Fletcher Christian (September 25, 1764 – October 3, 1793) was a Master's Mate on board the Bounty during William Bligh's fateful voyage to Tahiti for breadfruit plants. It was Christian who seized command of the Bounty from Bligh in [[178 Fletcher Christian was born at the Moorland Close farmstead in Cumberland, England. His family, which was originally from the Isle of Man, was relatively well-to-do and controlled several properties. However, Fletcher's father died when he was eighteen, and Fletcher went to sea in order to support his family.

He sailed with Bligh twice. After the mutiny, he visited Tahiti where he married Maimiti, the daughter of the chief; the mutineers and a number of Tahitians then settled on Pitcairn Island where the Bounty was broken up for firewood and to construct homes. When the island was next visited by British sailors in 1814, only one mutineer, John Adams, was found alive, along with Tahitians and the children of the other mutineers.

Adams and Maimiti claimed Christian had been murdered during a conflict between the Tahitian men and the mutineers. Four other mutineers and all four of the Tatitian men who came to the island were also killed. He was survived by Maimiti and his son, Thursday October Christian, who is the ancestor of almost everybody surnamed Christian on Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands, as well as the many descendants who have moved to Australia and New Zealand.

Fletcher Christian also had a younger son named Charles Christian, and a daughter.

Christian was descended from a very prominant family. He was born at the farmstead of Moorland Close on 25 Sep 1764, and was carried over the hill to nearby Brigham church for baptism the same day.

Not far from Cumbria's Lake district, Moorland Close sits on the summit of a gentle hill that slopes down to the river Derwent and the town of Cockermouth. Moorland Close was inherited from the family of Christian's mother.

The family had control of several other properties. Christian's father was born and raised at Ewanrigg in Cumberland, and his mother's mother, Mary Fletcher, was raised at Cockermouth Hall. The ancestral properties also included lands at Douglas on the Isle of Man, and it was this connection that suggests that Christian was a Manxman which he was not.

According to Captain Bligh, Christian was 5 feet 9 inches tall, with very dark-brown complexion, dark-brown hair, strong-made, bowlegged, of a nervous disposition, and subject to violent sweating. He had a star tattooed on his left breast.

He has been described as having a pleasing countenance and was a commanding figure. No picture of him exists. The above rendition is an artist's conception.

He was distantly related to William Wordsworth. A schoolmate, the local poet Isaac Wilkinson, described him as 'mild, generous, open, humane, sincere, and quick of spirit'. In general, even his detractors admit that he had a likeable personality.

The fortunes of his family, unfortunately, suffered serious reversal. His father died, and his mother was soon on the edge of bankruptcy, with Moorland Close about the be foreclosed. Christian, at an age where he welcomed adventure, went to sea at 18, signing as ship's boy the 'Cambridge', on which Bligh was 6th Lieutenant. He later took two trips with Bligh to Jamaica on the 'Britannia'.

It is interesting to compare the opinions of the way he was treated. Bligh felt that all his attempts to prepare the young man for eventual command were rejected.

The crew, especially among the older officers and petty officers, felt that Bligh gave him too much special treatment. Christian himself felt more severely put upon by his commander than he had apparently ever felt in the past.

His conduct, especially after the mutiny, indicate that he was thin-skinned, mercurial, and emotional. Here was a man who felt he had ability, but any criticism made him question his own worth. Did he feel insecure among the older officers, being treated by a commander not too much his senior as a youngster? Would he have fared better with a stronger commander who might have forced him to sink or swim? We will never know.

There is little doubt that his feeling for Maimiti, in large part, convinced him to take the ship. They were, unquestionably, the most monogamous couple on Pitcairn. His 'English' name for her, Isabella', reflected his feelings for his cousin, Isabella Curwen. Had circumstances been different, one might have expected him to jump ship, which indeed he contemplated at one point, and make his life alone in the south seas.

He was not a man who craved company, a loner who could have been a successful island entrepreneur. As it was, fate was not his ally.

Rumours have persisted for more than two hundred years that Fletcher's murder may have been faked, that he had left the island and made it back to England.

See Mutiny on the Bounty for a more detailed account of this famous incident.

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