death mask

“The Macaroni Parson” The Rev dr. William dodd

One of the museum’s collection of ten death masks.

On the left temple and base of the head at the back is engraved the number “116”.

Much of the information below has been taken from the Masonic Square.

Dr. William Dodd was a famous Mason, the Prebendary of Brecon (a Cannon of a Cathedral Church), had a living in East Ham and was Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty King George III. He was the third Grand Chaplain (first official) and was hung for forgery in Tyburn in June 1777.

In life, he was a respected man of the cloth and a ceaseless worker for charity. He instituted an unmarried mothers’ home (The Magdalen) for ‘reclaiming young women who had swerved from the path of virtue’; the Humane Society; and the Society for the Relief of Poor Debtoers.

He was given the name ‘Macaroni Parson’ for being seen at French race courses in strange, unconventional clothing.

While he had lucrative church appointments, Dodd spent more than he earned and he was forced to sell his living in East Ham to avoid bankruptcy courts and debtors prison. By January 1776 he was hard pressed by his creditors so Dodd devised a plan to use the Earl of Chesterfield’s name (his late pupil and current patron) to borrow the money he needed. The Earl was only just coming into his inheritance, and did not wish to be present at the signing of the bond, so it was drawn up and Dodd took it away for signing. He brought it back signed and witnessed by himself. The broker relied on the integrity and reputation of Dr. Dodd, signed his name at the bottom and the money was advanced. Unfortunately the solicitors took the bond to Lord Chesterfield who rejected it immediately.

Dodd was told the only way out of his predicament was to return the money and throw himself at the mercy of the court. He duly returned most of the cash but was still held for trial at the Old Bailey on the charge of publishing a forged and counterfeited bond, knowing it to be such.

His main defence was that he had made full restitution, that he had the means to repay the bond during its six month term, and that his death would punish both his wife and a number of tradesmen to whom he owed money.

The jury took just 15 minutes to find him guilty and sentenced to be hung, with a recommendation for mercy which could be granted by the King. Dodd was very popular so the Lord Mayor and the Court of Common Councilmen asked the King for mercy with a petition of 23 sheets of signatures. Unfortunately the year before, two brothers had been hung for exactly the same offence even though it was general knowledge that the crime had been committed by the wife of one of the brothers. As such, it was inadvisable for the King to offer mercy, and on 27th June the sentence was carried out.

Dodd was doubly unlucky. As was usual practice for the time, those who could afford it would pay the executioner to steady the body from swaying while suspended from the gibbet, and to cut it down quickly. The body would then be placed in a coach and rushed to an undertaker nearby. There, a surgeon and a hot bath would be waiting in an attempt to revive the body. Unfortunately Dodd was so popular and the crowd so incensed at his death that they mobbed the coach, with his body still in it, and held it up for two hours. Resuscitation was impossible.

Much of the history of Rev. Dr. Dodd comes from The Masonic Square.

A known copy of this death mask can be found in the collections of Edinburgh University (6797).