John and William Fisher

John and William Fisher of Cambridge were friends of Benjamin Flower during his time in Cambridge and may have been dissenters. John operated a linen-drapery business in Cambridge, and William Fisher was a Cambridge banker and woolendraper (UBD 2.491).  The two may have been related. William Fisher helped create a subscription fund for the relief of the poor in January 1795 (Cambridge Intelligencer, 24 January 1795), to which the John Randall and his son, along with John Audley, Edward Ind, Peet Musgrave, Alderman Finch, John Finch, attorney, and other friends of Benjamin Flower contributed, helping to raise nearly £1000. In March 1800, after winning a court settlement for nearly £3000, Fisher became angry with Flower over what he considered to be an unfavorable account of the trial in the Intelligencer, resulting in a correspondence between the two men that Fisher published in the Cambridge Chronicle.  Flower, to defend the integrity of his paper, printed the same letters in the Intelligencer on 19 April 1800, with his own commentary.  In July 1802 Fisher became insolvent (his debts totaled more than £10,000) and his affairs were taken over by Flower’s friend, Peet Musgrave (Cambridge Intelligencer, 31 July 1802).