Author: Dodd, James Solas
Biography:
DODD, James Solas (1720/21-1805: ODNB)
His biography is known from a memorandum he wrote for David Stewart Erskine, Earl of Buchan, which was printed in N&Q (1883). His parents were Don Jago de Solis and his wife, Rebecca Dodd, daughter of a merchantman who met Don Jago in Barcelona. Don Jago had taken the Dodd name on his marriage. According to the memorandum, “Solas” is a corruption of “Solis.” In 1742 Dodd was apprenticed to John Hills, a surgeon and man-midwife in London. In 1745 he joined the Royal Navy as a surgeon’s mate on the Blenheim hospital ship. In 1751-54 he worked as a surgeon in London before rejoining the Royal Navy, becoming master surgeon in 1762. He was married three times: to Mary Vickers in Feb. 1751; to Mary Palmer in Dec. 1763; and to Ann Hurley Mason in 1786. He had children but only a daughter, Mary Rebecca (b 1753), has been identified. He left the navy in 1763 and spent his time on literary projects including a series of lectures delivered at various locations in 1766; some of these were later published as A Satirical Lecture on Hearts…to Which is Added a Critical Dissertation on Noses (c 1770; the prefatory address establishes the lecture as a response to George Alexander Stevens’s [q.v.] “Lecture upon Heads”). In 1767 his London house suddenly collapsed and the family moved to Bath, Bristol, and finally Ireland where they remained until 1779. Back in London, Dodd was taken in by a con man, a Major Savage, who proposed travel to Russia where Dodd and Savage were to present themselves to the empress as ambassadors. Dodd realised the truth about Savage’s character only when they reached Riga. The family returned home, landing at Leith in 1781. Almost penniless, Dodd sought to make a living in Edinburgh as an actor and lecturer; it was during this period that he met the Earl of Buchan. At some point he returned to Dublin where he died in 1804 (not 1805 as given in the ODNB). His other publications include Essay Towards a Natural History of the Herring (1752), A Physical Account of the Case of Elizabeth Canning (1753), The Funeral Pile: A Comic Opera in Two Acts (1772; later renamed Gallic Gratitude, published in 1779). (ODNB 17 Feb. 2021; findmypast.co.uk 17 Feb. 2021; N&Q [1883] 483-84; Oxford Journal 14 Apr. 1804)
Other Names:
- J. S. Dodd