Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge was an English Nonconformist (specifically, Congregationalist) minister, educator, and hymnwriter.

Philip Doddridge was born in London the last of the twenty children of Daniel Doddridge (d 1715), a dealer in oils and pickles. His father was a son of John Doddridge (1621–1689), rector of Shepperton, Middlesex, who was ejected from his living following the Act of Uniformity of 1662 and became a Nonconformist minister, and a great-nephew of the judge and MP Sir John Doddridge (1555–1628). Philip's mother, Elizabeth, considered to have been the greater influence on him, was the orphan daughter of the Rev John Bauman (d. 1675), a Lutheran clergyman who had fled from Prague to escape religious persecution, during the unsettled period following the flight of the Elector Palatine. In England, the Rev John Bauman (sometimes written Bowerman) was appointed master of the grammar school at Kingston upon Thames.

On 22 December 1730 he married Mercy Maris (1709–1790), daughter of Richard Maris, a baker and maltster of Worcester, and his second wife, Elizabeth Brindley. The marriage was at Upton upon Severn where Mercy's family lived. They had nine children. The first, Elizabeth or Tetsey (1731–1736), died just before her fifth birthday and was buried under the platform of the Doddridge Chapel, Northampton. Four children survived to adulthood.

With independent religious leanings, Doddridge declined offers which would have led him into the Anglican ministry or a career in law; and in 1719, with Clarke's support, chose instead to enter the Dissenting academy at Kibworth in Leicestershire. Here Doddridge was taught by John Jennings, whom he briefly succeeded in 1723. Later that year, at a general meeting of Nonconformist ministers, Doddridge was chosen to conduct the academy being newly established a few miles away at Market Harborough. It moved many times, and was known as Northampton Academy. After his death in 1751, the academy continued; it is probably best known as Daventry Academy.

In 1751, Doddridge's health, which had never been good, broke down. He sailed for Lisbon on 30 September of that year; the change was unavailing, and he died there of tuberculosis. He was buried in the British Cemetery in Lisbon, where his grave and tomb may still be seen.