Spalding Gentlemen’s Society’s Infamous Macaroni Parson
William Dodd was born in 1729 in Bourne. The son of a local vicar, he was a bright student who took up a place at Cambridge University in 1746, where he was first exposed to and subsequently adopted an extravagant lifestyle that he could not afford but would continue to embrace for the rest of his life.
After graduating from Cambridge in 1750 with first-class honours, William began a poorly paid literary career in London. Spalding Gentlemen’s Society’s collection includes a letter from the same year written by William to the Society’s founder, Maurice Johnson, asking for help with the translation of Greek text for one of his books. Also, in 1750 he married 16-year-old Mary Perkins, the daughter of a servant and therefore considered to be far below his station. The combination of the marriage and the fact that William was spending much more than he earned resulted in his father persuading him to take holy orders in 1751, the same year he was elected a member of Spalding Gentlemen’s Society.
A year later, in 1752, William enjoyed his greatest literary success with Beauties of Shakespeare. This helped to bring Shakespeare to the masses by including William’s favourite speeches from Shakespeare’s plays and was reprinted many times right up to the 20th century. William’s preaching also proved to be popular, drawing large congregations firstly at his church in West Ham and then later whilst Chaplain at Magdalen Hospital. As the hospital provided charity for ‘fallen women’, William’s standing within London society rose.
William continued to accumulate further sources of income, including being appointed one of the King’s chaplains and tutor to Philip Stanhope, who became the Earl of Chesterfield. For over 20 years, William’s reputation as a diligent, esteemed and highly engaging clergyman continued to grow. He also won £1,000 in a lottery and survived a highway robbery attempt during which a pistol shot was fired, but his good fortune was not to last.
Unfortunately, although William earned more than most priests, due to the additional revenue streams he managed to obtain through his high profile, it was never enough to fund his expensive lifestyle. He was known as the ‘Macaroni Parson’ due to his extravagant taste in clothes. Macaroni, in this instance, meant fashionable and referred to the Macaroni Club, which was established by young aristocrats who had gone on the Grand Tour of Europe. In 1774, a misguided attempt to secure the very lucrative living of St. George’s, Hanover Square by offering the Lord Chancellor’s wife a bribe resulted in William fleeing to Europe after being dismissed from all his existing posts and becoming the subject of public ridicule.
When William returned to England a couple of years later his creditors were still waiting for him and as his tarnished reputation meant he was unable to earn enough money to keep them at bay he forged a bond for £4,200 in the name of his former student, the Earl of Chesterfield. He managed to obtain the money, but the fraud was subsequently uncovered. William was imprisoned, tried at the Old Bailey and found guilty. As the crime of forgery carried a mandatory death penalty, he was sentenced to be executed by hanging.
During the months between the trial and William’s execution his many supporters managed to raise 23,000 signatures on a petition to grant him a royal pardon. Among his strongest defenders was literary giant Doctor Samuel Johnson. However, King George III refused to pardon him and on the 27th June 1777 William was hanged. William certainly received an impressive send-off as it took three hours to travel the two miles from his cell at Newgate Jail to the gallows at Tyburn due to the large crowds that had gathered to witness his final journey.
By Jonathan Dobbs
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