Background
Born in Canterbury, Ford was the eldest son of the Review James Ford, Bachelor of Arts, minor canon of Durham, and afterwards minor canon of Canterbury.
Born in Canterbury, Ford was the eldest son of the Review James Ford, Bachelor of Arts, minor canon of Durham, and afterwards minor canon of Canterbury.
He graduated Bachelor of Arts 1801.
He entered the King"s School, Canterbury, in 1788, matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford on 8 July 1797 and became fellow of his college on 2 June 1807. Master of Arts 1804, Bachelor of Divinity 1812, and in 1811 was junior proctor of the university. He held the perpetual curacies of Saint Laurence, Ipswich, and of Hill Farrance, Somerset.
He was subsequently presented (28 October 1830) to the vicarage of Navestock in Essex, and died on 31 January 1850.
His quaint directions for a funeral of great simplicity were carried out when he was buried in Navestock churchyard. There is a monument to him in Navestock Church, and a portrait of him in the common room of Trinity College, Oxford.
On 19 November 1830 Ford married Lætitia Jermyn, the author of The Butterfly Collector"s Vade Mecum. They had no children.
Ford bequeathed £2,000 to the Oxford University for the endowment of the Ford"s Professorship of English History, and £4,000 to Trinity College, Oxford for the purchase of advowsons, and £4,000 for the endowment of four Ford"s Studentships, two of which were to be confined to youths educated at King"s School, Canterbury.