Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hodgson, Bernard
HODGSON, BERNARD (1745?–1805), principal of Hertford College, Oxford, is described as the son of ‘Mark Hodgson of St. Martin's, Westminster, pleb.’ (Foster, Alumni Oxon. pt. ii. p. 672). He was educated at Westminster School, where in May 1759 he was elected a king's scholar. In May 1764, as captain of the school, he was elected to a studentship of Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated on 20 June following, and graduated B.A. 1768 and M.A. 1771. On 30 Oct. 1775 he became principal of Hertford College, and proceeded D.C.L. 24 Jan. 1776. He was presented by the dean and chapter of Christ Church to the vicarage of Tolpuddle, Dorsetshire, in 1776. Hodgson died on 28 May 1805, in his sixty-first year. Upon his death Hertford College was dissolved, and from that portion of the property which was transferred to the university the Hertford scholarship was subsequently endowed; the buildings were eventually given to Magdalen Hall, which became the new Hertford College in 1874. The authorship of ‘The Monastery. A Poem on the building of a Monastery in Dorsetshire,’ 1795, is attributed to Hodgson (Gent. Mag. 1796, vol. lxvi. pt. i. p. 317).
He published the following works: 1. ‘Solomon's Song translated from the Hebrew,’ Oxford, 1786, 4to. 2. ‘The Proverbs of Solomon translated from the Hebrew,’ Oxford, 1788, 4to. 3. ‘Ecclesiastes. A new Translation from the original Hebrew,’ Oxford, 1790, 4to.
[Alumni Westmon. 1852, pp. 372, 380, 461, 534, 536; Gent. Mag. 1805, pt. i. p. 586; Hutchins's Dorset, ii. 217–18; Wood's Hist. and Antiq. of Oxford, 1786, iii. 647–8, App. 321; Honours Register of the Univ. of Oxford, 1883, pp. 71, 156; Brit. Mus. Cat.]