FORD, John I

To add to the earlier biography,1 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 102. more evidence of Ford’s activities as a lawyer has been found, notably his appearances as an attorney in the courts of common pleas and King’s bench on behalf of plaintiffs from Dorset and Wiltshire. Among his most prominent clients were the abbot of Milton and the wealthy widow of Robert More† of Stinsford (who Ford would have known as a knight of the shire for Dorset in the Commons of 1417). He also brought suits on his own account, for instance a plea against a husbandman of Mappowder on a bond for £5 11s. sued in Michaelmas term 1419.2 CP40/635, rots. 110, 170, 448d; 660, att. rot.; 661, rot. 387d; 663, att. rot.; 669, att. rot.; 672, att. rot.; 678, att. rot.; KB27/677, rots. 8d, 50. Parliament was then in progress, indicating that Ford combined his work as an attorney with representation of Dorset boroughs in the Commons. Despite his many appearances at Westminster as an attorney and MP he was not appointed to any ad hoc commissions of local government until late in his career, when he was required to deliver Ilchester gaol.

In the earlier biography it was assumed that he was the same person as John Fore, returned to the Parliament of 1426 for the borough of Shaftesbury, but although Ford did make an appearance at Shaftesbury as a juror at the inquisition post mortem for Sir Hugh Luttrell† in 1428, and he represented a Shaftesbury man in the law-courts in 1431,3 C139/33/32; CP40/680, rot. 326. the existence of a John Fore who served as a juror at Shaftesbury on other occasions in 1428 and 1430,4 C139/35/50, 44/22, 45/34. suggests that they were distinct individuals.