Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dodd, Samuel
DODD, Sir SAMUEL (1652–1716), judge, of a Cheshire family settled at Little Budworth, but born in London in 1652, was the son of Ralph Dodd. He is probably identical with the ‘Saml. Dod’ who entered Merchant Taylors' School 11 Sept. 1664 (Robinson, Merchant Taylors' School Reg. i. 269). He entered the Inner Temple in 1670, was called in 1679, and became a bencher in 1700. He seems not to have been in parliament at any time. He was employed for various bankers against the crown upon a question of the liability of the crown for interest on loans to Charles II, 29 June 1693 and 20 Jan. 1700, and for the New East India Company upon a bill to incorporate the old company with it on 1 Feb. 1700. He negotiated an agreement for the fusion of the two on behalf of the new company in October 1701. Between 1700 and 1706 he on several occasions advised the treasury. In 1710 he was assigned by the House of Lords as counsel for Sacheverell, 14 Feb., appeared for him on his trial, and led the defence on the last three articles of the impeachment; and on the accession of George I he was knighted, 11 Oct. 1714, made a serjeant 26 Oct., and sworn lord chief baron 22 Nov. He held the office but seventeen months, died 14 April 1716, and was buried in the Temple Church. He married Isabel, daughter of Sir Robert Croke of Chequers, Buckinghamshire, and had by her two sons. A volume of his manuscript reports of cases is in the ‘Hargrave Collection’ in the British Museum.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; State Trials, xv. 213; Redington's Treasury Papers; Luttrell's Diary; Lipscomb's Buckinghamshire.]