He was born in Dublin, the son of Anthony Dopping, Clerk of the
Privy Council of Ireland, who originally came from Frampton in
Gloucestershire, but had bought an estate in
County Meath in 1636. He married Margaret Domville, daughter of Gilbert Domville and sister of Sir
William Domville, later
Attorney General for Ireland. Anthony junior was educated at St Patrick's Cathedral School and entered
Trinity College, Dublin in 1655. He was a Fellow of Trinity College and consecrated as
Bishop of Kildare on 2 February 1679. He was translated to the Diocese of Meath on 14 January 1681 and made vice-Chancellor of Trinity College and a Privy Councillor. He served as Bishop of Meath until his death in 1697. When
James Margetson,
Archbishop of Dublin, fled during the reign of the Catholic King
James II of England, Dopping remained in Dublin as the main Protestant spokesman. Although assuring King James of his loyalty, Dopping strongly advocated the Protestant minority viewpoint. He attended the
Irish House of Lords during the short-lived
Patriot Parliament in 1689, acting as leader of the opposition. After the
Battle of the Boyne in 1690, he immediately proceeded to
William III of Orange's camp to declare his allegiance to the new king. He died in Dublin in 1697 and was buried in St Andrew's.
Family Dopping married a sister of
William and
Thomas Molyneux: Jane, daughter of Samuel Molyneux of Castle Dillon, County Armagh, Master Gunner of Ireland, with whom he had two sons and four daughters. The elder son, Samuel, became MP for
Armagh and his younger son,
Anthony, became
Bishop of Ossory. ==References==