FORD, RICHARD (1796-1858), English author of one of the earliest and best of travellers' _Handbooks_, was the eldest son of Sir Richard Ford, who in 1789 was member of parliament for East Grinstead, and for many years afterwards chief police magistrate of London. His mother was the daughter and heiress of Benjamin Booth, a distinguished connoisseur in art. He was called to the bar, but never practised, and in 1830-1833 he travelled in Spain, spending much of his time in the Alhambra and at Seville. His first literary work (other than contributions to the _Quarterly Review_) was a pamphlet, _An Historical Inquiry into the Unchangeable Character of a War in Spain_ (Murray, 1837), in reply to one called the _Policy of England towards Spain_, issued under the patronage of Lord Palmerston. He spent the winter of 1839-1840 in Italy, where he added largely to his collection of majolica; and soon after his return he began, at John Murray's invitation, to write his _Handbook for Travellers in Spain_, with which his name is chiefly associated. He died on the 1st of September 1858, leaving a fine private collection of pictures to his widow (d. 1910), his third wife, a daughter of Sir A. Molesworth. FORD, THOMAS (b. c. 1580), English musician, of whose life little more is known than that he was attached to the court of Prince Henry, son of James I. His works also are few, but they are sufficient to show the high stage of efficiency and musical knowledge which the English school had attained at the beginning of the 17th century. They consist of canons and other concerted pieces of vocal music, mostly with lute accompaniment. The chief collection of his works is entitled _Musike of Sundrie Kinds set forth in Two Books_, &c. (1607), and the histories of music by Burney and Hawkins give specimens of his art. Together with Dowland, immortalized in one of Shakespeare's sonnets, Ford is the chief representative of the school which preceded Henry Lawes.