Dodd, William

(1729-1777)

   Divine and forger, ed. at Camb., became a popular preacher in London, and a Royal Chaplain, but, acquiring expensive habits, got involved in hopeless difficulties, from which he endeavoured to escape first by an attempted simoniacal transaction, for which he was disgraced, and then by forging a bond for £4200, for which, according to the then existing law, he was hanged. Great efforts were made to obtain a commutation of the sentence, and Dr. Johnson wrote one of the petitions, but on D.'s book, Thoughts in Prison, appearing posthumously, he remarked that "a man who has been canting all his days may cant to the last." D. was the author of a collection of Beauties of Shakespeare, Reflections on Death, and a translation of the Hymns of Callimachus.