FORD, Francis (1813-1904) — London
Lithographer, printer & stationer. Produced — with his partner Alfred Tilt — George Oakley Lucas, Plan of the parish of St. Mary-le-Bone 1869.
The printing and wholesale stationery business of “Ford & Tilt” was a partnership between Francis Ford and Alfred Tilt. Ford was born on Canvey Island and baptised at St. Mary the Virgin, South Benfleet, 25 May 1813, the son of Thomas Ford, a farmer, and his wife Sarah. He was originally a stationer and bookbinder, living in Eccleston Street and then Ebury Street with his wife Hannah Nicholls, whom he had married at St. George Hanover Square, 9 Jul 1836, and their young daughter. The partners were defendants in a legal action in 1858, for which there are a bill, answer and interrogatories in NA. In the same year Ford was successful in a “right to light” case brought against the owner of the newly built Covent Garden Theatre, Ford alleging that the “light was so much diminished in his workshops as to prevent him carrying on his business” (London Evening Standard, 29 Nov 1858). They were the publishers of The Freemasons’ Magazine and Masonic Mirror from 1859 and also undertook government printing work, notably for important charity reports 1879-1881. By 1881 Ford was employing 120 men, twenty-eight women and seventy-four boys — Ford also had a coachman, a cook, and two housemaids. The firm merged with the well-known “Hazell, Watson & Viney” in 1884 to become a limited company with combined assets of £138,000. Ford had retired by 1891, by now a widower, and was living in Kent with his widowed daughter, Hannah Emmeline Roberts, although he later returned to the London suburb of Ealing. He died there 27 Sep 1904. Probate on his estate of £2,807,0s.3d was granted 24 Oct 1904 to his daughter and to James Mitchell.
— Eccleston Street South (home) — 1841
— 101 Ebury Street (home) — 1851
— Stanley Villa, North Road, Finchley (home) — 1861
52 Long Acre — 1858-1879
— Elm Villa, Newcomen Road, Finchley (home) — 1871
— Essex House, Ballards Lane, Finchley (home) — 1881
— Ulcombe House, Ulcombe, Kent (home) — 1891
— 34 Grange Park, Ealing (home) — 1901-1904
BNA. Census 1841-1901. COPAC. NA. Twyman.