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    On December 31 , 1778 , Mr . Dodson married Miss Elizabeth Hawkes , his co « sin-german , and eldest daughter of Mr . Hawkes , of Marl borough . Mr . Dodson enjoyed a life of uninterrupted good health , and indeed little alteration was observable in his

    strength or general habits , till nearly the last year of his life . So lately as about the latter end of the autumn of 1 799 * he intended to have taken a journey with the writer of this page to visit a learned and excellent common friend in Suffolk ;* and promised himself great pleasure from the excursion . It was not till the month of October that he began more sensibly to feel the effect of disease ; and , after a confinement to his room of

    about a fortnight , he died of a dropsy in his chest , at his house in Boswellcourt , Cavey-street , London , on the 13 th of November , 1799 , aged 67 years ; and was buried in Bunhillfields the 21 st of the same month .

    Mr . Dodson ' s legal knowledge and discrimination were deservedly estimated by those to whom he was known , and who had occasion to confer with him upon questions of law . He was deliberate in forming his opinion , and diffident in delivering it , but always clear in the principles and reasons on which it was founded .

    His general acquaintance with the laws , and his veneration for the constitution of his country , evinced his extensive acquaintance with the genuine principles of jurisprudence , and his regard for the permanence of the liberties of Britain .

    In 1762 , Mr . Justice Foster published his book , entitled , ** A Report of some Proceedings on the Commission for the Trial of the Rebels in the year 1746 , in the County of Surrey ; and of other Crown Cases ; to which are added , Discourses upon a few Branches of the Crown Law * ' This work will be to him , said Mr . Dodson , 41 monumentum cere perennius . " The impression being large , and a pirated

    Rev . Robert E . Garnham , Fellow of Triuity College , Cambridge . [ This gentleman > who died a few years since at Bury , in Suffolk , was a contributor to the Theological Repository , and , in a larg-e proportion , to the Commentaries and Ks ~ *« y * . His signature in then * was JS & + nergu&J ) i

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    edition being made in Ireland a new edition was not soon wanted in England ; but in 1776 Mr . Dodson pub ? lished a second edition with some improvements , and with remarks in his Preface on some objections made

    by Mr . Barrington in his ** Observar tions on the more Ancient Statutes / 7 In 179 ^ he published a third edition , with an Appendix , containing three new cases , which the author had in * tended to insert in the first edition , and had caused to be transcribed for

    that purpose . " * In 17 £ ) 5 , Mr . Dodson drew up a Life of his truly learned and venerable uncle , Sir Michael Foster , vyhich is already printed , and will form a part of the sixth volume of the

    new edition of the Biographia Britannica . It is greatly to be lamented , that , since the death of Dr . Kippiiv its principal conductor , in October the same year , no further progress has been made in this valuable work , f

    But the public are in possession of more ample documents of Mr , Dodson s deep research and critical judgment in biblical literature * than iu legal disquisitions . He had very attentively and dispassionately examined the evidences of revelation , and was

    firmly convinced of the truth of its pretensions . He was zealous for the true and rational interpretation o # its Scriptures , because he was strongly persuaded of the great influence such interpretation would have on its reception in the world , and on the consequent happiness of mankind .

    It was his first principle in all questions in religion , that each man enjoyed and ought to exercise the liberty of interpreting the Scriptures for himself , without the controul of

    ? [ See " Life of Sir Michael Foster , pp . 90 , 91 . ] f [ The dreadful fire that happened at Mr . Nichols ' s house , printing-office and warehouse , in the night of February 8 th , 1808 , destroyed , with many other very valuable wovk& , the whole impression of so mnnil of the unfinished volume as had

    heen printed . See Mr . Nichols e s very modest , hut very interesting * , statement *> f the dreadful devastation of literary property in this lire , and his very affectingreflections on bis loss of the result of his

    own unremitting- labours . *— -Genilenttin s Magazine for Feb . 1808 , LXXVIII . 99 . I ) r . Disney ' s Preface to Mr . Bo ^ n ^ « Life of Sir Michael Potter " pn . v . vi . }

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    Memoir of Michael Dodson f Esq . ffafjk

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1818, page 603, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2481/page/3/