Eclectic Ethereal Encyclopedia

Philip Doddridge

DODDRIDGE, PHILIP, D.D. (1702-1751), nonconformist divine, was born in London on 26 June 1702. His father, Daniel Doddridge (d. 17 July 1715), a prosperous oilman, was a son of an ejected minister, John Doddridge, and a grandson of Philip Doddridge, younger brother of Sir John Doddridge [q. v.] Daniel Doddridge married the daughter of John Bauman, a Lutheran preacher at Prague, who fled from persecution in 1626, and eventually kept a private school at Kingston-on-Thames. Philip was the twentieth and last issue of the marriage; so few were the signs of life at his birth that at first he was given up for dead; his constitution was always extremely delicate. But one other of the twenty children reached maturity, Elizabeth (d. March 1735), who married John Nettleton, dissenting minister at Ongar, Essex.

Doddridge told Orton that his education was begun by his mother, who taught him Bible history from the pictures on the Dutch tiles of the chimney. He learned his Latin grammar at a private school kept by Stott, a dissenting minister. In 1712 he was removed to the school at Kingston-on-Thames established by his grandfather, and then taught by Daniel Mayo [q. v.] His holidays he spent with his uncle, Philip Doddridge, solicitor, and steward to the first Duke of Bedford, thus forming acquaintances with Members of the Russell family, which became friendships in later life. In 1715, after the deaths of his father and uncle, he was transferred to a school at St. Albans, where Downes, who had assumed the office of his guardian, lived. His teacher was Nathaniel Wood, D.D., a scholarly nonconformist, who ministered to a neighbouring village congregation. Clark, or Clarke, of the 'Scripture Promises' [see CLARKE, SAMUEL, D.D., 1684-1750], was presbyterian minister at St. Albans, and in him Doddridge found a second father. As early as 1716 he began to keep a diary, already having thoughts of the ministry. Two years later Downes, who seems to have been a man of kindly impulses, but a hare-brained speculator, lost the whole of the Doddridge property as well as his own, and was got out of a debtor's prison solely by the sacrifice of his young ward's family plate.

Doddridge at once left school, and went to consult about his future with his sister, then newly married and residing at Hampstead. The Duchess of Bedford offered him an education at either university, and provision in the church. But he scrupled about conformity. He appealed to Edmand Calamy, D.D. (1671-1732) [q. v.], to forward his desire of entering the dissenting ministry, but Calamy advised him to turn his thoughts to something else. It has been suggested that Calamy saw the dissenting interest was declining; yet this was before the rent in nonconformity at Salters' Hall (1719) which began the decline afterwards lamented by Calamy. Doddridge's extreme youth and consumptive tendency supply the natural explanation of Calamy's advice. Doddridge was recommended by Horseman, a leading conveyancer, to Sir Robert Eyre [q. v.] with a view to his studying for the bar. But a letter from Clark, opening his house to him if he still preferred the dissenting ministry, decided his future.

His theological preparation was begun by Clark, who admitted him as a communicant on 1 Feb. 1719. In October of that year he entered the academy of John Jennings [q. v.] at Kibworth, Leicestershire. Jennings was an independent, but a few of his students, including Doddridge, were aided by grants from the presbyterian fund. Other small grants reduced the burden of expense, which fell on Clark, to about 12l. a year. This Doddridge seems to have ultimately repaid. He supplies, in his correspondence, some very interesting details of the course of study. The spirit of the academy was decidedly liberal. Jennings encouraged 'the greatest freedom of inquiry' (Corresp. i. 156), and was not wedded to a system of doctrine, 'but is sometimes a Calvinist, sometimes a remonstrant, sometimes a Baxterian, and sometimes a Socinian, as truth and evidence determine him' (ib. p. 198). As a student Doddridge was diligent and conscientious, gaining a wide acquaintance with the practical outfit of his profession, but showing no turn for research.

The academy was removed to Hinckley, Leicestershire, in July 1722, and on 22 July Doddridged preached his first sermon in the old meeting-house taken down in that year. The state of his finances made it necessary for him to seek a settlement as soon as possible. On 25 Jan. 1723 he passed an examination before three ministers, qualifying him for a certificate of approbation from the county meeting in May. He had already taken the oaths and made the subscription required by the Toleration Act (ib. i. 173), though, as a term of communion among dissenters, he was resolved never to subscribe (ib. pp. 200, 335). At the beginning of June 1723 he became minister at Kibworth to a congregation of 150 people with a stipend of 35l. Stanford prints an extract o what he supposes to be Doddridge's confession of faith on this occasion. But at Kibworth he was not ordained, and made no confession. The document in question is believed by Principal Newth to be the confession of Doddridge's pupil, Thomas Steffe, ordained 14 Julv 1741; Doddridge wrote his life, prefixed to posthumous sermons, 1742, 12mo.

Almost simultaneously with the invitation to Kibworth, Doddridge had been sought by the presbyterian congregation at Coventry, 'one of the largest dissenting congregations in England,' as an assistant to John Warren. He would gladly have accepted this position had the offer been unanimous; but Warren favoured another man. The result was a split in the congregation and the erection of a new meeting-house. Doddridge was invited (February 1724) to become its first minister; he unhesitatingly declined to go in opposition to Warren. Overtures from Pershore, Worcestershire (October 1723), and from Haberdashers' Hall, London (November 1723), he had already rejected, partly because he did not wish to be ordained so soon, chiefly because in the first case they were 'a very rigid sort of people' (ib. i. 286), and in the second he thought it probably that he might have been 'required to subscribe' (Corresp. i. 335).

Doddridge's correspondence is remarkable at this period for its lively play of sportive vivacity, its absence of reserve, and its pervading elements of healthy good sense. Whatever he did was done with zest; and the elasticity of his spirits found vent in playful letters to his female friends. At Coventry he was charged with 'some levities,' according to William Tong (ib. ii. 6). The use of tobacco (ib. p. 39) was a lawful form of dissipation for divines; but cards, 'a chapter or two in the history of the four kings' (ib. p. 139), were somewhat unpuritanical. While at Kibworth, he boarded for a short time with the Perkins family at Little Stretton; then for a longer period at Burton Overy, in the family of Freeman, related to William Tong. To the only daughter, Catherine, owner of the 'one hoop-petticoat' in his 'whole diocess' (ib. i. 245), Doddridge speedily lost his heart. His sister's warnings were met with the query, 'Did you ever know me marry foolishly in my life?' (ib. p. 432). The lady seems to have used him badly, and finally discarded him, in September 1728. On 29 May 1730 Doddridge wrote a proposal to Jane Jennings (mother of Mrs. Barbauld), then in her sixteenth year (ib. iii. 20, corrected by Le Breton, p. 201). Nothing came of this, and in the following August he began the addresses which ended in his singularly happy marriage with Mercy Maris.

Meantime Doddridge had left Kibworth. In October 1725 he had removed his residence to Market Harborough, where his friend, David Some, was minister. By arrangement, the friends entered into a kind of joint pastorate of the two congregations. He had received (August 1727) an invitation to Bradfield, Norfolk, but the people there were 'so orthodox' that he had 'not the least thought of accepting it.' In December 1727 he was offered the charge of the presbyterian congregation in New Court, Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, but declined it. In November 1728 he was invited by the independent congregation at Castle Gate, Nottingham, and went thither to preach. While at Nottingham, the presbyterian congregation of the High Pavement offered him a colleagueship. But he rejected both overtures; among the independents there was too much 'high orthodoxy,' the presbyterians were broken into parties (ib. ii. 440, 448; see STANFORD for a correction of dates).

The death of Jennings in his prime (8 July 1723) had created a void in the dissenting institutions for theological training. Need was felt of a midland academy at once liberal and evangelical. The Derbyshire academy, under Ebenezer Latham, M.D., was favoured by the presbyterian board, but did not meet the wants of the time. Jennings, it was known, had looked to Doddridge as likely to take up his work. An account of Jennings's method, drawn up by Doddridge, was submitted to Dr. Isaac Watts, who thought the scheme might fairly be entrusted to one who had 'so admirably described' it. On 10 April 1729, at a ministers' meeting in Lutterworth, Some broached the design of establishing an academy at Market Harborough, and the approval of Doddridge as its first tutor was unanimous. He opened the institution at the beginning of July, with three divinity students and some others. On 28 Sept. a call to the pastorate was forwarded to him from the independent congregation at Castle Hill, Northampton. Doddridge accepted it on 6 Dec.; removing with his academy to Northampton, he began his ministry there on Christmas day. He was 'ordained a presbyter' on 19 March 1730 by eight ministers (five of them presbyterians), two others being 'present and consenting.' His confession of faith is given in Waddington.

Early in the same year (1730) appeared an anonymous 'Enquiry' into the causes of the decay of the dissenting interest, which made some stir. The author was Strickland Gough [q. v.], a young, dissenting minister, who shortly afterwards conformed. The 'Enquiry' provoked many replies, and among them was Doddridge's first publication. His 'Free Thoughts on the most probable means of reviving the Dissenting Interest,' by 'a minister in the country,' was issued on 11 July 1730 (according to the British Museum copy). Warburton, who was uncertain of its authorship, describes it as 'a masterpiece' (ib. iii. 392). Doddridge observes that in his neighborhood 'the number of dissenters is greatly increased within these twenty years.' Like Calamy, he has an eye to the political importance of a united nonconformist body. He recommends a healing and unifying policy. The problem was to retain the liberal and cultivated element among nonconformists, without losing hold of the people. Separation into congregations of diverse sentiments Doddridge thought suicidal. Union might be preserved by an evangelical ministry which combined religion with prudence. Bigotry, he observes, 'may be attacked by sap, more successfully than by storm.'

Doddridge carried out his own ideal with great fidelity and with conspicuous success, doing more than any man in the 18th century to obliterate old party lines, and to unite nonconformists on a common religious ground. He did not escape the criticisms both of the zealots who maintained a higher standard of 'orthodoxy,' that is to say of Calvinism, and of the class of thinkers who practically met the deism of the age halfway. According to Kippis (p. 307), the self-styled 'rational dissenters' especially regarded him as a trimmer, and thought his true place was with them. Yet he early defined his position (4 Nov. 1724) as 'in all the most important points a Calvinist,' and his later writings leave the same impression. He had been affected as a young man by the current discussions on the doctrine of the Trinity, and confesses that for some time he leaned towards the Arian view. His riper conclusion, according to Stoughton (pp. 110-11), 'somewhat resembled the scheme of Sabellius,' with the addition of a belief, which he shared with Dr. Isaac Watts, in the pre-existence of the human soul of our Lord. His tolerance extended to a recognition of the evangelical standing of the Exeter heretic, James Peirce (ib. ii. 144); and he declared that he would lose 'his place and even his life' rather than exclude from the communion 'a real Christian' on the ground of Arian proclivities (KIPPIS, ut sup.) On the other hand, he admitted Whitefield to his pulpit, a step which subjected him to strong remonstrance from the London supporters of his academy (Corresp. iv. 274 sq.) His daughter said in after life, 'The orthodoxy my father taught his children was charity' (ib. v. 63 n.) In church government Doddridge expresses himself (7 Dee. 1723) as 'moderately inclined' to congregationalism; but he was not tied to forms, and his example did much to render nugatory for a long period the ecclesiastical distinction between the English presbyterians and congregationalists. At Northampton he was relieved of some of his pastoral work by the appointment (26 Feb. 1740) of four 'elders,' of whom two were young ministers (Job Orton was one of them). His congregation did not increase under his ministry; there were 342 church-members at the date of his first communion in Northampton; by the end of 1749 the number stood at 239, and it seems to have still further declined under his immediate successors.

The truth is, Doddridge bad too many irons in the fire. Orton laments (Letters, i. 4) 'his unhappy inclination to publish so much,' and 'his almost entirely neglecting to compose sermons and his preaching extempore.' Doddridge's manuscripts include many sermons written out in full. His correspondence heavily taxed his time, as he had no amanuensis; on one occasion he says that after writing as many letters as he could for a fortnight, he had still 106 to answer.

At an early stage in his career as a tutor Doddridge came into conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities. Wills, vicar of Kingsthorpe, Northamptonshire, complained that one of his students had preached in a barn in his parish. Reynolds, the diocesan chancellor, directed the churchwardens to present Doddridge unless he held the bishop's license. Doddridge refused to accept any license, and was cited to appear in the consistory court on 6 Nov. 1733. In the following December his house was attacked by a mob. This drew expressions of sympathy from Lord Halifax and other public men. Aided by the London committee of dissenting deputies, Doddridge carried the legal question to Westminster Hall, where on 3l Jan. 1734 the judges granted a prohibition in his favour. The case was renewed in June, when Reynolds pleaded that the prohibition had been illegally issued. Proceedings, however, were stopped by a message from the king, George II. In 1736 he received the degree of D.D. from the two universities at Aberdeen. From 1738 his academy was subsidised by the Coward trustees [see COWARD, WILLIAM, d. 1738].

Doddridge's equipment for the work of his academy was serviceable rather than profound. He had a great and discriminating knowledge of books. Wesley consulted him on a course of reading for young preachers, and received a very detailed reply (18 June 1746). He knew and understood his public; his influence on his pupils was stimulating and liberalising. Doddridge made the use of shorthand, already common, imperative, adapting the system of Jeremy Rich. Each student carried away a full transcript in shorthand of his lectures, as well as of illustrative extracts. The mathematical form of his lectures (in philosophy and divinity), with the neat array of definitions, propositions, and corollaries, was borrowed from Jennings. Jennings, however, lectured in Latin; Doddridge was one of the first to introduce the practice of lecturing in English. A very elaborate system of rules for the academy exists in manuscript (dated December 1743, and subsequently revised). Orton complains (ib. ut sup.) that the rules were not enforced, that Doddridge did not keep up his own authority, but left it to an assistant to maintain regularity. He assigns this as the reason for his quitting the post of assistant. Owing to Doddridge's numerous engagements, 'all the business of the day' was thrown too late; and the students 'lived too well,' which was partly due to Doddridge's hospitality to visitors. The total number of his students was about two hundred; lists are given in the 'Correspondence' (v. 547) and in the 'Monthly Repository' (1815, p. 686), from Orton's manuscript; both lists need correction. None of his pupils turned out great scholars or thinkers, but among them were men of superior attainment, and a large number of useful ministers. Several became tutors of academies, e.g. John Aikin, D.D. [q. v.], Samuel Merivale, Caleb Ashworth, D.D. [q. v.], Andrew Kippis, D.D., Stephen Addington, D.D. [q. v.], and James Robertson, professor of oriental languages at Edinburgh (1751-92). Addington and Ashworth retained through life the Calvinistic theology; a majority of Doddridge's students ultimately held or inclined to the Arian type of doctrine, but in an undogmatic form, and with much infusion of the evangelical spirit. As a theological writer, Hugh Farmer [q. v.] was the most influential of Doddridge's pupils. Eight or nine conformed, but some of these, though placed for a time with Doddridge, were always intended for the established church. The last survivor of his theological students was Richard Denny of Long Buckby, Northamptonshire, who died in 1813; Thomas Tayler (d. 1831),who is often counted as Doddridge's last surviving student, 'had the advantage of his acquaintance and friendship,' but was not admitted to the academy until after Doddridge had left England to die; Humphreys has confused him (Corresp. v. 183 n.) with James Taylor, a lay student.

At Northampton Doddridge 'set up a charity school' (1737) for teaching and clothing the children of the poor, an example set him by Clark, and followed elsewhere. He had an important share in the foundation of the county infirmary (1743). He proposed the formation of a society for distributing bibles and other good books among the poor. His scheme for the advancement of the gospel at home and abroad, presented to three different assemblies of ministers in 1741, has been described as the first nonconformist project of foreign missions; it was probably suggested by his correspondence with Zinzendorf. In l748 he laid before Archbishop Herring a proposal for occasional interchange of pulpits between the established and dissenting clergy.

The religious genius of Doddridge is seen at its best in the powerful addresses which make up his volume 'On the Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul,' 1745. This work was planned and prompted by Isaac Watts, who revised a portion of it. Its popularity has been steadily maintained; it has been rendered into a great variety of languages, including Tamil and Syriac. His 'Family Expositor,' of which the first volume appeared in 1739, is a didactic comment on the New Testament, suited to the taste of a past generation, but too colourless and diffuse to be of permanent value. His divinity lectures have nothing original, but they possess the merit of skilful selection, and an arrangement which is convenient, if artificial. The same may be said of his courses on the kindred topics of pneumatology (psychology) and ethics.

Doddridge is justly admired as a writer of hymns. Here Watts was his model, and if he never rises so high as Watts, he never sinks so low. In his versified epitome of christian instruction for children (1743) he invaded a province which Watts had made peculiarly his own; this 'light essay' cannot be called very successful, though it is said to have been a favourite with George III as a boy. His hymns were chiefly composed on the basis of some scriptural text; they were circulated in manuscript, and often sung in worship, being given out line by line in the old dissenting way; a few were printed in connection with the sermons on which they bore, but they were never collected till after Doddridge's death. Their use has by no means been confined to dissenters; a Christmas hymn and a communion hymn (said to have been inserted by a dissenting printer) at the end of the Book of Common Prayer are by Doddridge; the paraphrases of the church of Scotland have borrowed from him. Dr. Johnson pronounces his 'Live while you live' to be 'one of the finest epigrams in the English language.'

Doddridge's multifarious labours had made too great demands on the vitality of a slender constitution. On his way to the funeral of his early benefactor, Clark, in December 1750, at St. Albans, he caught a severe cold, and could not shake off its effects. His last sermon at Northampton was preached on 14 July 1751; he delivered a charge at Bewdley, Worcestershire, on 18 July, visited Orton at Shrewsbury, and in August went to Bristol for the hot wells. Maddox, bishop of Worcester, called on him, and offered the use of his carriage. A sum of 300l., to which Lady Huntingdon contributed one-third, was raised by his friends to enable him to try a voyage to Lisbon. He left Bristol on l7 Sept., stayed a short time with Lady Huntingdon at Bath, and sailed from Falmouth on 30 Sept., accompanied by his wife and a servant. At Lisbon he was the guest of David King, son of a member of his Northampton flock. His spirits revived, but his strength was gone. He died on 26 Oct. 1751, and was buried in the English cemetery at Lisbon. His congregation erected a monument to his memory (with an inscription by Gilbert West) in the meeting-house at Northampton. His tomb at Lisbon was cleaned and recut, at the expense of Miller, the British chaplain, in 1814. In June 1828 it was replaced by a new marble tomb at the cost of Thomas Tayler (mentioned above); this was renovated in 1879, along with the tomb of Henry Fielding, by the then chaplain, the Rev. Godfrey Pope.

Doddridge was tall, slight, and extremely near-sighted. His portrait was several times painted, and has often been engraved. The engraving by Worthington, prefixed to the 'Correspondence,' is from a portrait finished 10 August 1750, and regarded by his family as the best likeness. He married, on 22 Dec. 1730, Mercy Maria, an orphan, born at Worcester, but brought up by an uncle, Ebenezer Hankins, at Upton-on-Severn; she died at Tewkesbury, 7 April 1790, aged 82. In his letters to his wife, Doddridge, after many years of married life, writes with all the warmth and sometimes with all the petulance of a lover. Among his manuscripts is a letter (1741) superscribed 'To my trusty and well-beloved Mrs. Mercy Doddridge, the dearest of all dears, the wisest of all my earthly councellors, and of all my governours the most potent, yet the most gentle and moderate.' For the dates of birth of his three sons and six daughters see 'Correspondence,' v. 531 n. Five of his children died in infancy. He left one son, Philip, 'his unhappy son' (ORTON, Letters, ii. 56), who died unmarried on 13 March 1785, aged 47; and three daughters, Mary, who became the second wife of John Humphreys of Tewkesbury, and died on 8 June 1799, aged 66; Mercy, who died unmarried at Bath on 20 Oct. 1809, aged 75; and Anna Cecilia, who died at Tewkesbury on 3 Oct. 1811, aged 74.

Doddridge's will (dated 11 June 1741) with codicils (dated 4 July 1749) is printed with the 'Correspondence.' The original document is entirely in Doddridge's hand, and there are interlineations in the will, made subsequent to 1741. Of these the most important is the substitution of Ashworth for Orton as his nominated successor in the academy and (if approved by the congregation) in the pastoral office.

His works were collected in 10 vols. Leeds, 1802-5, 8vo; reprinted 1811, 8vo. The chief items are the following: 1. 'Free Thoughts on the most probable means of reviving the Dissenting Interest,' 1730, 8vo (anon.) 2. 'Sermons on the Religious Education of Children,' 1732, 12mo (preface by D. Some). 3. 'Submission to Divine Providence in the Death of Children,' 1737, 8vo (sermon on 2 K. iv. 25, 26, said to have been written on the coffin of his daughter Elizabeth). 4. 'The Family Expositor,' 1739-56, 6 vols. 4to (the last volume was published posthumously by Orton; Doddridge finished the exposition on 31 Dec. 1748, and the notes on 21 Aug. 1749; he had prepared a similar exposition of the Minor Prophets, which was completed 5 June 1751, and is still in manuscript). 5. 'The Evil and Danger of Neglecting the Souls of Men,' 1742, 8vo (sermon on Prov. xxiv. 11, 12, prefaced by his plan of a home and foreign mission). 6. 'The Principles of the Christian Religion, expressed in plain and easy verse,' 1743, 12mo. 7. 'The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul,' 1745, 8vo and 12mo (the 8vo is the earlier issue); in French, by J. S. Vernede, Bienne, 1754, 8vo; Welsh, by J. Griffith, 1788, 12mo; Gaelic, Edinb. 1811, 12mo; Italian, 1812, 12mo; Tamil, Jaffna, 1848, 12mo; Syriac, by J. Perkins, Urumea, 1857, 4to; also in Dutch, German, and Danish. 8. 'Some Remarkable Passages in the Life of the honourable Colonel James Gardiner . . . with an appendix relating to the antient family of the Munros of Fowlis,' 1747, 8vo (with portrait of Gardiner [q. v.]). Posthumous were 9. 'Hymns,' Salop, 1755, 12mo (contains 370 hymns, edited by Orton); reissued by Humphreys, as 'Scriptural Hymns,' 1839, 16mo (some copies have title 'The Scripture Hymn-book,' and no date); Humphreys gives 397 hymns; he claims to have restored in some places the true readings from Doddridge's manuscripts, but in others he admits having made what he considers improvements, but no suppressions. 10. 'A Course of Lectures on Pneumatology, Ethics, and Divinity,' 1763, 4to (edited by S. Clark); 2nd edit. 1776, 4to; 3rd edit. 1794, 8vo, 2 vols. (edited by Kippis). 11. 'Lectures on Preaching' (edited from four manuscript notebooks; another recension was printed in the 'Universal Theological Magazine,' August 1803 and following issues, by Edmund Butcher [q. v.]; the first separate issue is 1821, 8vo). Not included in the collected works are 12. 'A Brief and Easy System of Short-hand: first invented by Jeremiah Rich, and improved by Dr. Doddridge,' 1799, 12mo (in this first edition the characters are 'made with a pen'). 13. 'The Leading Heads of Twenty-seven Sermons,' Northampton, 1816, 8vo (transcribed from a hearer's notes by T. Hawkins). 14. 'The Correspondence and Diary of Philip Doddridge,' 1829-31, 8vo, 5 vols. (edited by his great-grandson, John Doddridge Humphreys, who has been attacked for his mode of editing; he details his plan, iv. 570 n.; he claims to have omitted no passage bearing on Doddridge's personal history or theological opinions). The 'Works' contain only such of the letters as had been edited by the Rev. Thomas Stedman of Shrewsbury, 1790, 8vo.

[Orton's Memoirs, 1766, are stiffly written and broken into sermonising sections. They are expanded, at inordinate length, by Kippis, in Biog. Brit. 1793. Prefixed to the Works is a reprint of Orton, with notes taken from Kippis. Orton's Letters to Dissenting Ministers, 1806, supply some interesting hints; but the real Doddridge was first unveiled in the Correspondence, 1829-31. Stanford's Philip Doddridge, 1880, is the best life at present, yet a better is desirable; Stanford has worked in valuable materials from unpublished sources, but his book needs revision. Use has been made above of Stoughton's Philip Doddridge . . . a Centenary Memorial, 1851; Coleman's Memorials of Indep. Churches in Northamptonshire, 1853, pp. 13 sq.; Sibree's Independency in Warwickshire, 1855, pp. 37 sq.; Carpenter's Presbyterianism in Nottingham, 1862, p. 143 sq. (extracts from unpublished letters); Christian Reformer, 1866, p. 552 sq. ('Ecclesiastical Proceedings against Dr. Doddridge'); Miller's Our Hymns, 1866, p. 113 sq., Hunt's Religious Thought in England, 1873, iii. 245 sq.; Le Breton's Mem. of Mrs. Barbauld, 1874; Waddington's Congregational History, 1700-1800, 1876, p. 280; Christian Life, 3 Nov. 1877, p. 535 (communication from the Rev. J. S. Porter respecting Thomas Taylor, his predecessor in the ministry at Carter Lane, Doctors' Commons); Stoughton's Hist. of Religion in England, 1881, vi. 96, 351; Jeremy's Presbyterian Fund, 1885, p. xi; Westby-Gibson's Dr. Doddridge's Nonconformist Academy and Education by Shorthand, reprinted from Phonetic Journal, 3 April 1886, and following issues; many original letters of Doddridge are printed only in the volumes of the Monthly Repository and Christian Reformer; some use also has been made of the large collection of Doddridge's original manuscripts in the library of New College, South Hampstead (the existing representative of Doddridge's academy), and of the wills of Doddridge and his wife at Somerset House.]

A. G.


From: Dictionary of National Biography
See also Works by Philip Doddridge at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.


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