| Authorised form of name | Ford; Sir; Richard (1613 - 1678); merchant and politician |
| Dates | 1613 - 1678 |
| Nationality | British |
| Date of birth | 1613 |
| Date of death | 31 August 1678 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Burial:
Bexley, Kent, England, Europe |
| Occupation | Merchant; politician; colonial official; slave trader |
| Activity | Education:
Exeter College, Oxford (matriculated 1631); Gray's Inn (admitted 1670)
Career:
Freeman, Exeter (1635), Southampton (1661); settled in Rotterdam, from where he helped to supply the Royalist armies (1642); Member, Merchant Adventurers' Company (by 1644), Governor (1660-1675); returned to England (1652); in partnership with his son-in-law, Peter Proby, and Sir William Ryder; supplied hemp to the Navy; Commissioner for Trade (1656-1657, 1660-1668); Commissioner of the HEIC (1658-1663, 1664-1665); Captain, London militia (1659); common councilman (1659-1661); MP for Exeter (1660); one of the commissioners sent to Breda to negotiate the restoration of Charles II to the throne; Commissioner for Assessment for London (1660-death), and for Kent (1673-death); Colonel, White Auxillary Regiment (1661-1669); MP for Southampton (1661-1678); Alderman of London (1661-death); Deputy-Lieutenant of London (1662-death); additional coal-meter (c.1661-death); Commissioner for Corporations for Hampshire (1662-1663); Commissioner for Tangier (1662-1673); Commissioner for Loyal and Indigent Officers for London, Westminster and Hampshire (1662); Deputy Governor, Royal Adventurers into Africa (1663), Assistant (1664-1671); Sheriff of London (1663-1664); Joint Farmer of Tin Coinage, Duchy of Cornwall (1664-1667); Lord Mayor of London (1670-1671); Assistant to the Royal Africa Company (1672-death); Commissioner for a Marine Treaty with the United Provinces (1674-1675); Commissioner of Charitable Uses (1675); Commissioner for Recusants (1675); President of St Bartholomew's Hospital (1675-death)
Honours:
Kt 1660
Memberships:
Mercers' Company (1654, master 1661-1662, 1674-1675); Honorary Artillery Company (1670) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 27/11/1673 |
| Proposer | Seth Ward |
| Other Royal Society activity | Admitted on 1 December 1673 |
| Relationships | Parents: Thomas Ford and ? Elizabeth Frank
Married: Grace
Children: two sons and three daughters |
| PublishedWorks | https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n85062331/ |
| OtherInfo | As the leading merchant in the Merchant Adventurers' and Royal Africa Companies, Ford was held largely responsible for the second Anglo-Dutch War. As a member of parliament, he was also active on a number of committees relating to trade matters. He did not contribute to the Royal Society's activities and was never listed in the accounts.
Ford held a number of high offices and was asignificant investor in The Royal Adventurers into Africa, later Royal African Company (RAC). The RAC was a British trading company established by Royal Charter in 1660 which enslaved and sold African people. The company was chartered by Charles II, the founding royal Patron of the Royal Society, which was also chartered in 1660. The RAC was made up of and funded by members of the Stuart royal family and London merchants many of whom were, or went on to become, Fellows of the Royal Society. The Royal Society itself held shares in the company from 1682 until 1699. The RAC held a monopoly on English trade on the west coast of Africa. The principal interest of the company was originally gold and secondarily other natural resources. The Company's second charter in 1663 mentions trade in enslaved people, who were mainly sold into slavery on British owned estates in the West Indies and America.
Ford was also a Commissioner of The Honorable East India Company (HEIC). An English and later British company formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region. The company ended up seizing control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent (and briefly Afghanistan) and colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. Originally chartered as the Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies, by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600, the East India Company rose to account for half of the world's trade, thereby amassing vast wealth, influence and private armies. The East India company enslaved people and exploited them for labour across their territories from 1621 until abolition of slavery in India in 1843. |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; Hunter; Woodhead; Foster; Henning
Seaward, P. 1987. 'The House of Commons Committee of Trade and the Origins of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, 1664', in The Historical Journal, vol. 30(2), pp. 437-452 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2639202; last accessed 02/08/2022]
References:
Govier, M. 1999. 'The Royal Society, Slavery and the Island of Jamaica: 1660-1700', in Notes and Records, vol. 53, pp. 203-217 [for information on connection to Royal African Company]
Notes:
Henning has c1614 as year of birth, Hunter has 1613. |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/23565871 |
| Code | NA8266 |