Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dod, Henry
DOD, HENRY (1550?–1630?), poet, was of the old family of Dod, or Doddes, Cheshire. For the use of his own family he versified nine psalms. They were published in London in 1603 as ‘Certaine Psalmes of David in meter,’ by H. D. The undertaking was sanctioned by James I, and the impression was quickly sold. Afterwards, at the request of some of the puritan clergy, Dod undertook a metrical re-cast of the entire psalter, published as ‘Al the Psalmes of David, with certaine Songes and Canticles,’ &c. It is dedicated to John Brewen [see Bruen, John], John Dod of Tussingham, and John Dod of Broxon, all of Cheshire. It has no name of author, printer, or place. It is dated 1620, and the initials H. D. are appended to its Address to the Christian Reader. It was perhaps printed abroad, and Wither was possibly right when he said it was condemned here by authority to the fire. With it Dod printed his metrical version of the Act of Parliament for ordering a Gunpowder Plot Thanksgiving Service. The book is rare. Out of the three known copies, two (Brit. Mus. and Bodleian) were in Dod's own possession, and contain his manuscript notes and errata. The only known copy of his ‘Certaine Psalmes,’ 1603, is in the University Library, Cambridge.
Dod has been described as a silk mercer, on the strength of Wither's phrase, ‘Dod the silkman.’ He may have been the Henry Dod who was incumbent of Felpham, Sussex, in 1630; and possibly the ‘H. D.’ for whom Gregory Seaton printed ‘A Treatise of Faith and Workes,’ &c., in 1583. Nothing is known of his death.
[Dod's Address to Al the Psalmes; Wither's Schollers Purgatory, 33; Corser's Collectanea, v. 210–13; Cotton's Editions of the Bible, 2nd ed. 159 note, 165; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. iii. 1326; Dallaway's Western Sussex, 1832 ed. ii. pt. i. 9; Earwaker's East Cheshire, i. 174.]