DODDRIDGE, PHILIP, D.D., an eminent Dissenting minister, was the son of an oilman in London, and born there 26th June 1702. At his birth, according to his biographer Orton, "he was thrown aside as dead," and in his feeble childhood his parents, who were exceedingly pious, took great pains in his instruction. He was left an orphan at the age of thirteen; and after having completed his classical studies at various schools, he was placed by Dr Clarke of St Albans under the tuition of the Rev. John Jennings, who kept an academy at Kibworth, Leicestershire, for the education of Dissenting ministers. Previous to this he had hesitated greatly in regard to his course in life. Some of his friends pressed him to study law; and the Duchess of Bedford, hearing of his inclination for the ministry, offered to defray the expenses of his education and provide him a living in connection with the Church of England. Both of these offers, however, he declined on conscientious grounds. On the removal of his tutor to Hinckley, Doddridge began to preach to the vacant congregation; and on the death of Jennings in 1723, he succeeded to the charge of the academy, which he at first opened at Market-Harborough. Having been soon afterwards chosen minister of a large congregation of Dissenters at Northampton, he removed his academy to that place, where he continued to preside over it for twenty years. Here he was especially known as a preacher for the earnestness with which he sought to elevate the spiritual tone of his communion, and to urge the practical realities of the Christian life. His prelections were attended by students from all quarters of the kingdom, and were remarkable for the facility with which he brought the results of an extensive course of various reading to bear on almost every topic of divinity. He received the degree of D.D. from the university of Aberdeen. In 1751 his health began to break down amid the incessant labours of the pulpit and the academy. On the 30th September he embarked for Lisbon, where he died the 13th October 1751. His remains were interred in the burying-ground belonging to the British factory at Lisbon, and a handsome monument was erected to his memory in the meeting-house at Northampton.
As a writer Dr Doddridge was exceedingly voluminous. The works on which his fame principally rests are his Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, and his Family Expositor. Among his minor works, his Treatise on Regeneration, Sermons on the Education of Children, and the Life of Colonel Gardiner, are best known. His Theological Lectures were published after his death by Dr Kippis; and among
his collected hymns are some of the finest now in use among Dodecagons the Dissenters. Biographies of Doddridge have appeared from the pens of Jacob Orton and Dr Kippis. The best delineation of his character will be found in his Private Life and Correspondence, collected in five vols. 8vo, by one of his descendants. His works have been collected and edited by Williams in 10 vols. 8vo.