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Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/161

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Dodd
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Dodd

manuscript. His dealings in prints gradually extended, and his stock assumed immense proportions. In 1806 he opened an auction-room in St. Martin's Lane, and there he sold some famous collections, among them being that of General Dowdeswell in January 1809. In the course of his business he had large sales of prints and books at Liverpool, Portsmouth, and elsewhere. When he was at Ludlow in 1812, he found in the possession of an innkeeper a copy of Holland s 'Basioloogia' (1618), but it was not till seven years after that he was able to get the owner to part with this rare volume of portraits for 100l. In 1817 he spent much time over a dictionary of monograms, which might have been profitable had not a similar work by Brulliot been published about that time. From this period his good fortune deserted him and his stock dwindled. He settled in Manchester about 1819 as an auctioneer, and in 1823 projected a scheme which led to the establishment of the Royal Manchester Institution in Mosley Street, and the holding of annual exhibitions of pictures, which have been continued ever since. The Royal Institution building, with its contents, was transferred by the governors in 1882 to the Manchester corporation. Before leaving Manchester at the end of 1825 he began to publish his work entitled 'The Connoisseur's Repertorium; or a Universal Historical Record of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors, and Architects, and of their Works,' &c. The first two volumes were published in 1825, and the work was continued to the name 'Barraducio' in a sixth volume, issued in 1831, when lack of support compelled the author to abandon it. Some copies have the title 'The Connoisseur's Repertory; or a Biographical History,' &c.

Returning to London he had a sale-room for two years in Leicester Street, Leicester Square, and then became for several years foreman for Mr. Martin Colnaghi, from whose establishment he was engaged by the Earl of Yarborough to arrange and complete his collection of prints. In 1839-41 he made a catalogue, yet in manuscript, of the Douce collection of fifty thousand prints in the Bodleian Library. This is perhaps his most important work. He also arranged and catalogued Horace Walpole's prints, which were sold by George Robins for 3,840l. In 1844, being then a widower, he was elected a brother of the Charterhouse. He died on 17 Aug. 1850 at the residence of Mr. Joseph Mayer, Liverpool, to whom he bequeathed his manuscript compilations and other collections, extending to about two hundred folios, and including his 'Account of Engravers.' He was buried in St. James's cemetery, Liverpool.

[Gent. Mag. November 1850, p. 480, with portrait; Temple Bar, July 1876, and same article in Memoirs of Thomas Dodd, William Upcott, and George Stubbs, R.A. (by—Boyle), printed for Joseph Mayer, 1879, 8vo; Evans's Cat. of Portraits, ii. 125; several of Dodd's sale catalogues in the Manchester Free Library.]

DODD, WILLIAM (1729–1777), forger, born 29 May 1729, was son of William Dodd, vicar of Bourne in Lincolnshire (d. 1756, aged 54). He was entered as a sizar at Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1746. In 1749-50 he was fifteenth in the mathematical tripos. He had already published some facetious poems. He now went to London to try his hand at authorship, and indulged in the gaieties of the town. On 15 April 1751 he married Mary Perkins, whose reputation was perhaps doubtful (Walpole, Letters, vi. 55). Her father was a verger at Durham. Dodd took a house in Wardour Street, published an elegy on the death of Frederick, prince of Wales, and wrote a comedy. His friends, however, persuaded him to return the money received from a manager and to resume a clerical career. He was ordained deacon on 19 Oct. 1751, and became curate at West Ham, Essex. He was appointed to a lectureship at West Ham in 1752 and to a lectureship at St. James's, Garlick Hill, in May 1753, exchanging the last for another at St. Olave's, Hart Street, in April 1754. A rather loose novel called 'The Sisters,' published in the same year, seems to have been written by him, though it has been attributed to W. Guthrie [q. v.] (see Gent. Mag. 1777, p. 389). He was at this time inclined to the 'Hutchinsonians,' with two of whom, Bishop Horne and Parkhurst, a college contemporary, he had some acquaintance. He became a popular preacher, and his sermons on behalf of charities were very successful. Upon the opening of the 'Magdalen House' in 1758 he preached the inaugural sermon. He acted as chaplain, and in 1763 a regular salary of 100l. a year was voted to him. The new charity was popular; princes and fine ladies came to hear the sermons, and Dodd, according to Horace Walpole' (Letters, iii. 282), preached 'very eloquently and touchingly' in the 'French style.' The 'lost sheep,' says Walpole, wept; Lady Hertford followed their example, and Dodd wrote a poem upon the countess's tears. He published a variety of edifying books, and became the chief writer or editor of the 'Christian Magazine' (1760-1767). Some of his letters to Newbery, the proprietor, are in Prior's 'Life of Goldsmith' (i. 410-14). He contributed a weekly paper