[2] It was founded by the merchant William Ford (or perhaps 'Fourd') in 1509 to provide accommodation for six elderly people: five men and one woman.

[6] In 1517, following Ford's death, the endowment was extended to allow six places for couples to live together.

[3] According to W. Hickling, a Coventry historian writing in 1846, by then it was serving forty women, each of whom received an allowance of three shillings and six pence per week.

In 1940, John Bailey Shelton, a Coventry archaeologist discovered encaustic tiles typical of those found in a chapel.

[8][9] In attempting to reconstruct the Globe Theatre, Shakespeare scholars have used Ford's Hospital to understand Elizabethan doorways.