Henry Dodwell; chronologist; born in Dublin, in Oct., 1641; educated at Trinity College, Dublin; elected Camden Professor of History at Oxford in 1688, but deposed from his chair in 1691 because he refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III. Among his noteworthy contributions to Greek and Roman chronology are his “Annales Vellei, Quintil., Station.” (1698); “Annales Thucyd. et Xenophont.” (1702). Died in Schottesbrook, June 7, 1711. See Dodwell’s “Works,” abridged, with an account of his life, by Fr. Brokesby (2 vols., London, 1723).

Personal

  On Thursday last, June 7th, died Mr. Henry Dodwell, that great and good man, in the 70th year of his age, at Shottesbrooke, in Berks, where he had lived in a most retired, studious, private condition for several years. He died with the same piety with which he had always lived, and was buried on Saturday, June the 9th, in the church of Shottesbrooke. This extraordinary person might have reached an hundred years, if he had taken but ordinary care of his health. He was of small stature of body, but vigorous and healthy; of a brisk, facetious constitution, always chearful, even in the worst of times. He was humble and modest, to a fault. His learning was above the common reach…. I take him to be the greatest scholar in Europe when he died; but, what exceeds that, his piety and sanctity was beyond compare. Had he indulged himself a little, and not abstained so much from even the ordinary refreshments of nature, ’twould certainly have conduced to the lengthening of his life; but a severe, steddy course of life, like the primitive Christians, and the most renowned philosophers, could not comply with those principles. His name will always be mentioned and spoke of with honour as long as there is any regard for true religion, virtue, probity, and learning…. As to his person, he was of a small stature of body, yet of a strong, vigorous constitution, chiefly owing to his abstemious and temperate way of living. He was of a sanguine complexion, of a grave, modest, ingenious countenance, of a piercing eye, and of a quick apprehension. He was acute and chearful in his discourse, ready and forward in his advice, and delighted to have difficult questions proposed to him for solution.

General

  Dodwell’s learning was immense; in this part of history especially (that of the Upper Empire) the most minute fact or passage could not escape him; and his skill in employing them is equal to his learning. The worst of this author is his method and style; the one perplexed beyond imagination, the other negligent to a degree of barbarism.

  Its [“De Veteribus”] absurdity is so evident, that only the character of Dodwell, and the seriousness and labour with which he defended it, could persuade us to think that he believed it himself. The work is very curious, as a specimen of the torture to which a corrupted creed or system is capable of putting the Scriptures. It contains some singular remarks on the scriptural distinction between soul and spirit which is the foundation of his whole hypothesis.

  He had perused innumerable volumes in various languages, and had indeed acquired more learning than his slender faculties were able to bear. The small intellectual spark which he possessed was put out by the fuel. Some of his books seem to have been written in a mad-house, and, though filled with proofs of his immense reading, degraded him to the level of James Naylor and Ludowick Muggleton.

  A man of wonderful, though very eccentric, erudition and talents.

  Dodwell was a most voluminous writer on an immense variety of subjects, in all of which he showed vast learning, great ingenuity, and, in spite of some eccentricities, great power of reasoning.