Through the interest of his father's friend George Horne, he was appointed to a minor canonry in Canterbury Cathedral, and was exempted from the necessity of residing on his living.
He was inducted on 9 November 1801 to the rectory of All Hallows, Lombard Street (in the gift of the dean and chapter of Canterbury), which he retained until 1810.
The favour of the Earl secured for Todd the living of Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire, in December 1803, when he resigned his curacy of Beckermet.
Lord Bridgewater then bestowed on him the vicarage of Edlesbrough, Buckinghamshire, which he kept until 1807, and he is said to have been, on the same nomination, rector of Little Gaddesden in Hertfordshire for a short period in 1805.
In December 1812 Todd was created royal chaplain in ordinary (a position which he retained until his death), and in July 1818 he was appointed one of the Six Preachers in Canterbury Cathedral.
Todd vacated all these preferments, except the crown chaplaincy, on his appointment, in November 1820, by the Earl of Bridgewater to the rectory of Settrington in Yorkshire, where he took up his residence.
He must by this time have been fairly well off, for Isaac Reed made him a legacy and Charles Dilly the publisher left him £500.
The epitaph also commemorates his wife, Anne Dixon, who died at Settrington rectory on 14 April 1844, aged 78.
Charles Dexter Cleveland based his 'Complete Concordance' to Milton's poems on Todd's verbal index, which he found full of mistakes.
He also edited Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, with "numerous corrections and the addition of several thousand words", 1818, 4 vols.
192) and the Gentleman's Magazine, and wrote a preface to Bibliotheca Reediana, 1807, the sale catalogue of Isaac Reed's library.