As his former pupil and patron, on February 13th 1775 the Earl of Chesterfield appointed Dr. William Dodd D.D., the author of ‘Beauties of Shakespeare’, to the church of Wing. Dodd had been born in 1729 at Bourne, Lincolnshire, and after an education at Cambridge he entered Holy orders. Becoming a popular preacher in London he was made one of the King’s chaplains, but having developed a taste for the extravagance of high society he attempted to finance this lifestyle by various means, ‘even descending so low as to become the editor of a newspaper.’ However, in the pursuit of his ambition a £3,000 bribe, to procure the lucrative living of St. Georges Church, in Hanover Square, lead to his undoing for, with the offer being indignantly refused by the lady of the Lord Chancellor, Dodd was struck off the royal list. From thereon he had little chance of ever rejoining his coveted realms of society, and although the Earl of Chesterfield offered him the position at Wing, Dodd showed only ingratitude by consequently forging a bond on the Earl for £4,200. Not surprisingly the fraud was soon discovered, and Dodd was taken into custody at the 17th century Cock Inn. At least that is the traditional story, although since he was not resident in the village, (having preached only four sermons in the church), his apprehension most probably took place in London, and it would therefore perhaps be ironic that a title of one of his literary works was ‘Thoughts in Prison.’ Many efforts to secure his pardon were subsequently made, including several by his own instigation, and although not well acquainted with the famous Dr. Johnson, he nevertheless hoped that a man of his stature might be able to exercise a royal influence. He therefore indirectly sought his help via the Countess of Harrington, and although Johnson replied that ‘I will do what I can’, all his subsequent letters and petitions on Dodd’s behalf were to no avail. Indeed, on the day before Dodd’s execution he sent a letter of final condolence; ‘Be comforted; your crime, morally or religiously considered, has no very deep dye of turpitude; it corrupted no man’s principles; it attacked no man’s life; it involved only a temporary and a reparable injury.’ Yet Dodd seemed quite resigned to his fate, for as John Wesley would remark, on paying him a final visit on July 25th; ‘He never at any time expressed the least murmuring or resentment at any one’, ‘but entirely and calmly gave himself up to the will of God. Such a prisoner I scarce ever saw before; much less a condemned malefactor.’ In the company of another prisoner, on June 27th, 1777 he was conveyed in an open cart to Tyburn, where he was executed in the presence of an immense crowd. Today there is little to remind of his brief association with Wing, although in the village church a crude depiction of his demise, both by style and intent, is to be seen scratched on the western end of the Dormer tomb.