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Mrs Mary Matilda DODD, née Dicks (1802–1876)
Her daughters Miss Mary Anne DODD (1837–1909)
and Miss Annie Goodenough DODD (1841–1911)
[Plus a mention of her husband Thomas Dodd and sons Thomas & William, buried elsewhere]
St Mary Magdalen section: Row 22, Grave G70

Mary Matilda Dicks or Dix was born in Holywell, Oxford in 1802 and baptised at St Cross Church on 11 October. She was the daughter of Andrew Dicks and his wife Sarah, who had seven other children baptised at that church: Charles (1796), Caroline (1798), Lancelot Washburn (1800), James Lancelot (1803), Maria (1805), John (1806), and Charlotte (1809).

Mary Matilda Dicks was living in St Thomas’s parish, Oxford when on 9 August 1827 she married Thomas Dodd of St Aldate’s parish at St Thomas’s Church (with John and Charlotte Dicks as witnesses). Thomas Dodd, who was the son of William Goodenough Dodd and his wife Elizabeth Sarah, was baptised at All Saints’ Church on 8 August 1792; his father, who worked for the University of Oxford as a clerk and was matriculated as a privileged person on 21 February 1808.

Mary Matilda and her husband Thomas Dodd had the following children:

• Thomas William Dodd (born in Oxford in 1828 and baptised at St Aldate's Church on 5 July)
• Joseph Goodenough Dodd I (born in Oxford in 1830 and baptised at St Ebbe’s Church on 2 April);
  died at St Ebbe’s aged 2 years 9 months and buried in All Saints churchyard on 28 September 1831
• Julia Fanny Dodd (born Oxford in 1831 and baptised at St Ebbe’s Church on 11 October)
• William Andrew Dodd (born in Oxford in 1833 and baptised at St Ebbe’s Church on 4 March)
• Joseph Goodenough Dodd II (born at Turn Again Lane, Oxford at the end of 1835 and baptised at St Ebbe’s Church on 25 January 1836; died aged two months and buried in All Saints churchyard on 31 January 1836
• Mary Anne Dodd (born at Turn Again Lane, Oxford in 1837 and privately baptised on 24 August; received into St Ebbe’s Church on 10 January 1838)
• Anne Goodenough Dodd (born at Turn Again Lane, Oxford in 1841 and privately baptised in April; not received into St Ebbe’s Church until 2 February 1846)

By 1830 Thomas Dodd was the cook & manciple at Wadham College and he and his family were living in St Ebbe’s parish: the baptisms from 1836 onwards give their address as Turn Again Lane.

At the time of the 1841 census Thomas Dodd, who was a college cook, was living at Turn Again Lane in St Ebbe’s with his wife Mary and their two youngest children: Mary Anne (4) and Annie (five months). Their son Thomas William Dodd was living in a different house in Turn Again Lane with his uncle, Joseph Rouse Dodd, who was also college cook, while Julia (10) and William (8) were both at small boarding schools in Kidlington.

Thomas Dodd died at Littlegate on 16 April 1848 (with his age in the register given as 62, but he was probably nearer 56.) He was buried at St Ebbe’s Church on 20 April, and his name was added later to his wife’s grave in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery.

At the time of the 1851 census Mrs Mary Matilda Dodd (48) was living at 17 Speedwell Street, St Ebbe’s with her five surviving children: Thomas (23), who was a cook and confectioner; Julia (19), who was a schoolmistress; William (17), who was a college servant; and Mary Anne (13) and Annie (10), who were at school. They had one servant.

Mary Matilda Dodd’s eldest daughter was married a few months after the 1851 census:

• On 1 July 1851 at St George’s Church, Bloomsbury, Julia Fanny Dodd married Paul Theophilus Carr. (Although Carr was also born in Oxford, they were both living at 15 King Street in Bloomsbury at the time of their marriage.)

She was the only one of the five children who survived to adulthood to get married.

Both of Mrs Dodd’s sons died in the mid-1850s, and although they were not buried in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery, their names were later added to their mother’s headstone:

• William Andrew Dodd died on 20 December 1854. He did not die in England & Wales, so is likely to have been abroad. (He may be the William Dodd who was convicted of larceny at Oxford on 5 January 1852.)
• Thomas William Dodd died at St Aldate’s on 14 March 1857 at the age of 28 and was buried on 20 March. His burial is recorded in the register of St Ebbe’s Church, so he is likely to be buried in the same grave as his father in St Ebbe’s churchyard (or else in Osney Cemetery).

At the time of the 1861 census Mrs Dodd (59) was living at 3 Friars Wharf, St Ebbe’s with her youngest daughter Annie (20) and working as a schoolmistress. Her other unmarried daughter Mary Ann Dodd (23) was a governess to the family of retired Lieutenant John Dixon at Astle Hall in Chelford, Cheshire.

By 1871 Mrs Dodd (69) had moved to St Mary Magdalen parish and was living at 125 Walton Street with her daughter Annie (28). They had a lodger, and a 78-year-old servant. Her other unmarried daughter Mary Ann is hard to find, and may have been abroad with the family for whom she worked.

Mrs Dodd died in 1876:

† Mrs Mary Matilda Dodd née Dicks died at 149 Walton Street at the age of 75 on 23 December 1876 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 29 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

Her death notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal read: “Dec. 23, at 149, Walton-street, aged 75 years, Mary Matilda, relict of Thomas Dodd, cook and manciple of Wadham College, deeply regretted and beloved by all who knew her.”

In 1881 Annie (40) was still living at 154 Walton Street, where she ran a lodging house with the help of one servant; the situation was the same in 1891.

Mary Ann Dodd (who is hard to find in 1881 and 1891) had moved into 154 Walton Street by 1901 to live with her younger sister Annie, and they were running a lodging house together there. 

Miss Mary Anne Dodd died in 1909:

† Miss Mary Anne Dodd of 154 Walton Street died at the Radcliffe Infirmary at the age of 72 on 5 May 1909 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 6 May (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

Her effects came to £407 14s. 8d., and her sister Anne was her executor.

At the time of the 1911 census Anne (72) was living at 154 Walton Street with her widowed niece Mrs Florence Marry Anne Everett (48), who was described as assisting in the house. Anne was evidently ill, as a nurse was staying in the house, and she died just six days after the census:

† Miss Anne Goodenough Dodd died at 154 Walton Street at the age of 72 on 8 April 1911 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 11 April (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

Her effects came to £212 3s. 6d., and her executor was Mrs Florence Mary Annie Everett.

---

The other surviving daughter of Mrs Mary Matilda Dodd

• Julia Fanny Dodd, Mrs Carr (born c.1832) was living at 23 Harley Street, Battersea in 1861 with her husband Paul Carr, who was a clockmaker, and their children Thomas (7), Ada (3), and Richard (one month). In 1871 Julia (40) was living at the British Lion pub in Chelsea with Paul (45), who was now the landlord there, and their children Thomas (17), Ada (13), Richard (9), Florence (7), and Ernest (3). In 1881 Julia was living in part of 31 Redesdale Street, Chelsea with her husband (who was now a watchmaker again), two of her children, and her grandson Herbert Sawyer (6). Julia died in Chelsea in 1884 at the age of 52.