John Doddridge

Sir John Doddridge (akas: Doderidge or Dodderidge; 1555–1628) was an English lawyer, appointed Justice of the King's Bench in 1612 and served as Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1589 and for Horsham in 1604.

[3] Richard Doddridge entered the shipping business and owned a 100-ton prize-ship named Prudence, a privateer which landed several prizes probably taken from Spanish galleons.

[4] In 1585 he bought a house in Cross Street from his fellow burgess Thomas Skinner, which descended in turn to his sons Sir John and to the latter's brother Pentecost Dodderidge (died c. 1650), MP and mayor of Barnstaple.

He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated BA on 16 February 1577, and entered his legal training in the Middle Temple about the same time.

In Lent 1603 he discharged the duties of reader at Middle Temple[8] On 20 January 1604 he took the degree of serjeant-at-law, and about the same time he was appointed Serjeant to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales.

He took part in the conference in the Painted Chamber at Westminster, held 25 February 1606, on the question whether Englishmen and Scotchmen born after the accession of James I to the English throne were naturalised by that event in the other kingdom.

The question was, however, subsequently decided in the opposite sense by Lord Chancellor Ellesmere and twelve judges in the exchequer chamber (Calvin's Case).

[9]) Sir John rebuilt Bremridge in about 1622, (the date 1654 is inscribed on the entrance arch) and much of his building survived the demolition of the left wing in circa 1830.

[14] He married three times but left no issue: Doddridge died on 13 September 1628, at his house Great Fosters, near Egham, and was buried in the Lady Chapel of Exeter Cathedral, with twin monuments against the north wall containing effigies to himself and his second wife.

His monument consists of his recumbent effigy sculpted in alabaster, resting on a chest-tomb, showing him dressed in scarlet robes with a court roll in his hand, all within a niche under a Gothic arch.

The 16th-century "Doddridge House" (right) in Cross Street, Barnstaple. 19th-century engraving by Jonathan Lomas, looking down Cross Street toward the West Gate.
Arms of Dodderidge
Great Fosters , near Egham , Surrey, Doddridge's seat near London at which he died in 1628, as stated on his epitaph in Exeter Cathedral
Effigy of Dorothy Bampfield, Dodderidge's second wife, Exeter Cathedral
Monuments to Sir John and his second wife, Dorothy. Lady Chapel, Exeter Cathedral.
The title page of The Several Opinions of Sundry Learned Antiquaries (1658) published by Doddridge's nephew John Dodderidge containing an essay said to be by Doddridge