Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/181

 dated 14 Jan. 1747, the title giving 1748. This volume is dedicated to A. de Moivre, and a second edition was issued by his publisher in 1775. Vol. ii. (1753) is dedicated to David Papillon, and contains a contribution by A. de Moivre. Vol. iii. (1755) he dedicated ‘to the Right Hon. George, Earl of Macclesfield, President, the Council, and the rest of the Fellows of the Royal Society.’ This volume is devoted to problems relating to annuities, reversions, insurances, leases on lives, &c., subjects to which Dodson devoted special attention. His ‘Accountant, or a Method of Book-keeping,’ was published 1750, with a dedication to Lord Macclesfield. In 1751 he edited Wingate's ‘Arithmetic,’ which had previously been edited by John Kersey and afterwards by George Shelley. Dodson's edition is considered the best. Another work, ‘An Account of the Methods used to describe Lines on Dr. Halley's Chart of the terraqueous Globe, showing the variation of the magnetic needle about the year 1756 in all the known seas, &c. By Wm. Mountaine and James Dodson,’ was published in 1758, after Dodson's death.

He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society 16 Jan. 1755, and was admitted 23 Jan. 1755, probably on the merits of his published works, with the patronage of his friend, Lord Macclesfield, who not long before was elected president of the society. On 7 Aug. of the same year he was elected master of the Royal Mathematical School, Christ's Hospital, which post he held until his death. Before his election to this mastership he seems to have been an ‘accomptant and teacher of the mathematics.’

Having been refused admission to the Amicable Life Assurance Society, because they admitted none over forty-five years of age, he determined to form a new society upon a plan of assurance more equitable than that of the Amicable Society. After Dodson's vain attempts to procure a charter from 1756 to 1761, the scheme was taken in hand by Edward Rowe Mores and others, who by deed in 1762—the year following Dodson's death—started the society now known as the Equitable Society.

Dodson died 23 Nov. 1757, being over forty-seven years of age. He lived at Bell Dock, Wapping. His children were left ill provided for. At a meeting of the general court holden in Christ's Hospital 15 Dec. 1757 a petition was read from Mr. William Mountaine, where it was stated that Dodson died ‘in very mean circumstances, leaving three motherless children unprovided for, viz. James, aged 15, Thomas, aged 11 and three quarters, and Elizabeth, aged 8.’ The two youngest were admitted into the hospital. After the Equitable Society had started, and fifteen years or more after Dodson's death, a resolution was put in the minutes for giving 300l. to the children of Dodson, as a recompense for the ‘Tables of Lives’ which their father had prepared for the society. Dodson's eldest son, James the younger, succeeded to the actuaryship of the society in 1764, but in 1767 left for the custom house.

Augustus De Morgan [q. v.] was the great-grandson of Dodson, his mother being the daughter of James Dodson the younger. In De Morgan's ‘Life’ is the following: ‘But he was mathematical master at Christ's Hospital, and some of his descendants seem to have thought this a blot on the scutcheon, for his great-grandson has left on record the impression he had of his ancestor. When quite a boy he asked one of his aunts “who James Dodson was,” and received for answer, “We never cry stinking fish.” So he was afraid to ask any more questions, but settled that somehow or other James Dodson was the “stinking fish” of his family; but he had to wait a few years to find out that his great-grandfather was the only one of his ancestors whose name would be deserving of mention.’

[C. Hutton's Dictionary, 1815; Memoir by Nicollet in the Biographie Universelle; A. de Morgan's Life by his wife, 1882; F. Bailey's Account of Life Assurance Companies, 1810; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. v. 1812; information supplied by M. S. S. Dipnall, and original manuscript collections by A. De Morgan, communicated by his son, Wm. De Morgan; and the books mentioned.]  DODSON, JOHN (1780–1858), judge of the prerogative court, eldest son of the Rev. Dr. John Dodson, rector of Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, who died in July 1807, by Frances, daughter of the Rev. Mr. Dawson, was born at Hurstpierpoint 19 Jan. 1780. He entered Merchant Taylors' School in 1790, and proceeded to Oriel College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. 1801, M.A. 1804, and D.C.L. 1808. He was admitted an advocate of the College of Doctors of Laws 3 Nov. 1808, and acted as commissary to the dean and chapter of Westminster. From July 1819 to March 1823 he represented Rye in parliament as a tory member. On 11 March 1829 he was appointed by the Duke of Wellington to the office of advocate to the admiralty court, and on being named advocate-general, 15 Oct. 1834, was knighted at St. James's Palace on the 29th of the same month. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple 8 Nov. 1834, and in the following year was elected a bencher of his inn. He became master of the faculties in November 1841, and