William Dodd
William Dodd was a notable figure in 18th-century England, born in 1729 as the eldest of six children to a clergyman. He attended Clare College, Cambridge, where he developed ambitions in literature and graduated with a degree in mathematics. Dodd initially found success as a writer of poetry and a play, but financial difficulties led him to pursue a career in the Church of England, where he gained recognition for his fashionable sermons and held various prestigious positions, including chaplain to King George II. However, his mounting debts and unsuccessful ventures ultimately led him to commit fraud by forging a bond, resulting in his arrest.
In a highly publicized case, Dodd was tried for his crime, and despite efforts for clemency—including petitions supported by thousands and interventions from prominent figures like Dr. Samuel Johnson—he was sentenced to death by hanging. Dodd's execution in 1777 sparked widespread revulsion against the harshness of the death penalty for crimes such as forgery, contributing to subsequent campaigns for legal reform in England. His life story reflects the complexities of personal ambition, societal expectations, and the legal system of his time.
Subject Terms
William Dodd
British clergyman and author
- Born: May 29, 1729
- Birthplace: Bourne, Lincolnshire, England
- Died: June 27, 1777
- Place of death: Tyburn, London, England
Major offense: Forgery
Active: February, 1777
Locale: London, England
Sentence: Death by public hanging
Early Life
William Dodd (dawd) was born the eldest of six children to the Reverend William Dodd and Elizabeth Dixon. He entered Clare College, Cambridge, to study mathematics in 1746, graduating in 1749 with a good degree. Having written poetry at university, his ambitions were literary, and he settled in London, where he spent the remainder of his life. He wrote poetry, a play, and a student philosophy textbook. In 1751, he secretly married sixteen-year-old Mary Perkins and leased an expensive house in the fashionable part of London. This move anticipated a life of overextending himself financially in order to keep up the appearance of success and to enjoy society life, parties, beautiful women, flamboyant clothes, and horse races. Eventually this led to his nickname, the Macaroni Parson.
Criminal Career
Despite the success of several poems in 1749 and the 1752 publication of The Beauties of Shakespeare, Dodd came to realize that literature was not going to sustain his ambitions. He returned to Cambridge to be ordained into the Church of England. For the next ten years, he combined writing and preaching, becoming noted for his fashionable sermons. He gained several lectureships, became prebend (a clergyman earning a stipend) at Brecon Cathedral, was appointed chaplain to King George II, and served as editor of the Christian Magazine from 1760 to 1767.
In 1765, Dodd became tutor to the son of the earl of Chesterfield and subsequently opened a small private school. In 1766, he gained his LLD (doctor of laws) to enhance his standing, marking the high point of his career. However, from this point on, he ran deeper into debt. Bids to obtain lucrative church livings failed, as did other ventures. Dodd was fired as editor and lost his royal chaplaincy, and his tutoring and school career came to an end. Preaching styles changed, and he lost his popularity. Although he was involved in many charities and became grand chaplain to the Freemasons in 1775, this position failed to bring the patronage that he desired. Dodd left England briefly to join his former pupil, now the new earl of Chesterfield. On his return, the earl paid some of his debts and provided him a small income.
In a desperate bid to fend off creditors, Dodd forged a bond in the name of the earl for four thousand pounds, claiming that the earl wanted the money secretly. He presented the bond to a broker, Lewis Robertson, but it lacked any signatures. Robertson, trusting the integrity of Dodd, finally found a banker, Messrs. Fletcher and Peach, to forward the money. Dodd filled in one of the signatures, and Robertson filled in another. However, the forgery quickly became known when the bond was shown to the earl, who immediately disowned it.
Legal Action and Outcome
Dodd was arrested and taken before Sir Thomas Halifax, the lord mayor of London. Dodd still had most of the money and offered to find the rest immediately. He claimed he would have paid the money back in six months and asked for the case to be settled privately, but neither of the attorneys acting for the earl or Halifax was willing. Fraud was a capital offense at this time, so the case was brought to the Old Bailey, the highest criminal court in London, on February 22, 1777.
The jury found Dodd guilty but recommended clemency, and the court delayed sentencing on technical grounds. This enabled a number of campaigns to be run on behalf of Dodd in the newspapers and by Oxford and Cambridge universities; the largest petition gained more than twenty thousand signatures. Dodd asked the well-known writer Dr. Samuel Johnson to intervene; Johnson did, writing speeches and sermons for Dodd to deliver. Johnson’s efforts were unsuccessful, however. The lord chief justice, Lord William Murray Mansfield, considered this a high-profile case and felt that any leniency he showed would set a bad precedent. Dodd was thereupon sentenced on May 14, 1777, to the full punishment of death by public hanging, which was carried out at Tyburn on June 27, 1777.
Impact
Ironically, William Dodd had preached against the death penalty only a few years before his own death, at a time when the death penalty was given for many crimes against property. Widespread revulsion against such a harsh punishment soon generated campaigns to reduce the list of capital offenses; they were successful, and fraud and forgery ceased to be hanging offenses. It was almost another century, however, before public hanging ceased, and another century before the death penalty was abolished in the United Kingdom altogether.
Bibliography
Boswell, James. Life of Johnson. Vol. 3. Edited by George Birkbeck Hill. Kila, Mont.: Kessinger, 2004. Relates Dr. Johnson’s efforts on behalf of Dodd in this commentary on the original Boswell text of 1791.
Howson, Gerald. The Macaroni Parson: Life of the Unfortunate Doctor Dodd. London: Hutchinson, 1973. A definitive biography of Dodd, giving a list of all the available sources.
Langbein, John H. The Origins of Adversary Criminal Trial. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2003. Explains the technical delays in sentencing in Dodd’s trial.