The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Fletcher, Rev. William Roby
Fletcher, Rev. William Roby, M.A., is the son of the late Rev. Richard Fletcher, a well-known Congregational minister, who officiated in Manchester, and subsequently in Melbourne, Vict., where he died in 1861. He was born in Manchester on April 6th, 1833, and was educated at Silcoats School in Yorkshire, at the University of Bonn, the Lancashire Independent College, and at Owens College (now the Victoria University), Manchester. Mr. Fletcher graduated B.A. at London University in 1853, and in the following year took the London University prize for the Scripture examination. In 1856 he graduated M.A., and won the gold medal. He soon afterwards sailed for Sydney, and ultimately proceeded to Victoria, where he acted as his father's assistant at St. Kilda and Sandhurst. In 1866 he removed to Richmond, near Melbourne, and was appointed a professor at the Congregational College of Victoria. After a tour round the world he became pastor of the Stow Memorial Church, Adelaide, in March 1876. Since 1878 he has been a member of the Council of Adelaide University, of which he was made an honorary M.A. in 1877. During the last illness, and subsequent to the death of the late Professor Davidson, he was acting Hughes Professor of English Language and Literature and Mental and Moral Philosophy. In 1890 he was elected Vice-Chancellor of the University.