Simon Ford (divine)

Simon Ford
Born	1619 East Ogwell (near Newton Bushel, Devon)
Died	7 April 1699 Old Swinford
Nationality	English
Occupation	Preacher

Simon Ford (1619?–1699), was an English divine.

Simon Ford, son of Richard Ford, was born at East Ogwell, near Newton Bushel, Devon, around 1619. He was educated at the grammar schools of Exeter and Dorchester, and entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1636. He was lineally related to Nicholas Wadham, the founder of Wadham College, but failed to obtain a scholarship there. In 1641 he proceeded to attain his B.A., and was expelled from Oxford soon afterwards on account of his strong Puritan leanings .

When the parliamentary visitors were sent to Oxford in 1647, Ford returned and was received with honour. He attained his M.A. on 12 December 1648, was made a delegate of the visitors in 1649, and was given his B.D. "by dispensation, of the delegates" on 16 February 1649-50. His friend, Dr. Edward Reynolds, who had become dean of Christ Church, admitted him as a senior student there and he frequently preached at St. Mary's. A sermon delivered against the Engagement of 1651 led to the removal of his studentship.

He became lecturer of Newington Green, London, and later was vicar of St. Lawrence, Reading. There he engaged in much local controversy. In an assize sermon preached in 1654 he denounced the people of Reading for their support of extravagant religious views, and was called before the grand jury to explain his conduct. Two years later a Quaker named Thomas Speed excited his wrath. Ford and Christopher Fowler, another Reading clergyman, published jointly A Sober Answer to an Angry Epistle ... written in haste by T. Speed in London, 1656, to which Speed replied in The Guilty-covered Clergyman unvailed in 1656.

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