| Clan Name: | Clan Fletcher |
| Native Name: | Mac-An-Leister (Son of the Arrowmaker)[1] Fleisdear |
| Chiefs Motto: | Alta Pete (Aim at High Things) |
| Country: | Scotland, Ireland, England |
| Region: | Scottish Highlands |
| District: | Argyll |
| Ethnicity: | Scottish |
| Image Arms: | Fletcher of Fletcher arms.svg |
| Historic Seat: | Archallader House[2] |
| Allied Clans: | Clan MacGregor |
| Rival Clans: | Clan Campbell |
Clan Fletcher is a Scottish clan.[3] The clan is officially recognized by the Lord Lyon King of Arms; however, as the clan does not currently have a chief recognized by the Lord Lyon, it is considered an armigerous clan.[3]
The name Fletcher is derived from the French word flechier, which means arrow maker.[3] The first record of the name was from Jean de la Flèche, a Norman noble who was given land by William the Conqueror. His decendent later moved to Scotland. The name was a very common trade name, so much so that it became used in the Scottish Gaelic language as fleisdear.[3] In the eighteenth century some families went full circle and anglicised the name from the Gaelic, Mac-an-leistear, back into Fletcher.[3]
Sometime after the eleventh century a band of Mac-an-leistears settled in Glen Orchy, Argyll.[3] There they became arrow makers to the Clan MacGregor.[3] Other small groups of Mac-an-leisters settled in glens that belonged to other clans, in order to make arrows for them.[3]
The first recorded clan chief was Angus Mac-an-leister, who was born in about 1450.[3] However, Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, who was in high royal favour with James VI of Scotland coveted the Mac-an-leister's lands.[3] Campbell had royal authority to maintain a large band of armed retainers who he employed in a campaign of intimidation and violence.[3] Campbell deliberately provoked a dispute with the Mac-an-leister chief and trumped up a murder charge against him.[3] As a result, Mac-an-leister was compelled to sign a deed in which all of his family lands were ceded to the Campbells, and from then onwards they were only tenants in Glen Orchy.[3]
Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun "the Patriot" was a fierce opponent of the union with England.[3] He became MP for Haddington in 1678; however, he was forced to flee to Holland for having supported the Monmouth Rebellion against James II of England (VII of Scotland).[3]
During the Jacobite rising of 1715 Archibald, ninth chief of the clan led the Mac-an-leisters in support of the Jacobites, as did his younger brother John during the Jacobite rising of 1745.[3] However, during "the 45" the elder brother who was the chief, provided some men for the British-Hanoverian forces under his Campbell overlords and in doing so avoided forfeiture.[3]
Castles owned by the Clan Fletcher have included amongst others: