MACARONI PARSON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1940, Page 7

MACARONI PARSON

STIR IN LONDON’S LIFE. He was odd, indeed, this William Dodd who began his career in 1729. He published humorous poems at first, went on from Cambridge to London where he lived a gay life, wrote plays and books which were not all they should have been, became a curate and then won fame as a preacher. All the fashionable world went te hear him. His writings were edifying, and when he was King's chaplain he had a most fashionable congregation Living in fine style in West Ham, he lectured admirably and preached so powerfully that wicked people (so it was said) wept for their sins, and Lady Hertford allowed the tears ic flow down her cheeks. Parson Dodd wrote a poem about those tears, and also other little verses to other ladies and soon there was a rare scandal and Dodd was nicknamed the macaroni parson. Then his wife offered a bribe to the Lord Chancellor’s wife if she could pull the strings and give her husband the living of St. George's in Hanovet Square, and the secret leaked out. and the world was shocked, and Parson Dodd was turned out of the church, all of which was very sad. To make ends meet, he presented : bond for £4,200 to a stockbroker, saying it was in the name of Lord Ches--terfield, a friend of his. but the stockbroker found out that the bond was a forgery, so more fat was in the fire, and William Dodd was marched off te prison. Dr. Johnson pleaded for him. but Lord Mansfield (so it was whispered) meant to rid London of such vermin, and Parson Dodd was condemned to death. The sentence was carried out onsummer day in 1777. and it is said that the hangman promised to cut hindown pretty quick, and carry dim off to a doctor, who was waiting to restore life; but there were so man?/ people to watch Parson Dodd go to the heaven of which he had preached so often that he was well and truly dead before the doctor could get to him.