He received his medical training under Dr. John Ford, then in practice at Bristol.
In 1780 he was appointed surgeon to the Westminster General Dispensary, which office he resigned, after more than twenty years' service, on 16 July 1801.
At this time, the finances of the charity being very low, Ford generously presented it with the arrears of his salary, amounting altogether to four hundred guineas, and his example was followed by the physicians to the institution, Drs.
Besides papers in various medical serials Ford was author of a valuable treatise entitled Observations on the Disease of the Hip Joint; to which are added some Remarks on White Swellings of the Knee … illustrated by cases and engravings, 8vo, London, 1794, of which revised editions were published in 1810 and 1818 by his nephew and successor Thomas Copeland, to whom he bequeathed his house in Golden Square, London, and a considerable legacy.
His first wife, Sarah Frances, daughter of Hugh Josiah Hansard, died in 1783, and was buried at Hillingdon, Middlesex.