His maternal grandfather, John Dodd, who had been ‘master in the navy during Queen Anne's wars,’ was in 1719 commander of the St. Quintin, a merchantman trading from London to Barcelona.
Young Dodd received a good education, it being his mother's wish that he should take orders, but ‘on some family reasons’ he was ultimately put apprentice to John Hills, a surgeon practising in the Minories, London, with whom he continued seven years.
In 1745 he entered the navy as surgeon's mate of the Blenheim hospital-ship, and served till the end of the war in the Devonshire, a ship of sixty-six guns, and the St. Albans.
In 1752 he commenced authorship with ‘An Essay towards a Natural History of the Herring,’ 8vo, London, written to promote the industry as advocated by the Society of the Free British Fishery.
In the same year he qualified at Surgeons' Hall as master-surgeon of any ship of the first rate, and was warranted for the Hawke, in which he served till she was paid off at the peace, February 1763.
73–4) attributes to Dodd the authorship of a periodical essay published some years before under the title of ‘The Scourge.’ On 7 February 1767 the house in which he lodged, adjoining the gateway of the Saracen's Head inn on Snow Hill, suddenly fell to the ground, but he and his family escaped with the loss only of their belongings (ib.
His wife's head being affected by this accident, Dodd left London and went to Bath and Bristol for her recovery; thence he wandered to Ireland, where he ‘followed his business and literary employments’ in Dublin.
He brought with him a play founded on ‘Le Naufrage’ of J. de Lafont, which held the boards at Covent Garden for exactly one night.
At the end of the first issue are some ‘Critical Remarks on Mrs. Jackson's Performance of Lady Randolph in the Tragedy of “Douglas,” &c.’ Another undertaking was ‘The Ancient and Modern History of Gibraltar.
In 1781 he became intimate with a Major John Savage, who styled himself Baron Weildmester, and had, he alleged, pressing claims on Lord North.
a year pension.’ Charmed with this proposal, Dodd cheerfully bore the expense until Riga was reached, where he learned Savage's true character.