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{{Short description|English Congregationalist leader, educator, and hymnwriter (1702–1751)}}
{{for|the American politician|Philip Doddridge (Virginia politician)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}
{{Infobox person/Wikidata|fetchwikidata=ALL}}
[[File:Doddridge Chapel Memorial.jpg|thumb|right|287px|Memorial in Doddridge Chapel, now the United Reformed Church, Doddridge Street, [[Northampton]]]]
[[File:Doddridge Chapel (3LR).jpg|thumb|right|287px|United Reformed Church, Doddridge Street, Northampton, where Doddridge was minister]]
[[File:Doddridge Chapel Interior.jpg|thumb|right|287px|Interior of the Chapel, showing box pews and galleries]]

'''Philip Doddridge''' [[Doctor of Divinity|D.D.]] (26 June 1702 – 26 October 1751) was an English [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Nonconformist]] (specifically, [[Congregationalist]]) minister, educator, and [[hymnwriter]].<ref name="Deacon">{{cite book |last=Deacon |first=Malcolm |title=Philip Doddridge of Northampton |publisher=Northamptonshire Libraries |location=Northampton |year=1980 |isbn=0-905391-07-1}}</ref>

==Early life==
Philip Doddridge was born in London,<ref name="Deacon"/> the last of the twenty children of Daniel Doddridge (d 1715), a dealer in oils and pickles.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB |title=Doddridge, Philip (1702–1751), Independent minister and writer - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7746 |date=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/7746 |access-date=23 April 2018}}</ref> His father was a son of John Doddridge (1621–1689), rector of [[Shepperton]], [[Middlesex]], who was [[Great Ejection|ejected]] from his living following the [[Act of Uniformity 1662|Act of Uniformity of 1662]] and became a Nonconformist minister, and a great-nephew of the judge and MP [[Sir John Doddridge]] (1555–1628).<ref name="ODNB"/> Philip's mother, Elizabeth,<ref>Elizabeth Bauman had married Daniel Doddridge at [[Petersham, London|Petersham, Surrey]], on 19 December 1676.</ref> considered to have been the greater influence on him, was the orphan daughter of the Rev John Bauman (d. 1675),<ref>TNA Records of the Court of Chancery, C 5/472/72, C 5/83/25.</ref> a [[Lutheran]] clergyman who had fled from [[Prague]] to escape [[religious persecution]], during the unsettled period following the flight of the [[Frederick V, Elector Palatine|Elector Palatine]]. In England, the Rev John Bauman (sometimes written ''Bowerman'') was appointed master of the [[grammar school]] at [[Kingston upon Thames]].

Before Philip could read, his mother began to teach him the history of the [[Old Testament|Old]] and [[New Testament]] from blue Dutch chimney-tiles on the chimney place of their sitting room.<ref name="Deacon"/> In his youth, Philip Doddridge was educated first by a tutor employed by his parent then boarded at a private school in London. In 1712, he then attended the grammar school at Kingston-upon-Thames,<ref name="Deacon"/> where his maternal grandfather had been master. The school's master when Doddridge attended, was Rev Daniel Mayo (1672-1733), the son of John Bauman's friend [[Richard Mayo (minister)|Richard Mayo]], ejected vicar of Kingston-upon-Thames.<ref>John Bauman's will, TNA PROB 11/347/430.</ref>

His mother died on 12 April 1711, when he was eight years old. His father died on 17 July 1715.<ref name="Deacon"/> He then had a guardian named Downes who moved him to another private school at [[St Albans]], where he was much influenced by the [[Presbyterian]] minister [[Samuel Clarke of St Albans]].<ref name="Deacon"/> Downes squandered Doddridge's inheritance, leaving the orphaned 13-year-old Philip Doddridge destitute in St Albans. Here, Clarke took him on, treating him as a son, guiding his education and encouraging his call to the ministry; they remained lifelong friends. Doddridge preached at the funeral of his older friend in 1750, remarking: "To him under God I owe even myself and all my opportunities of public usefulness in the church."<ref>''Meditations on the tears of Jesus over the grave of Lazarus'': ''a funeral sermon preached at St Albans'', 16 December 1750, ''on occasion of the much lamented death of the late Reverend Samuel Clark'', ... ''By P Doddridge'' (London, 1751).</ref>

==Marriage==
On 22 December 1730 he married [[Mercy Doddridge|Mercy Maris]] after a seven-month courtship<ref name=mercy>{{cite web |title=Mercy Maris entry on the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/71065/?back=,7746 |website=oxforddnb.com |access-date=23 April 2018}}</ref> (1709–1790), daughter of Richard Maris, a baker and [[maltster]] of [[Worcester, England|Worcester]], and his second wife, Elizabeth Brindley.<ref name="ODNB"/> 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.<ref name="ODNB"/> The correspondence between them provides an insight into their lives.<ref name=mercy/>

==Contribution to education and religious life==
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 (tutor)|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;<ref name="IP77">{{cite book |last=Parker |first=Irene |title=Dissenting academies in England |url=https://archive.org/details/dissentingacadem00parkiala |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |orig-year=1914 |year=2009 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dissentingacadem00parkiala/page/77 77]–90 |isbn=978-0-521-74864-3}}</ref> it is probably best known as [[Daventry Academy]].

In 1729 he received<ref name="Deacon"/> an invitation to be pastor to an independent congregation at [[Northampton]], which he also accepted. Here his popularity as a preacher is said to have been chiefly due to his "high susceptibility, joined with physical advantages and perfect sincerity". His sermons were mostly practical in character, and his aim was to cultivate in his hearers a spiritual and devotional frame of mind.

Throughout the 1730s and 1740s Doddridge continued his academic and pastoral work, and developed close relations with numerous early religious revivalists and independents, through extensive visits and correspondence. Through this approach he helped establish and maintain a circle of influential independent religious thinkers and writers, including [[Isaac Watts]]. He also became a prolific author and [[hymnwriter]]. In 1736 both the universities at [[Aberdeen, Scotland|Aberdeen]] gave him the degree of [[Doctor of Divinity]]. However, these multifarious labours led to so many engagements and bulky correspondence as to interfere seriously both with his preaching and academic duties (he had some 200 students to whom he lectured on philosophy and theology, in the mathematical or [[Spinozistic]] style).

His ''The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul'' was translated into seven languages. [[Charles Spurgeon]] referred to ''The Rise and Progress'' as "that holy book".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u2I6TWXFEmQC&dq=spurgeon+rise+and+progress&pg=PA104|title=Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers|first=Lewis A.|last=Drummond|publisher=Kregel Publications|accessdate=15 June 2024|via=Google Books}}</ref> Besides a New Testament commentary and other theological works, Doddridge also wrote over 400 hymns. Most of the hymns were written as summaries of his sermons and were to help the congregation express their response to the truths they were being taught.<ref>{{cite web |title=Philip Doddridge - Christian Classics Ethereal Library - Christian Classics Ethereal Library |url=http://www.ccel.org/d/doddridge/ |website=www.ccel.org |access-date=23 April 2018}}</ref>

==Hymns==
Doddridge was known for ending his sermons with newly crafted hymns as summaries of the lessons, but his hymns were not published during his lifetime. The first posthumous edition contained 370 hymns.<ref>"Hymns founded on various texts in the holy scriptures: By the late Reverend Philip Doddridge, D.D. Published from the author's manuscript by Job Orton." Published 1755, London. In the digital collection Eighteenth Century Collections Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/004861390.0001.000. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed 18 December 2024. The 1766 edition contains 375 hymns and was re-published in 2010 edited by G. Ashworth. https://archive.org/details/hymnsofphilipdod0000dodd Accessed 18 December 2024.</ref> Many of Doddridge's hymns, such as "O God of Bethel, by whose hand", continue to be used to this day across the English-speaking world. "O God of Bethel" appears as № 497 in The Hymnal 1940, and № 709 in [[The Hymnal 1982]] of the Episcopal Church, and as № 269 in the Presbyterian Hymnal (1990). "How Gentle God's Commands" appears as № 69 in the Methodist Hymnal (1939), № 53 in the Methodist Hymnal (1966), and as № 681 in the [[Trinity Hymnal]] (1990). The [[Advent]] section of ''[[Evangelical Lutheran Worship]]'' begins with № 239 "Hark the Glad Sound!" The [[Sacred Harp]] includes ten of his hymn texts, the most popular being "The Last Words of Copernicus" on page 112.<ref>Overall ranking of "Copernicus" as of 2023 was 25; there are two other Doddridge songs in the top 100; from statistics based on minutes of hundreds of all-day singings submitted 1995-2003. {{cite web |url=https://fasola.org/minutes/stats/ |title=Song Use in The Sacred Harp, 1995-2023 |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2023 |website=fasola.org |publisher=Sacred Harp Musical Heritage Association |access-date=6 May 2024 |quote=}} For a list of all his songs in the Sacred Harp, see {{cite web |url=https://fasola.org/indexes/1991/?v=poet |title=Poets, Indexes for The Sacred Harp, 1991 Edition |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2023 |website=fasola.org |publisher=Sacred Harp Musical Heritage Association |access-date=6 May 2024 |quote=}}</ref>

==Doddridge's Youth's Scheme==
Concerned at the small number of students attending the Dissenting academies, in 1750 Doddridge initiated a ''Youth's Scheme'', to provide capable boys from poor families with a grammar school education that would enable them to undertake further study at a [[Dissenting academy]]. Doddridge used this subscription-funded Youth's Scheme to attach a preparatory school to Northampton Academy, initially with six students.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

Samuel Smith had been recommended and was supported by Doddridge's friend [[Robert Cruttenden]]. Doddridge now had thirty 'pupils' in his Academy, and six 'students' in his school. Initially, the senior students at the Academy were responsible for teaching the students, but had he lived, it was his intention to employ a third tutor, alongside himself and [[Samuel Clark (tutor and minister)|Samuel Clark]].<ref>Tony Rail and Beryl Thomas, "Philip Doddridge's Youth's scheme", ''Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society'', 25(4), 2014, 241-252.</ref> The Youth's Scheme did not survive Doddridge's death.

==Death and legacy==
[[File:Cemiterio inglez, jazigo de Philip Doddridge - João Francisco Camacho (1833-1898) ML.FOT.3749.46.png|thumb|Tomb of Doddridge in the [[British Cemetery, Lisbon|British Cemetery]] by [[St George's Church, Lisbon]]]]
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]].<ref name="Deacon"/> He was buried in the [[British Cemetery, Lisbon]], where his grave may be seen.<ref name="Deacon"/>   A second tombstone was added to his grave in 1828.<ref name="Harmar">{{cite journal |last1=Harmar |first1=L. C. D'O. |title=St. George's Cemetery, Lisbon |journal=British Historical Society of Portugal Annual Report |date=1977 |volume=4 |page=15 |url=https://www.bhsportugal.org/library/articles/st-georges-cemetery-lisbon |access-date=23 July 2021}}</ref>

Doddridge worked towards a united Nonconformist body that would have wide appeal, retaining highly cultured elements without alienating those less educated. His best known work, ''The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul'' (1745), dedicated to [[Isaac Watts]], was often reprinted and became widely influential. It was through reading it, together with [[Isaac Milner]], that [[William Wilberforce]] began the spiritual journey which eventually led to his [[Religious conversion|conversion]]. It is said that this work best illustrates Doddridge's religious genius, and it has been widely translated. His other well-known works include: ''The Family Expositor''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/familyexpositoro1825dodd|title=The family expositor : or, A paraphrase and version of the New Testament with critical notes and a practical improvement of each section..|first=Philip|last=Doddridge|date=15 June 1825|publisher=London : Printed for W. Baynes|accessdate=15 June 2024|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> (6 vols., 1739–1756); ''Life of Colonel Gardiner'' (1747); and a ''Course of Lectures on Pneumatology, Ethics and Divinity'' (1763). Doddridge also published several courses of sermons on particular topics.

[[John Wesley]] stated, in the Preface to his ''Notes on the New Testament'', that he was indebted to "the ''Family Expositor'' of the late pious and learned Dr. Doddridge" for some "useful observations".<ref>{{cite web |title=The Wesley Center Online: Preface to the New Testament Notes |url=http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/john-wesleys-notes-on-the-bible/preface-to-the-new-testament-notes/ |website=wesley.nnu.edu |access-date=23 April 2018}}</ref>

Doddridge's academy evolved into New College, [[Hampstead]], later known as [[New College London]], a centre for training Congregational and then [[United Reformed Church]] ministers. (This college is not connected with [[Royal Holloway, University of London]], also a constituent college of the [[University of London]] and briefly known as ''Royal Holloway and Bedford New College'' when those two colleges merged in the 1970s.) The library of the college, which held a large collection of his manuscripts, was transferred to [[Dr Williams's Library]] in 1976.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

==Doddridge United Reformed Church==
The Doddridge United Reformed Church (formerly the Castle Hill URC) in Doddridge Street, Northampton, was formerly Congregational, Doddridge and Commercial Street URC. It was the scene of the ministry of Doddridge from 1729 to 1751. The church was founded in 1662, built in 1695 and enlarged in 1842. It united with Commercial Street church in 1959 and became a [[United Reformed Church]] in 1972. The interior has galleries and box pews and a memorial to Doddridge.<ref name="Pevsner">{{cite book |author1=[[Pevsner, Nikolaus]] |author2=Cherry, Bridget (revision)| title=The Buildings of England – Northamptonshire |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |location=London / New Haven, CT |year=1961 |pages=325 |isbn=978-0-300-09632-3}}</ref> The building was Grade II [[Listed building|listed]] by [[English Heritage]] in 1952.<ref>{{cite web |last= |first= |title=Doddridge United Reformed Church, Northampton, Northamptonshire |url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-232026-doddridge-united-reformed-church-northam |website=www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk |access-date=23 April 2018}}</ref>

==Works==
* ''[https://archive.org/details/riseprogressofre00dodd/page/n5/mode/2up The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul]'' (1745)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/familyexpositoro1825dodd/page/n13/mode/2up The Family Expositor]'' (6 vols., 1739–1756)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/lifeofcoljamesg00dodd/page/n7/mode/2up Life of Colonel Gardiner]'' (1747)
* ''Course of Lectures on Pneumatology, Ethics and Divinity'' (1763)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/practicaldiscour00dodd%200/page/n9/mode/2up Practical Discourses on Regeneration]''
*''[https://archive.org/details/tensermonsonpowe00dodd/page/n3/mode/2up Ten sermons on the power, & grace of Christ, and on the evidences of His glorious gospel]''
*''[https://archive.org/details/dissertation_inspiration_new_testament_2102_librivox A Dissertation on the Inspiration of the New Testament]''

==Hymn List==
* Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve  [published posthumously]<ref>William E. Phipps, ''Amazing Grace in John Newton: Slave-Ship Captain, Hymnwriter, and Abolitionist'' (Mercer University Press, Macon, Georgia, USA, 2001), p. 174.</ref>
* Hark the glad sound! the Saviour comes  [based on Luke 4:18-19]
* O God of Bethel, by whose hand

==See also==
*[[Congregational church]]
*[[English Dissenter]]
*[[Independent (religion)]]
*[[Parable of the Faithful Servant]]

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Doddridge, Philip|volume=8|page=368}}

==Further reading==
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=deUGAAAAQAAJ Three sermons on the evidences of Christianity]'' (1752)
* ''Memoirs'', by Rev. [[Job Orton]] (1766)
* ''Letters to and from Dr Doddridge'', by Rev. Thomas Stedman (1790)
* ''Correspondence and Diary'', in 5 vols., by his grandson, John Doddridge Humphreys (1829)
* {{cite book |last=Stoughton |first=John |title=Philip Doddridge: His Life and Labours: A Centenary Memorial |url=https://archive.org/stream/philipdoddridge00stouuoft#page/n5/mode/2up |publisher=Jackson and Walford |location=London |year=1851}}
* Stanford's ''Philip Doddridge'' (1880)

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
*{{Gutenberg author |id=3904| name=Philip Doddridge}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Philip Doddridge}}
*[http://www.ccel.org/d/doddridge/ Works by Philip Doddridge] at [[Christian Classics Ethereal Library]]
*{{prdl}}
*{{Librivox author |id=15475 |title=Philip Doddridge}}
*[https://hymnary.org/person/Doddridge_Philip Hymns by Philip Doddridge]
*[http://www.edintone.com/doddridge.html Biography of Philip Doddridge by Thomas Coleman] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219002814/http://www.edintone.com/doddridge.html |date=19 February 2012 }}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080510150934/http://www.dwlib.co.uk/ Dr Williams's Library, Gordon Square, London, hold many of Doddridge's manuscripts including his wife, Mercy's diary]
*[http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/manchesteruniversity/data/gb133-engms1209 Philip Doddridge correspondence] at [[John Rylands Library]], Manchester.
*[http://www.doddridgecentre.org.uk/ The Doddridge Centre, Northampton]

{{Northampton|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doddridge, Philip}}
[[Category:1702 births]]
[[Category:1751 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at the British Cemetery, Lisbon]]
[[Category:English Christian hymnwriters]]
[[Category:Doctors of Divinity]]
[[Category:English hymnwriters]]
[[Category:Dissenting academy tutors]]
[[Category:English Calvinist and Reformed ministers]]
[[Category:Clergy from Northampton]]
[[Category:English Congregationalist ministers]]
[[Category:18th-century Calvinist and Reformed ministers]]
[[Category:Calvinist and Reformed hymnwriters]]
[[Category:Congregationalist hymnwriters]]