Rooted Lines Genealogy

Meet Ralph Dodd, born about 1756 in London. A name that should stand alongside the giants of 19th-century innovation, yet one that remains surprisingly obscure.

Ralph was the son of Alexander Dodd and he, and his elder brother, Robert (1748–1816), initially shared a deep passion for art and drawing. Despite an early education in mechanics, both brothers trained for over five years at the Royal Academy practicing as portrait painters. While Robert became known for his masterful maritime landscapes and depictions of the French Revolutionary Wars, Ralph ultimately pivoted his creative talents toward a different kind of canvas: civil engineering.

In 1778, Ralph married Fanny Lambert on the 16th February 1778 at St Andrew by the Wardrobe, London. Their sons, Barrodall Robert Dodd (1781–1837) and George Dodd (1783–1827), both became engineers and pioneers of steam power. A third son, Ralph Dodd (1792–1874), went on to become an engineer and mentor to the great locomotive engineer George Stephenson. This branch of the family was also a relative of Isaac Dodds (1801–1882), founder of Isaac Dodds and Son.

Ahead of His Time

Ralph Dodd was an engineer constantly ahead of his rivals. He registered several patents, including British Patent No 3141 in 1801 for a revolutionary prefabricated building system that anticipated modern construction techniques by more than 150 years.

His early work surveying canals, coal mines, harbours, and other civil engineering works of the late eighteenth century led him to a truly radical idea in 1796: the UK’s first proposed underwater tunnel. His Tynemouth proposal, a sub-river passage between North Shields and South Shields, was directly inspired by the mining activities he’d witnessed in Wylam and Whitehaven.

The Man Who Started Everything (But Finished Nothing)

Dodd was a prolific project visionary. He was an indefatigable writer of prospectuses and a masterful drawer of plans, becoming the first to propose a tunnel under the River Thames, the Waterloo Bridge in London and bringing the first steam-boat from Glasgow into the Thames.

Yet, he had a peculiar operational style. Despite being the high-profile founder and promoter of these schemes, he would typically resign his tender as engineer within one to two years of his projects receiving Parliamentary approval. While most of his grand designs were successfully completed by later, renowned engineers of the day, such as John Rennie and Robert Mylne, his frequent early departures earned him a reputation among detractors as a failure, a profoundly unfair assessment given the success of his initial, pioneering vision.

A Tragic End and Lasting Legacy

Tragically, the very steam power his sons pioneered played a role in his own demise. In December 1821, Dodd suffered severe burns when the boiler of the paddle steamer Sovereign exploded during its trial run at Gloucester. The damage was so extensive the 80-foot vessel, owned by the River Severn Steam Yacht Co., was immediately broken up.

Following the accident, Dodd was advised to seek treatment in Cheltenham. Nearly penniless, he was forced to make the arduous journey on foot in the middle of winter, where he died on 11 April 1822.

Dodd’s Organic Gin is a tribute to this relatively unheard of 19th Century innovator. The gin is described as “A man who had some pretty big ideas – like patenting a building system that was over 150 years ahead of his time and constructing the first underwater tunnel”.

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Barrodall Robert Dodd (1781-1837)

His son, Barrodall Robert Dodd, married Eleanor Bulmer (1783–1829) by licence on the 27th of October 1807 at St Andrew’s Church, Newcastle. Like his father, Barrodall was a Civil Engineer and was responsible for planning large engineering projects alongside many of the great engineers of the time, continuing the family’s influential contribution to the industrial age

The details here tells us that this ship was designed and constructed by Barrodall Robert Dodd, civil engineer of Newcastle on Tyne. The ship in the left background is “An American Steam Vessel.”

Inventors in England attempted to apply steam power to vessels on the water as early as the 1720s. However working steamboats only began to become feasible in 1781 when Scottish engineer James Watt patented a steam engine that produced continuous rotary motion. By 1817 various steamboats were in operation. This hand-coloured print published by Ackermann shows a one paddle-wheel steamer.

References

• Picture is a view of British Steam Vessels under Weigh as Designed, and Constructed by Barrodall Rob[er]t Dodd, civil engineer. Science Museum Group Collection. View of British Steam Vessels under Weigh | Science Museum Group Collection
• National Gallery of Scotland: Ralph Dodd, 1756 – 1822. Civil engineer | National Galleries of Scotland
• Jeremy Normans History of Information: History of Information
• Wikipedia: Ralph Dodd – Wikipedia
• British Honey Company Dodd’s Organic Gin (britishhoney.co.uk)
• The British Overseas Railways Historical Trust: SteamIndex – Railway Biographies (borht.org.uk)
• Graces Guides: Lives of George and Robert Stephenson by Samuel Smiles: Part 2: Chapter 8 – Graces Guide
• SNELL, S. Major. A Story of Railway Pioneers; being an account of the inventions and works of Isaac Dodds and his son Thomas Weatherburn Dodds. Selwyn & Blount Ltd. 1921.
• Dictionary of National Biography, Volumes 1-20, 22. London, England: Oxford University Press; Volume: Vol 05; Page: 1058.

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