two hundred; lists are given in the ‘Correspondence’ (v. 547) and in the ‘Monthly Repository’ (1815, p. 686), from Orton's manuscript; both lists need correction. None of his pupils turned out great scholars or thinkers, but among them were men of superior attainment, and a large number of useful ministers. Several became tutors of academies, e. g. John Aikin, D.D. [q. v.], Samuel Merivale, Caleb Ashworth, D.D. [q. v.], Andrew Kippis, D.D., Stephen Addington, D.D. [q. v.], and James Robertson, professor of oriental languages at Edinburgh (1751–92). Addington and Ashworth retained through life the Calvinistic theology; a majority of Doddridge's students ultimately held or inclined to the Arian type of doctrine, but in an undogmatic form, and with much infusion of the evangelical spirit. As a theological writer, Hugh Farmer [q. v.] was the most influential of Doddridge's pupils. Eight or nine conformed, but some of these, though placed for a time with Doddridge, were always intended for the established church. The last survivor of his theological students was Richard Denny of Long Buckby, Northamptonshire, who died in 1813; Thomas Tayler (d. 1831), who is often counted as Doddridge's last surviving student, ‘had the advantage of his acquaintance and friendship,’ but was not admitted to the academy until after Doddridge had left England to die; Humphreys has confused him (Corresp. v. 183 n.) with James Taylor, a lay student.
At Northampton Doddridge ‘set up a charity school’ (1737) for teaching and clothing the children of the poor, an example set him by Clark, and followed elsewhere. He had an important share in the foundation of the county infirmary (1743). He proposed the formation of a society for distributing bibles and other good books among the poor. His scheme for the advancement of the gospel at home and abroad, presented to three different assemblies of ministers in 1741, has been described as the first nonconformist project of foreign missions; it was probably suggested by his correspondence with Zinzendorf. In 1748 he laid before Archbishop Herring a proposal for occasional interchange of pulpits between the established and dissenting clergy.
The religious genius of Doddridge is seen at its best in the powerful addresses which make up his volume ‘On the Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul,’ 1745. This work was planned and prompted by Isaac Watts, who revised a portion of it. Its popularity has been steadily maintained; it has been rendered into a great variety of languages, including Tamil and Syriac. His ‘Family Expositor,’ of which the first volume appeared in 1739, is a didactic comment on the New Testament, suited to the taste of a past generation, but too colourless and diffuse to be of permanent value. His divinity lectures have nothing original, but they possess the merit of skilful selection, and an arrangement which is convenient, if artificial. The same may be said of his courses on the kindred topics of pneumatology (psychology) and ethics.
Doddridge is justly admired as a writer of hymns. Here Watts was his model, and if he never rises so high as Watts, he never sinks so low. In his versified epitome of christian instruction for children (1743) he invaded a province which Watts had made peculiarly his own; this ‘light essay’ cannot be called very successful, though it is said to have been a favourite with George III as a boy. His hymns were chiefly composed on the basis of some scriptural text; they were circulated in manuscript, and often sung in worship, being given out line by line in the old dissenting way; a few were printed in connection with the sermons on which they bore, but they were never collected till after Doddridge's death. Their use has by no means been confined to dissenters; a Christmas hymn and a communion hymn (said to have been inserted by a dissenting printer) at the end of the Book of Common Prayer are by Doddridge; the paraphrases of the church of Scotland have borrowed from him. Dr. Johnson pronounces his ‘Live while you live’ to be ‘one of the finest epigrams in the English language.’
Doddridge's multifarious labours had made too great demands on the vitality of a slender constitution. On his way to the funeral of his early benefactor, Clark, in December 1750, at St. Albans, he caught a severe cold, and could not shake off its effects. His last sermon at Northampton was preached on 14 July 1751; he delivered a charge at Bewdley, Worcestershire, on 18 July, visited Orton at Shrewsbury, and in August went to Bristol for the hot wells. Maddox, bishop of Worcester, called on him, and offered the use of his carriage. A sum of 300l., to which Lady Huntingdon contributed one-third, was raised by his friends to enable him to try a voyage to Lisbon. He left Bristol on 17 Sept., stayed a short time with Lady Huntingdon at Bath, and sailed from Falmouth on 30 Sept., accompanied by his wife and a servant. At Lisbon he was the guest of David King, son of a member of his Northampton flock. His spirits revived, but his strength was gone. He died on 26 Oct. 1751, and was buried in the English cemetery at Lisbon. His congregation erected a monument to his memory
