Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fitch, William Stevenson
FITCH, WILLIAM STEVENSON (1793–1859), antiquary, born in 1793, was for more than twenty-one years postmaster of Ipswich, but devoted his leisure to studying the antiquities of Suffolk. He made full collections for a history of that county. Most of them appear to have been dispersed by auction after his death, though the West Suffolk Archaeological Association, of which he was a founder, purchased the drawings and engravings, arranged in more than thirty quarto volumes, and they were deposited in the museum of the society at Bury St. Edmunds. Fitch published: 1. 'A Catalogue of Suffolk Memorial Registers, Royal Grants,' &c. (in his possession), Great Yarmouth, 1843, 8vo. 2. 'Ipswich and its Early Mints' (Ipswich), 1848, 4to. He contributed notices of coins and antiquities found in Suffolk to the 'Journal of the British Archaeological Association' (vols. i. ii. iii. xxi.), and contributed to the 'Proceedings of the East Suffolk Archaeological Society.' Fitch died 17 July 1859, leaving a widow, a daughter, and two sons.
[C. R. Smith's Collect. Antiqua, vi. 323-4; C. R. Smith's Retrospections, i. 245-8; Gent. Mag. 1859, 3rd ser. vii. 202; Index to Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. vols. i-xxx.]