Recovering Women’s Scriptural Authority: Mary Fletcher and Lay Biblical Interpretation in Early Methodism

Can women be recognized as biblical interpreters or theologians in the history of Christian thought? This paper examines the biblical interpretation of Mary Fletcher (née Bosanquet, 1739–1815), an early Methodist leader whose devotional writings and manuscripts reflect sustained engagement with Scripture within the pastoral life of eighteenth-century Methodism. Although Fletcher is often remembered for her piety and leadership—and occasionally for defending women’s preaching in her correspondence with John Wesley—her work as a reader and interpreter of Scripture has received comparatively little scholarly attention. Drawing on manuscript materials preserved in the Fletcher–Tooth Collection at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, this paper considers several examples of Fletcher’s engagement with biblical texts in devotional and pastoral contexts. Her reflections and Watchwords illustrate ways Scripture was interpreted in relation to the spiritual formation of Methodist communities and suggest how recovering such materials may inform ongoing conversations about the place of lay and women’s voices in the history and future study of biblical interpretation.