Family and Education

b. c.1658, 1st s. of John Dodington of Dodington, Som. by Hester, da. of Sir Peter Temple, 2nd Bt., M.P., of Stowe, Bucks. m. (lic. 12 Feb. 1697) Elinor, da. of Henry Bull, M.P., s.p.

Offices Held

Commr. of appeals in the excise 1679-1705; cashier to treasurer of the navy 1692-9; sec. to English commrs. for the union with Scotland 1706; sec. to ld. lt. [I] 1707-9; ld. of Admiralty 1709-10 and 1714-17; P.C. [I] Sept. 1714; clerk of pells [I] 1715 for life of his nephew George Bubb Dodington; ld. lt. Som. 1715-d.

Biography

Of an ancient but impoverished family, George Dodington amassed a great fortune as an army clothing contractor, shipowner, and financier during the wars of William III and Marlborough.1 In 1705 he entered Parliament, attaching himself to Edward Russell, Earl of Orford, one of the Whig Junto, under whom he served at the Admiralty both before and after the accession of George I. Following Orford into opposition with Walpole in 1717, he voted against the Government in all recorded divisions till his death, 28 Mar. 1720. By his will he left his fortune to his nephew, George Bubb Dodington, for life, then to his issue male, and in default of such successively to a distant cousin, George Dodington of Horsington, on the same terms; then to another cousin, Lord Cobham; and next to Cobham’s sister, Hester, wife of Richard Grenville and her sons, to one of whom, Richard Grenville, afterwards Lord Temple, it eventually passed. His personal estate was vested in trustees for 30 years to buy land, preferably in Dorset and Somerset, the income of which was to be applied to the completion of the great house which he was building at Eastbury in Dorset. The work was to be executed ‘according to the model’, under the direction of ‘my good friend, Sir John Vanbrugh’, and the house, together with the lands so acquired, was to pass with the rest of the property.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

• 1. Cal. Treas. Bks. ix. 994, 1039; xxi. 110; CSP Dom. 1691-2, p. 456.