An Armorial Wall Memorial in the Cloister at Canterbury Cathedral

Not all of the armorial memorials in the Cloister at Canterbury Cathedral are in the floor; some are set into the wall around the Cloister.

Sacred to the Memory of

the Rev^d James Ford, B.A.

for forty seven years a Minor Canon of this

Cathedral, and Rector of S^t George the Martyr,

and S^t Mary Magdalene in this City;

Who departed this life the 5^th of January 1824,

in the 74^th year of his age.

And of Dorothy his wife, the third daughter

of William Spearman, of Durham, Esq^r

who departed this life the 14^th of December 1819,

in the 74^th year of her age.

Also of M^rs Mary Spearman,

who departed this life the 1^st of March 1811,

in the 68^th year of her age.

And of Mary, the eldest daughter of

the said Rev^d James and Dorothy Ford,

who departed this life the 3^rd of Dec^r 1853,

in the 50^th year of her age.

They all lie buried in a vault near this place.

The arms, carefully carved here with hatching, are blazoned as: Gules two bendlets vairy or and azure on a canton or an anchor sable (Ford), impaling, Azure a chevron ermine between three spears argent headed or (Spearman). Burke’s General Armory blazons the crest, Ford, of Bexley, Gloucester, and Canterbury, Kent: Out of a naval coronet proper a bear’s head sable muzzled gules.

James Ford seems to be best known as the father of James Ford (1779-1851), an English antiquarian with his own entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.