Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rodd, Edward Hearle
RODD, EDWARD HEARLE (1810–1880), ornithologist, born at the vicarage of St. Just-in-Roseland, Cornwall, on 17 March 1810, was third son of Edward Rodd, D.D. (1768–1842), by his wife Hariet, daughter of Charles Rashleigh, esq., of Duporth, Cornwall. He was educated at Ottery St. Mary school, and trained for the law, being admitted to practise as a solicitor in Trinity term 1832. Early in the following year he settled at Penzance, where he entered into partnership with George Dennis John. On John's death Rodd was joined by one Drake, and after the latter's death the firm became Rodd & Cornish. Rodd retired about 1878. He had also held many official posts in the town. He was town clerk from 1847, clerk to the local board from 1849, clerk to the board of guardians from the passing of the Poor Law Act, and superintendent registrar, besides being head distributor of stamps in Cornwall from 1844 to 1867. He died unmarried at Penzance on 25 Jan. 1880, and was buried in the cemetery there.
Rodd was an ardent ornithologist, and especially interested in the question of migration. He studied minutely the avifauna of his county, and it was entirely due to his exertion that many a rare bird was rescued from oblivion, while several species were added by him to the list of British birds.
Besides upwards of twenty papers on ornithological matters contributed to the ‘Zoologist,’ the ‘Ibis,’ and the ‘Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall’ from 1843 onwards, Rodd was author of:
- ‘A List of British Birds as a Guide to the Ornithology of Cornwall,’ 8vo, London, 1864; 2nd edit. 1869.
- ‘The Birds of Cornwall and the Scilly Islands … Edited by J. E. Harting,’ 8vo, London, 1880.
His collection passed to his nephew, F. R. Rodd, esq., at Trebartha Hall, Launceston.
[Memoir by J. E. Harting, prefixed to Birds of Cornwall; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. ii. 580, and Suppl. p. 1327; information kindly supplied by his nephew, F. R. Rodd, esq., of Trebartha Hall, Launceston, Brit. Mus. Cat.; Royal Soc. Cat.]