He was Chairman of Ways and Means (Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons) between 1865 and 1872 and later held office under William Ewart Gladstone as Financial Secretary to the Treasury, President of the Local Government Board and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Dodson unsuccessfully contested East Sussex in 1852 (he came third with 1637 votes, behind Augustus Eliott Fuller with 2155 and Charles Hay Frewen with 1974) and March 1857, but was elected for the constituency in April 1857.

He served as Chairman of Ways and Means (Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons) from February 1865 to April 1872 and was admitted to the Privy Council in 1872.

[1] In 1873 he was appointed Financial Secretary to the Treasury in the Liberal administration of William Ewart Gladstone, a post he held until the government fell the following year.

Late in life he became concerned about the fate of the African elephant, whose salvation he mooted, in letters to The Times, could come through domestication.

Lord Monk Bretton died in May 1897, aged 71, and was succeeded in the barony by his only son John William Dodson.