Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/163

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Doddridge
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Doddridge

caused by the enormous crowd made the attempts hopeless (Gent. Mag. 1777, p. 346, 1790, pp. 1010, 1077). Dodd was buried at Cowley, Middlesex. His widow lived in great misery at Ilford in Essex, and died on 24 July 1784.

A list of fifty-five works by Dodd is given in the 'Account' appended to his 'Thoughts in Prison.' They include: 1. 'Diggon Davie's Resolution on the Death of his Last Cow,' 1747. 2. 'The African Prince in England,' 1749. 3. 'Day of Vacation in College, a Mock Heroic Poem,' 1750. 4. 'Beauties of Shakespeare,' 1752 (often reprinted till 1880). (It was through this collection that Goethe first acquired a knowledge of Shakespeare.) 5. 'The Sisters' (?), 1754. 6. 'Hymns of Callimachus translated,' 1754. 7. 'Sinful Christian condemned by his own Prayers' (sermon, 1755). 8. 'Account of Rise and Progress of the Magdalen Charity,' 1759. 9. 'Conference between a Mystic, an Hutchinsonian, a Calvinist,' &c., 1761. 10. 'Three Sermons on the Wisdom and Goodness of God in the Vegetable Creation,' 1760-1. 11. 'Reflections on Death,' 1763 (many editions till 1822). 12. 'Commentary on the Bible,' 1765-70. 13. 'Collected Poems,' 1767. 14. 'Frequency of Capital Punishments inconsistent with Justice, Sound Policy, and Religion,' 1772. 15. 'Thoughts in Prison,' in 5 parts, 1777. 16. 'Selections from "Rossell's Prisoners' Director" for the . . .comfort of Malefactors,' 1777; besides many sermons, 4 vols. of which were collected in 1755 and 1756.

[A Famous Forgery, being the Story of the unfortunate Dr. Dodd, by Percy Fitzgerald, 1865, collects all the information. Original authorities are: Historical Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. Dodd (attributed to Isaac Reed), 1777; Account of Life and Writings, &c., 1777 (read by Dodd himself, but suppressed by advice of his friends till after his death); Account of the author, prefixed to edition of Prison Thoughts in 1779; Genuine Memoirs, with account of Trial, 1777; Account of Behaviour and Dying Words, by John Villette, ordinary of Newgate, 1777. See also Gent. Mag. xlvii. 92-4, 116, 136, 227, 293, 339-41, 346, 421, 489, li. 234, lx. 1010, 1066, 1077; Nichols's Illustrations, vol. v. (correspondence of Weeden Butler); Archenholtz's Pictures of England, 1797, pp. 249-52; Thicknesse's Memoirs and Anecdotes, 1788, i. 220- 230; Hawkins's Life of Johnson, pp. 434, 520-6; Wraxall's Posthumous Memoirs (1836), ii. 24-6.]

L. S.

DODDRIDGE or DODERIDGE, Sir JOHN (1555–1628), judge, son of Richard Doddridge, merchant, of Barnstaple, born in 1555, was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. on 16 Feb. 1576-7, entering the Middle Temple about the same time. He early became a member of the Society of Antiquaries, then lately founded (Archaeologia, i.; Hearne, Curious Discourses). In 1602 and 1603 he delivered some lectures at New Inn on the law of advowsons. In Lent 1603 he discharged the duties of reader at his inn. On 20 Jan. 1603-4 he took the degree of serjeant-at-law. About the same time he was appointed Prince Henry's Serjeant. He was relieved of the status of Serjeant and appointed solicitor-general on 29 Oct. 1604. Between 1603 and 1611 he sat in parliament as member for Horsham, Sussex. He took part in the celebrated conference in the painted chamber at Westminster, held 25 Feb. 1606, on the question whether Englishmen and Scotchmen born after the accession of James I to the English throne were naturalised by that event in the other kingdom. Doddridge adopted the common-law view that no such reciprocal naturalisation took place, and the majority in the conference were with him. The question was, however, subsequently decided in the opposite sense by Lord-chancellor Ellesmere and twelve judges in the exchequer chamber (Calvin's Case, State Trials, ii. 658). Doddridge was knighted on 5 July 1607, and created a justice of the king's bench on 25 Nov. 1612. On 4 Feb. 1613-14 the university of Oxford, in requital for services rendered by him in connection with some litigation in which the university had been involved, conferred upon him the degree of M.A., the vice-chancellor and proctors attending in Serjeants' Inn for the purpose. Unlike Coke, he showed no reluctance to give extra-judicial opinions. Thus Bacon writes to the king (27 Jan. 1614-15) with reference to Peacham's case that Doddridge was ' very ready to give an opinion in secret.' Nevertheless he signed the letter refusing to stay proceedings at the instance of the king in the commendam case (27 April 1616). On being summoned to the king's presence, all the judges except Coke receded from the position they had taken in the letter. Doddridge, however, went still further in subserviency, promising that 'he would conclude for the king that the church was void and in his majesty's gift,' adding 'that the king might give a commendam to a bishop either before or after consecration, and that he might give it him during his life or for a certain number of years.' Doddridge sat on the commission appointed in October 1621 to examine into the right of the archbishop (Abbot) to install the newly elected bishops Williams, Davenant, and Cary who objected to be consecrated by