Philip Doddridge - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

In 1751 Philip Doddridge's health, which had never been good, broke down. He sailed for Lisbon on 30 September of that year; the change was unavailing, and he died there of tuberculosis. He was buried in a cemetery attached to the British Factory in Lisbon where his grave and tomb may still be seen.

Philip Doddridge worked towards a united Nonconformist body that would have wide appeal, retaining highly cultured elements without alienating those less educated.

His best known work, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul (1745), dedicated to Isaac Watts, was often reprinted and became widely influential. It was through reading it, together with Isaac Milner, that William Wilberforce began the spiritual journey which eventually led to his conversion. It is said that this work best illustrates Doddridge's religious genius, and it has been widely translated. His other well-known works include: The Family Expositor (6 vols., 1739–1756); Life of Colonel Gardiner (1747); and a Course of Lectures on Pneumatology, Ethics and Divinity (1763). Doddridge also published several courses of sermons on particular topics.

Many of his hymns, such as O God of Bethel, by whose hand, continue to be used to this day across the English-speaking world.

Doddridge's academy evolved into New College, Hampstead, later known as New College London, a centre for training Congregational and then United Reformed Church ministers. (Not connected with Royal Holloway, University of London, also a constituent college of the University of London and briefly known as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College when those two colleges merged in the 1970s.) The library of the college, which held a large collection of his manuscripts, was transferred to Dr Williams's Library in 1976.