Bourne Archive: Bourne People: William Dodd
http://boar.org.uk/abiwxo1Marrat’sDodd.htm Latest edit 13 Aug 2009
Web page © R.J.PENHEY 2007
The Bourne Archive.
Marrat’s Biographies: William Dodd.
From the Bourne entry in volume III of William Marrat’s History of Lincolnshire.
The copy used here was lent
by the Willoughby Memorial Library, to the trustees of which
I offer my thanks.
Transcript
(pp. 115 – 119)
William Dodd, an English divine,
who for many years, was a celebrated and popular preacher in the metropolis, and in his
disgraceful death afforded a striking lesson of the fatal effects of extravagance
and dissipation, was born in the year 1729, at Bourne, Lincolnshire, of which
place his father was the vicar. After receiving a classical education at a
private school, he was entered, in 1745, a sizer at Clare-hall, Cambridge; where
he appears to have prosecuted his studies with diligence, and in he year 1750
took his degree of B.A.
with much reputation. During the following year he imprudently entered into
matrimonial connection, before he possessed the means of supporting a wife, and
with a lady who was neither distinguished by the gifts of fortune, nor by those
prudent and economical qualities so peculiarly necessary in his situation. In
the year 1753 he was admitted into orders, when he fixed upon London for his
scene of action, where his impressive pulpit talents soon rendered him one of
the most admired and popular preachers of the day. His successively obtained
several lectureships, and increased his popularity by publication of sermons
and devotional pieces, which met with very favourable reception. By these means
he came into the possession of an handsome income, but
not proportioned to the style and manner of living in which he indiscreetly
embarked. His popularity made him vain, and his vanity led him into expences to which an opulent fortune would have been unequal.
To augment his income he entered more largely into the line of an author, or
editor, and during the course of several years published, or superintended the
publication of, various original pieces, new editions of esteemed works,
transcriptions, and compilations, by which he acquired considerable sums of
money. In the year 1757 he took his degree M.A. at Cambridge. About this time he sustained an
active part in the institution of the Magdalen hospital, which owed much of the support which
it received to the zeal and ability with which he recommended it, particularly
in his sermons as preacher to the charity, which were attended by very numerous
and respectable audiences, For his services in this situation he was presented
with a genteel annual stipend. In the year 1763, Dr. Squire, Bishop of St. David’s,
who had before made him his chaplain, procured for him a collation to a prebend of Brecon; and in the same year the late
earl of Chesterfield, at the recommendation of Bishop Squire, gave him the
appointment of tutor to his godson, Philip Stanhope, esq.
the present
earl. In the following year he was made one of his majesty’s
chaplains and in 1766
took the degree of LL.D.
at Cambridge.
In the year 1772 he set on foot a subscription, and gave rise to the truly
benevolent society for the relief of prisoners confined for small debts; and in
the same year was presented to the rectory of Hockliffe
in Buckinghamshire [sic] . His increace of honours,
however, and of lucrative situations, unhappily ministered fresh food to his
vanity, and tempted him to indulge to a ruinous extavagance,
by which he was involved in debts which he could not discharge. To extricate
himself from this situation he had recourse, in the year 1774, to a scandalous
expedient, by which he hoped to procure the rich rectory of St. George’s
Hanover-square, which had fallen to the disposal of the crown. With this view
he caused an anonymous letter to be sent to the lord
chancellor’s lady, making her an offer of 3000l. if, by her means,
he might be presented to the living. The letter was immediately communicated to
the chancellor, and, after being traced to the person who sent it, laid before
the king, who ordered Dr. Dodd’s name to be ignominiously struck off the list
of his chaplains. The public disgrace and shame which followed this event had
for a short time such an effect on Dr. Dodd, that he withdrew from the kingdom,
and went to Geneva, where his pupil than was. By him he was received with more
kindness than under the circumstances in which he was placed he had reason to
expect, and, as the means of relief, was presented with the living of Winge
in Buckinghamshire which a dispensation enabled him to hold in conjunction with
that at Hockliffe. But the shame and distress in which he had involved himself did
not cure him of his follies, or check his habits of profusion. The consequence
was, that his embarrassment by degrees became greater than ever, and tempted
him at length, in the year 1777, to the commission of a criminal act, by which
he forfeited his life. That was, the forgery of lord Chesterfield’s name to a bond, on the credit
of which he obtained a large sum of money, vainly flattering himself that the
transaction would remain unknown till he should be in circumstances to redeem
and destroy the fatal pledge. Detection, however, almost immediately followed
the crime: and the wretched divine was committed to prison, tried, convicted,
and executed at Tyburn. He died with all the marks of deepest remorse for the
follies and vices of which he had been guilty, and with expressions of the most bitter regret for the scandal which, by his conduct, he
had brought on his profession, and on the religion of which he was a minister.
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