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The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (Rev. C. L. Dodgson) by Stuart Dodgson Collingwood
page 20 of 423 (04%)
been concerned in the murder of Lord Kilwarden offered to give himself
up to justice if Captain Dodgson would come alone and at night to take
him. Though he fully realised the risk, the brave captain decided to
trust himself to the honour of this outlaw, as he felt that no chance
should be missed of effecting so important a capture. Having first
written a letter of farewell to his wife, he set out on the night of
December 16, 1803, accompanied by a few troopers, for the
meeting-place--an old hut that stood a mile or so from Phillipstown,
in King's County. In accordance with the terms of the agreement, he
left his men a few hundred yards from the hut to await his return, and
advanced alone through the night. A cowardly shot from one of the
windows of the cottage ended his noble life, and alarmed the troopers,
who, coming up in haste, were confronted with the dead body of their
leader. The story is told that on the same night his wife heard two
shots fired, and made inquiry about it, but could find out nothing.
Shortly afterwards the news came that her husband had been killed just
at that time.

Captain Dodgson left two sons behind him--Hassard, who, after a
brilliant career as a special pleader, became a Master of the Court of
Common Pleas, and Charles, the father of the subject of this Memoir.

Charles, who was the elder of the two, was born in the year 1800, at
Hamilton, in Lanarkshire. He adopted the clerical profession, in which
he rose to high honours. He was a distinguished scholar, and took a
double first at Christ Church, Oxford. Although in after life
mathematics were his favourite pursuit, yet the fact that he
translated Tertullian for the "Library of the Fathers" is sufficient
evidence that he made good use of his classical education. In the
controversy about Baptismal Regeneration he took a prominent part,
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