Antiquarian book - William Dodd

You may recall one of Wing's more memorable vicars, William Dodd, who was hanged for forging documents in the name of Ascott Hall owner the Earl of Chesterfield. While in prison he had time to jot down some of his thoughts on imprisonment and death in prose and verse.

If you've got £48 burning a hole in your pocket and would like a handsome leatherbound gilt-tooled copy of these, I see there's a a very nice looking one on Ebay at the moment.

DODD in podcast

The Reverend William DODD was vicar of Wing from 1775 until 1777 - when he was hanged for forgery.

Today I was catching up on some podcasts from The National Archives, and the Reverend was mentioned in one of them. You may want to head over to National Archives podcast feed, or into your preferred podcatcher, and download The Real Little Dorrit: Charles Dickens and the debtors' prison (28 November 2008). The section involving Dodd and his charitable work in relation to imprisoned debtors starts at 42 minutes 20 seconds into the podcast, and is a couple of minutes long.

Listen to find out more about the Thatched House Society and the Macaroni Parson!

Unsavoury allegations

Have been browsing some historical newspaper reports this morning, and am saddened to report that there appears to have been another immoral clergyman in Wing besides the forger Dr William DODD who was hanged in 1777. Curate William EYRE, who was in Wing some forty years after Dodd, apparently had a liking for young girls who he would adopt out of the workhouse and then turf out some years later once they'd become pregnant.