Ford’s father, who was a tenant of Tavistock abbey in several acres of land at Sydenham Damerel and on the manor of Hurdwick, died before 1367, when his eldest son, William, settled on John a house and garden in Tavistock. Later, John was given five more tenements and rents from another by his brother, although when the latter died he came into the whole estate.
In 1370 Ford was one of 12 burgesses of Tavistock who joined the abbot and convent in an appeal for alms in aid of the repair and maintenance of the bridge over the Tavy. He became a prominent figure in the town, where he established himself as a clothier, and was nearly always described as John Ford ‘burgeys’, not only when referred to in local deeds but also on the occasion of his return to Parliament in 1388. This was probably done in order to distinguish him from both his nephew, John, and another contemporary, John Ford ‘skinner’.
Ford died at an unknown date in the five months before April 1407. Several years later, in a suit at the Exeter assizes, his nephew and heir, John, alleged that on 22 Nov. 1406, when Ford was supposed to have made a settlement of his property, he was in fact ‘languidus, iacens in lecto suo, et non compos mentis sue’. Some of his lands subsequently came into the possession of John Plenty in right of his wife Maud, who may have been Ford’s niece.