[2] She gained more education than most as she had a knowledge of five foreign languages and she played several fretted string instruments, including the lute-like English guitar and the viola da gamba, comparable to a modern cello.

She was a singer with a beautiful voice by her early twenties, but her earliest attempts to appear in public venues were unsuccessful; her father went so far as to have her arrested twice to prevent her escaping his control.

Ford's accomplishments risked being complicated by an infatuated lover, the Earl of Jersey, who offered her £800 a year to be his mistress.

She and her husband were travelling to Italy in 1792, during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution, when Thicknesse died suddenly in Boulogne.

After the execution of Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794, she was released under a general pardon for all prisoners who could prove that they could earn their living; her profession stood her in good stead.

In 1800, Ford published an autobiographical roman à clef entitled The School for Fashion by Anne Thicknesse,[9] which included many public figures of the day in thin disguise.