From the Archives
Notorious Old Oakhamians In the first of two articles on Old Oakhamians who have found fame for all the wrong reasons, Oakham School’s Honorary Historian, Brian Needham, uncovers the sad fate of the Reverend William Dodd.
William Dodd was born in Bourne in Lincolnshire on 29 May 1729, the son of the Reverend William Dodd, Vicar of Bourne, and attended the School (but exact dates are not known). He went up to Clare College, Cambridge, in 1745 where he took BA (1749–50), MA (1759) and LLD (1766) degrees. On leaving Cambridge, Dodd resided in London in hopes of a literary career and rapidly produced a co-authored student crammer of philosophical texts and wrote both a farce on Sir Roger de Coverley, which was apparently never staged, and A New Book of the Dunciad. On marrying he leased an expensive property in Wardour Street and began to live well beyond his means in the expectation of literary success bringing financial rewards. When it became apparent that this would not be the case, he returned to Cambridge, was ordained at Gonville and Caius College and earned his living as curate at All Saints', West Ham. He continued to write, producing The Beauties of Shakespeare (1752) and fiction in the form of The Sisters (1754). During the 1760s he concentrated on theological writing and published a Commentary of the Bible in
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monthly parts from 1764 and became almost solely responsible for the Christian Magazine (1760–67). Meanwhile his reputation as a preacher was growing. He was appointed to a lectureship at All Saints' in 1752, which was followed by lectureships at St James Garlickhythe in May 1753 and St Olave in Hart Street in April 1754. He also delivered the Lady Moyer lectures at St Paul's Cathedral from 1754. In 1765 Dodd became tutor to the heir of the Earl of Chesterfield, so he reluctantly turned schoolmaster and opened a small private school and graduated LLD in 1766 in the hope of attracting other wealthy pupils. His precarious finances received a boost when his wife received an inheritance and a lottery prize. With the money he opened Charlotte (or Pimlico) Chapel in Charlotte Street in July 1767 with the aim of attracting the cream of London society through his reputation as a preacher. He failed to obtain the vacant livings of either All Saints’ in 1762, or St Olave in 1769, although in 1772 he was preferred to the rectory of Hockliffe, Bedfordshire, to which was joined the vicarage of Chalgrove.