Henry John Todd

Henry John Todd (1763–1845) was an English clergyman, librarian, and scholar, known as an editor of John Milton.

He was librarian at Lambeth Palace (1803), and examined and described manuscripts, chiefly biblical, which formerly belonged to the orientalist Joseph Dacre Carlyle, and after his death were transferred to the Lambeth Palace. Todd was rector of Settrington (1820).

He was awarded an annual pension by George IV.

He was baptised at Britford or Burtford, near Salisbury, on 13 February 1763, the son of the Rev. Henry Todd, curate of that parish from 1758 to 1765, and of Mary his wife. He was admitted a chorister of Magdalen College, Oxford, on 20 July 1771, and was educated in the college school. On 15 October 1779 he matriculated from Magdalen and graduated B.A. there on 20 February 1784. Soon afterwards he became fellow-tutor and lecturer at Hertford College, where he proceeded M.A. on 4 May 1786. In 1785 he was ordained deacon as curate at East Lockinge, Berkshire, and in 1787 he took priest's orders.

Todd was presented in 1787 by his aunts, the Misses Todd, to the perpetual curacy of St. John and St. Bridget, Beckermet, in Cumberland. Through the interest of his father's friend George Horne, he was appointed to a minor canonry in Canterbury Cathedral, and was exempted from the necessity of residing on his living. The position afforded him opportunities for study and the patronage of Archbishop John Moore.

Through the influence of the archbishop, Todd held during 1791 and 1792, on the gift of the dean and chapter of Canterbury, the sinecure rectory of Orgarswick, and, on the nomination of the same patrons, he was vicar from 1792 to 1801 of Milton, near Canterbury. By 1792 he had become chaplain to Robert Needham, 11th Viscount Kilmorey, and James Duff, 2nd Earl Fife. He was inducted on 9 November 1801 to the rectory of All Hallows, Lombard Street (in the gift of the dean and chapter of Canterbury), which he retained until 1810. He took up residence in London, was elected F.S.A. on 27 May 1802, and became domestic chaplain to John William Egerton, 7th Earl of Bridgewater, on 5 April 1803.

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