundational defence of an independent Scottish polity in early-eighteenth-century political thought. The event is dated to 1707.

Where is the Fletcher surname found today?

Scotland is the primary historical home of the Fletcher surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same Scotland origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Fletcher family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Fletcher family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, the family motto, famous bearers of the name, traditional stories and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of Scotland so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Fletcher family today?

The seat for the head of the Fletcher family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.