The son of a Lincolnshire clergyman, William Dodd attended Clare College Cambridge (B.A. 1750, M.A. 1759, LL.D, 1766). Dodd was lecturer at West Hampstead, chaplain at Magdalen House (1758), chaplain to the King (1763-74), prebendary of Brecon (1763), Rector of Hockliffe and Chalgrave, Bedfordshire (1772), and Vicar of Wing, Buckinghamshire (1775-77). A popular preacher, he tutored the son of the earl of Chesterfield. Dodd's ambitions and habit of living beyond his means got him into considerable trouble, culminating in a failed attempt at forgery and a celebrated trial. Despite Samuel Johnson's efforts to win clemency, Dodd was executed at Tyburn.
TEXT RECORDS:
1747Diggon Davy's Resolution on the Death of his Last Cow. A Pastoral.
1748A Pastoral.
1750A Day in Vacation at College. A Mock-Heroic Poem.
1750The Parsons. An Eclogue.
1760Sonnet, occasioned by hearing a young Lady sing Spenser's Amoretti, &c.
1760 ca.Sonnet. Occasioned by reading The Truth and Importance of Natural and Revealed Religion.
1763[Moral Pastorals:] Pastoral the Third. The Servant.
1767Moral Pastorals: Pastoral the Fifth. The Husband and Wife.
1767Moral Pastorals: Pastoral the First. The Son.
1767Moral Pastorals: Pastoral the Fourth. The Mother.
1767Moral Pastorals: Pastoral the Second. The Good Old Woman.
1767Moral Pastorals: Pastoral the Sixth. The Benevolent Man.
1767Moral Pastorals: Preface.
PUBLICATIONS:
Diggon Davy: a pastoral, on the death of his last cow. 1747.
The African prince when in England to Zara. 1749.
Zara at the Court of Annamaboe to the African Prince. 1749.
A new book of the Dunciad. 1750.
An elegy on the death of the Prince of Wales. 1751.
A day in vacation at college: a burlesque poem. 1751.
The beauties of Shakespeare. 2 vols, 1752.
An epistle to a lady concerning truths in religion. 1753.
A sermon preached ... before the president and governors of the city lying-in hospital. 1754.
The sisters: or the history of Lucy and Caroline Sanson. 2 vols, 1754.
The hymns of Callimachus translated. 1755.
The sinful Christian condemn'd by his own prayers. A sermon. 1755.
The easiness of Christ's yoke. A sermon. 1756.
The nature and necessity of fasting. 1756.
Discourses on the miracles and parables. 4 vols, 1757-58.
Thoughts on the epiphany of Christ: a poetical essay. 1758.
Hall, Joseph, Contemplations on the histories of the New Testament. [ed. Dodd]. 2 vols, 1759.
Ode to the Marchioness of Granby. 1759.
A sermon preached ... before the Governors of the Magdalen House. 1759.
Unity recommended in a sermon. 1759.
The Christian's magazine: or a treasury of divine knowledge [ed. Dodd]. 1760-67.
Hymn to good nature. 1760.
A sermon ... preached at the Chapel of the Magdalen House. 1760.
The wisdom and goodness of God in the vegetable kingdom. A sermon. 1760.
Account of the Magdalen charity. 1761.
A conference between mystic, an Huchinsonian, and others. 1761.
The wisdom and goodness of God in the vegetable kingdom farther considered in a second sermon. 1761.
The wisdom and goodness of God in the vegetable kingdom farther considered in a third sermon. 1761.
A familiar explication of the poetical works of Milton. 1762.
The frequency of capital punishments inconsistent with justice, sound policy, and religion. 1762?
A sermon [preached before] the governors of the Magdalen Charity. 1762.
Youth dissuaded from vice; in a discourse. 1763.
Comfort for the afflicted ... with suitable devotions. 1764.
The visitor, by several hands [ed. Dodd]. 2 vols, 1764.
The Holy Bible with a commentary and practical improvements. 3 vols, 1765-70.
A commonplace book to the Bible. 1766.
Mutual knowledge in a future state ... in a sermon. 1766.
Poems. 1767.
The practice of inoculation recommended. A sermon. 1767?
Popery inconsistent with the natural rights of man in general, and of Englishmen in particular. A sermon. 1768.
Cautions against Methodism ... in a sermon. 1769.
Reflections on death. 1769.
A sermon ... preached before the ... governors of the Magdalen Hospital. 1769.
Sermons to young men. 3 vols, 1771.
The prisoner released. A sermon. 1772.
Compassion to infants enforced, in a sermon. 1773.
An oration delivered at the dedication of Free-Mason's Hall. 1776.
A sermon ... before the humane society. 1776.
The convict's address to his unhappy brethren. 1777.
Occasional papers, by the late William Dodd [with Samuel Johnson]. 1777.
A sermon preached by Dr. Dodd in the Chapel of Newgate to his unhappy brethren [with Samuel Johnson]. 1777.
Thoughts in prison, in five parts. 1777.
The beauties of history: or pictures of virtue and vice. 1795.
A journey from Margate ... in the year 1763 in Waldron, A collection of miscellaneous poetry. 1802.
Moral pastorals and other poems. 1824.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
English
Anglican
Clare College Cambridge
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
Doctor of Laws
courtier
clergyman
poet
dramatist
novelist
essayist
Gentleman's Magazine
British Magazine
Christian's Magazine
Lord Chesterfield
Rev. John Duncombe
Susanna Duncombe
William Duncombe
Thomas Gainsborough
Rev. Richard Jago
Samuel Johnson
John Newbery
Rev. John Wesley
William Woty
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL.
Pearch, Supplement to Dodsley's Collection (1768-83); "Dr. Dodd" Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (8 January 1772); Dodd, Thoughts in Prison (1777); "Life of William Dodd" Westminster Magazine 5 (February 1777; and passim) 118-20; "Memoirs of Dr. Dodd" Walker's Hibernian Magazine 7 (March-June 1777) 186-92, 226-37, 301-03, 409-11 [portrait]; "Life of Rev. Dodd" Weekly Magazine or Edinburgh Amusement 36 (10 April 1777) 73-76; "Account of William Dodd" Sentimental Magazine 5 (April, June 1777) 73-78, 115-18; "Anecdotes of William Dodd" Weekly Magazine or Edinburgh Amusement 37 (14 August 1777) 155-57; Isaac Reed, Historical Memoirs and Writings (1777); Annual Register for 1778 (1778) 187; John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82); Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); Bell's Fugitive Poetry (1789-97); "Anecdotes of Doctor Dodd" Gentleman's Magazine 60 (December 1790) 1066-67, 1077; Lounger's Common-Place Book (1792; 1796) 1:144-48; "The Fatal Effects of Dissipation in Doctor Dodd" Boston Weekly Magazine 1 (1 October 1803) 198; Robert Southey, Specimens of Later English Poets (1807); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58); "Was Dr. Dodd restored to Life after he was hanged?" Newcastle Magazine NS 1 (January 1822) 18-19; "Original Poem by Dr. Dodd" Literary Chronicle 4 (March 1822) 206; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34) 1:244-47; Percy Fitzgerald, A Famous Forgery (1859); Percy Fitzgerald, "Unfortunate Doctor Dodd" Dublin University Magazine 63 (1864); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Henry Chartres Biron, "Dr. Johnson and Dr. Dodd" National Review 85 (1925) 416-20; Venn and Venn, Alum. Cant. (1922-27); Fairchild, in Religious Trends in English Poetry (1942); J. H. Warner, "The Macaroni Parson" Queen's Quarterly 53 (1946); R. R. Gross, Doctor Dodd, Bucknell University Studies 4 (1953); Edwin Willoughby, "The Unfortunate Dr. Dodd" Proceedings of the Royal Society of Literature 29 (1958) 124-34; A. N. L. Munby, Sale Catalogues of Libraries of Eminent Persons (1971-75); Gerald Howson, The Macaroni Parson (1973); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Rev. William Dodd:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Rev. William Dodd:
AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)