114 OUR HYMNS :
business there as an oilman. His mother, to whom he owed much, and from whom he learned the well-stored teachings of the Dutch tiles, was the daughter of an exile, a Bohemian cler gyman, who was master of the Free School at Kingston-on- Thames. Philip was the twentieth child, and at hirth seemed too feeble to live ; and he had the misfortune to lose both his parents in his childhood. After studying at Kingston Grammar School, he went, at the age of fifteen, to be instructed by the Rev. Nathaniel Wood, at St. Alban s. There the orphan found a " friend in need in the Rev. Samuel Clark, an excellent Presbyterian minister, and the author of " Scripture Promises."
At the age of seventeen, Doddridge, having given evidence of earnest piety and promise of aptitude for the ministry, went to study at the Academy at Kibworth, Leicestershire, presided over by the Rev. John Jennings. It was not for convenience, but on conscientious grounds, that Doddridge thus connected himself with Dissenters. The Duchess of Bedford offered to maintain him at Cambridge, but he declined. After three years, the academy removed with its tutor to Hinckley ; and thither Dod dridge went to complete his studies. At the termination of his studies, he accepted an invitation to become the Congregational pastor at Kibworth, the quiet village where his tutor had minis tered. Three years after, he joined with this charge the duties of assistant-minister to Mr. Some, of Market Harborough.
In the year 1729, at the age of twenty-seven, and when his former tutor had died, Doddridge, yielding to the solicitations of Dr. Watts and others, who saw that he was qualified for such a work, opened an " academy" for the training of young men for the ministry, at Market Harborough. In the following year, he became pastor of the Church assembling in Castle-Hill Meeting Hause, Northampton ; and having removed his academy to Northampton, he carried it on there till the end of his life.
About 200 students received their training from him, of whom
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about 120 entered the ministry. While fulfilling his collegiate
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