The Thomas Ford Papers include personal manuscript notebooks and a list of sermons preached by Dr. Thomas Ford (1742-1821).
Dr. Thomas Ford was Vicar of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, between 1773-1821. One notebook (PR8/1) contains notes of travels, meetings and events in various counties of England and Wales. Each county is arranged in alphabetical order, with a map from John Cary's atlas and a list of parishes with their patrons.
There is a chronological list of sermons (PR8/2) with a brief biography of Ford's life and many of the sermons themselves can be read in PR8/4.
The indexed notebook (PR8/3) contains poems, speeches and literary fragments on a variety of topics. There are accounts of public events in Melton Mowbray and district and some personal writings, such as a tribute to his wife Elizabeth, written on 22 October 1816.
Thomas Ford's sermon of 1 December, 1782 was published to help raise money for the relief of the poor of Melton Mowbray.
A pamphlet entitled Reminiscences of Dr. Ford was published by Vincent Wing (1864?) and is bound with other pamphlets on Melton Mowbray in our Special Collections (reference: SCM 12897).