Author: Doddridge, Philip
Biography:
DODDRIDGE, Philip (1702-51: ODNB)
Doddridge is a “prior” author and it is quite likely that all the hymns included in the collections listed here were reprinted from collections that appeared between 1755 and 1766; however, the hymns circulated widely in manuscript during his lifetime, and it is possible that some previously unpublished ones were added after 1770. The edition of 1839 by John Doddridge Humphreys (q.v.) added 22 to the 375 hymns of 1766. He was born in London on 26 June 1702, the youngest of 20 children of Daniel Doddridge, an oilman, and his wife Elizabeth Bauman, both dissenters. He first attended a grammar school at Kingston-upon-Thames, but after the deaths of his mother (1711) and father (1715), his guardian sent him to another at St. Albans. When the guardian squandered his inheritance and abandoned him, the Presbyterian minister Samuel Clark took him in and supported him in his choice of the dissenting academy at Kibworth, Leicestershire, for his training. Upon graduation, Doddridge began his preaching career at Kibworth, but he settled in Market Harborough as the master of the dissenting academy there, and eventually (1729) accepted an invitation from the Independent congregation nearby at Northampton, Northamptonshire, where he remained as minister for the rest of his life. On 22 Dec. 1730 he married Mercy Maris (1709-90); though she suffered several miscarriages and infant deaths, they raised four children to adulthood. Doddridge’s influential leadership among the Protestant dissenters was recognized by the granting of honorary DD degrees by the Marischal College, Aberdeen (1736) and King’s College, Aberdeen (1737). But the demands of his double career took a toll on a man of indifferent health. On the advice of physicians, Doddridge travelled with his wife to Lisbon in 1751, but died there of consumption on 26 Oct. and was buried in the British Cemetery. His most important publications were The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul (1745) and The Family Expositor (1739-56). His hymns were first collected and edited by his former student, Job Orton, as Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures (1755). (ODNB [both husband and wife] 1 Feb. 2023; Julian)
Other Names:
- Doddridge
- Dr. Doddridge