Sir Richard Ford (1758 – 3 May 1806) was an English politician who sat in the

house of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1789 to 1791. Ford was elected as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for the borough of East Grinstead in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

at an unopposed by-election in February 1789. He held that seat until the general election in 1790, when he was returned unopposed for the borough of Appleby in

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

.Stooks Smith, page 560 He served less than a year as an MP for Appleby, until he resigned from the Commons in early 1791 by accepting the post of

Steward of East Hendred This is a list of the Members of Parliament appointed as Steward of the Manor of East Hendred, a notional 'office of profit under the crown' which was used to resign from the House of Commons. Appointment of an MP to the office was first made in ...

. (The by-election for his successor was held in May 1791). After serving the Undersecretary of State in the home office, Richard Ford was for many years chief police magistrate of London, for which services he was knighted. Ford lived some years with actress

Dorothea Jordan Dorothea Jordan, née Bland (21 November 17615 July 1816), was an Anglo-Irish actress, as well as a courtesan. She was the long-time mistress (lover), mistress of Duke of Clarence, Prince William, Duke of Clarence, later William IV, and the moth ...

, who had three children by him, one of whom died. She left him when his promises of marriage were not fulfilled, because it went against the wishes of Ford's father. Ford later married Benjamin Booth's daughter and a heiress. His eldest son from this marriage was also named

Richard Ford Richard Ford (born February 16, 1944) is an American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel '' The Sportswriter'' and its sequels, '' Independence Day'', ''The Lay of the Land'' and ''Let Me Be Frank With You'', and t ...

known for his travel writings about Spain and art collection. Richard Ford DNB

References

1758 births 1806 deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1784–1790 British MPs 1790–1796 People from East Grinstead {{England-GreatBritain-MP-stub