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Fletcher

Gaelic: Leisdear
Badge:  Left arm embowed
Latin Motto: Recta Pete (Seek what is right).

The surname of Fletcher originates from the Gaelic meaning 'arrow maker' and is therefore to be found across Scotland as a trade name.  Fletchers followed the clans who employed them. In Argyll, they were associated with the Campbells and Stewarts, and in Perthshire, with Clan Gregor.  Henry Fletcher was Burgess of Forfar in 1374.

It is allegedly on record that the Fletchers of Saltoun and Innerpeffer are direct descendants of Sir Bernard Fletcher of York, in England. For several centuries, a family of Fletchers owned Achallader in Glen Tulla. In the 16th century they entered into a bond ceding their lands to the Campbells of Glenorchy.

Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1653-1716) strongly opposed the Act of Union which, in 1707, dissolved the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.  Archibald Fletcher, 9th Chief, supported the 1715 Uprising and during the 1745, Fletchers fought on both sides, thus avoiding forfeiture following the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Culloden.  In the century that followed, however, the majority of Fletcher clansmen were cleared by the Campbells of Breadalbane from Glenorchy to make way for sheep with many emigrating.

In 1911 the Fletcher Chiefship became dormant with the death of the 14th Chief in New York.