Life

Fisher was born in Rochester, Kent in or about 1781, the younger of the two sons of Thomas Fisher, printer, bookseller, and alderman of Rochester.

In 1786 Fisher entered the India House as an extra clerk; in April 1816 he was appointed searcher of records. He retired on a pension in June 1834, after having spent in different offices under the company altogether forty-six years. He died unmarried on 20 July 1836, in his sixty-fifth year, at his lodgings in Church Street, Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...

, and was buried on the 26th in Bunhill Fields

Bunhill Fields

Bunhill Fields is a cemetery in the London Borough of Islington, north of the City of London, and managed by the City of London Corporation. It is about 4 hectares in extent, although historically was much larger....

. From the time of his coming to London he had resided at Gloucester Terrace, Hoxton, in the parish of Shoreditch.

Before he left Rochester Fisher's work as a draughtsman attracted the attention of Isaac Taylor the engraver. He was also eminent as an antiquary. Fisher was in 1821 elected F.S.A. of Perth, and on 5 May 1836 F.S.A. of London, an honour from which he had been hitherto debarred, as a dissenter.

His collections of topographical drawings and prints, portraits and miscellaneous prints, books, and manuscripts, were sold by Evans on 30 May 1837 and two following days.

Works

Some plates in the Custumale Roffense, published by John Thorpe in 1788, are from drawings by Fisher; while the same work states that he had helped Samuel Denne, one of the promoters of the undertaking, in examining the architecture and monuments of Rochester Cathedral

Rochester Cathedral

Rochester Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Norman church in Rochester, Kent. The bishopric is second oldest in England after Canterbury...

.

His first literary effort, a description of the Crown Inn at Rochester and its cellars, was printed with a view and plan in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1789, under the pseudonym of 'Antiquitatis Conservator'. He had previously contributed drawings for one or two plates. In 1795 Denne communicated to the Society of Antiquaries a letter on the subject of watermark

Watermark

A watermark is a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light , caused by thickness or density variations in the paper...

s in paper, enclosing drawings by Fisher of sixty-four specimens, together with copies of several autographs and documents discovered by him in a room over the town hall at Rochester. By Fisher's care the records were afterwards placed in proper custody. His next publications were "An Engraving of a fragment of Jasper found near Hillah, bearing part of an inscription in the cuneiform character" (1802), and "An Inscription [in cuneiform characters] of the size of the original, copied from a stone lately found among the ruins of ancient Babylon" (1803), In 1806 and 1807 Fisher helped preserve two specimens of Roman mosaic

Roman mosaic

A Roman mosaic is any mosaic, made in Ancient Rome or by Roman artists outside of Roman frontiers. The Romans introduced exquisite mosaics in their domestic architecture and in the places of worship. The earliest examples of Roman floor mosaics are dated to the late Republican period and are...

 discovered in the city of London, one in front of East India House

East India House

East India House in Leadenhall Street in the City of London in England was the headquarters of the British East India Company. It was built on the foundations of the Elizabethan mansion Craven House, the London residence of Sir William Craven, Lord Mayor of London, to designs by the merchant and...

 in Leadenhall Street, and the other, which was presented to the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

, in digging foundations for the enlargement of the Bank of England. These he had engraved from drawings made by himself, and he published a description of them in the Gentleman's Magazine.

In the summer of 1804 Fisher discovered some legendary paintings on the roof and walls of the chapel belonging to the ancient Guild of Holy Cross in Stratford-on-Avon. Between 1812 and 1816 Fisher published ninety-five plates from his drawings of monumental and other remains in Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

. In 1838 John Gough Nichols added descriptions to a new edition. Meanwhile Fisher had printed at the lithographic press of D. J. Redman thirty-seven drawings of 'Monumental Remains and Antiquities in the county of Bedford,' of which fifty copies were issued in 1828.

Fisher was one of the first to welcome lithography

Lithography

Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...

 in the UK. As early as 1808 he published an account of it, under the title of 'Polyantography,' with a portrait of Philip H. André, its first introducer into England, in the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' vol. lxxviii. pt. i. p. 193. In 1807 he published in four lithographic plates. Shortly afterwards he issued several plates of monumental brasses to illustrate Edward Hasted

Edward Hasted

Edward Hasted was the author of a major county history, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent .-Life:...

's 'Kent' and Daniel Lysons

Daniel Lysons

Daniel Lysons was a notable English antiquary and topographer of the late 18th and early 19th century, who published the four-volume The Environs of London ....

's 'Environs of London.' In order to encourage the artist Hilkiah Burgess, Fisher had ten plates etched of 'Sepulchral Monuments in Oxford.' These were issued in 1836.

Many of the biographies of distinguished Anglo-Indians in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' were contributed by Fisher. That of Charles Grant

Charles Grant

Charles Grant may refer to:*Charles Grant , American football player*Charles Grant , Australian Senator*Charles Grant , British politician...

, father of Lord Glenelg, was afterwards enlarged and printed for private circulation, London, 1833. He also likewise a contributor to the European Magazine, the Asiatic Journal, and to religious periodicals. He was one of the projectors of the Congregational Magazine, and from 1818 to 1823 ran its statistical department of that serial. When elected a guardian of Shoreditch

Shoreditch

Shoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney in England. It is a built-up part of the inner city immediately to the north of the City of London, located east-northeast of Charing Cross.-Etymology:...

, where he lived, he assisted John Ware, the vestry clerk, in the compilation of a 'An Account of the several Charities and Estates held in trust for the use of the Poor of the Parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, Middlesex, and of Benefactors to the same,' 1836. He was an abolitionist, and in 1825 published 'The Negro's Memorial, or Abolitionist's Catechism. By an Abolitionist,' London. He was a member, too, of bible and missionary societies.

Family

His father Thomas Fisher who died on 29 August 1786, was author of the "Kentish Traveller's Companion", 1777, and, with Samuel Denne, F.S.A., and William Shrubsole, of a short "History of Rochester" published in 1772.