“ He declined offers which would have led him into the Anglican ministry or the bar, and in 1719 entered the very liberal academy for dissenters at Kibworth in Leicestershire, taught at that time by the Rev. John Jennings, whom Doddridge succeeded in the ministry at that place in 1723, declining overtures from Coventry, Pershore and London (Haberdashers’ Hall) . In 1729, at a general meeting of Nonconformist ministers, he was chosen to conduct the academy established in that year at Market Harborough. ”

“ He afterwards went to a private school in London, and in 1712 to the grammar school at Kingston-upon-Thames. About 1715 he was removed to a private school at St Albans, where he was much influenced by the Presbyterian minister, Samuel Clarke. ”