Dodington, Sir Edward (d. 1618/19), army engineer, is first recorded in Munster in 1602 as captain of the company in the lord president’s regiment of foot that was chosen, by throw of dice, to lead the assault on O'Sullivan's castle of Dunboy when the walls had been breached. He was afterwards appointed constable of Killybegs castle in Donegal and O'Cahan's castle at Dungiven, in the then Co. Coleraine, which he repaired and strengthened. He maintained it as a garrison with fourteen men until the plantation arrangements forced him to relinquish it to the Skinner's Company of London. Subsequently, the company accepted his offer to become their tenant and he rebuilt the castle to plantation standards with a bawn, flankers and an adjoining house, at a cost of £500, of which he recovered £200 from the state.
Dodington was discharged from the army in October 1611 and awarded a pension for life in 1614. He was listed as a burgess of the newly incorporated town of Limavady, Co. Londonderry, in 1612 and appointed an alderman for the town of Coleraine in the second charter, granted on 28 June 1613. His first wife, Elizabeth Powlett, had died in 1610 and he later married Anne, daughter of Tristram Beresford (qv), first mayor of Coleraine and agent of the Irish Society. The second residence of the Skinner's Company, a large building with a bawn and two turrets at Crossalt, was certainly built by Dodington, but there is no firm evidence to support the tradition that he was involved in building the walls of Derry.
The revival of Armagh as a county capital and marketing centre led to his joining Theophilus Buckworth (qv), bishop of Dromore, in leasing an area of the city from the archbishop for six years, with the object of replanting and restoring the city. Dodington himself covenanted to build a ‘fair house’ in Armagh and two ‘English’ houses on lands leased from the see in Co. Tyrone. A start was made in laying out the area into plots for houses but Dodington, who had been the archbishop's agent, soon resigned the office and the scheme was ultimately of limited success.
Dodington, who was knighted on 18 July 1616, died before Pynnar's (qv) survey of the plantation was conducted early in 1619. He was survived by his wife Anne who assumed the tenancy of Dungiven castle, pursued a claim of £300 from the city of Derry for his services and married Sir Francis Cooke, a servitor in Orier precinct in Co Armagh.