Ford Lectures

The Ford Lectures are a prestigious series of public lectures given annually in English or British History by a distinguished historian. Known commonly as "The Ford Lectures," they are properly titled "Ford's Lectures in British History" and they are given by a scholar elected to be "Ford's Lecturer in British History" for a period of one year at Oxford University. The series, given in Michaelmas or Hilary terms consists of at least six lectures, which are usually published as a book.

History of the lectureship

The lectures are named in honour of their benefactor, James Ford (Born at Canterbury, Kent 31 October 1779 - died at Navestock, Essex, on 31 January 1851), who had been educated at King's School, Canterbury and matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford in 1797. Graduated in 1801, he went on to his Master of Arts and Bachelor of Divinity degrees. He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford from 1807 to 1830. His antiquarian collections have been disbursed, but survive in the holdings of the Bodleian Library, The Library of Trinity College, Oxford, The British Library, and the Cambridge University Library. In his will, Ford left a number of bequests, some of which were held in trust for the support of his surviving siblings. After they had all died, Oxford University received his bequest of £2,000 to fund a professorship of English history, which was to be established when the principal had grown to support payment of £100 per year. When this goal was reached in 1894, the sum was not enough to support a professor at the current stipend. After considerable discussion within the University, the funds were assigned to fund an annual lectureship in English history by a lecturer who was to be chosen annually by a board of electors. The first Ford's Lecturer in English History was S. R. Gardiner, elected for the academic year beginning in 1896. In 1994, the University of Oxford formally changed the official title of the series from "Ford's Lectures in English History" to "Ford's Lectures in British History".

Ford's Lecturers

To 1899

* 1896 S. R. Gardiner
* 1897 Frederic William Maitland, Township and borough
* 1898 Adolphus William Ward, Great Britain & Hanover: some aspects of the personal union
* 1899 James Hamilton Wylie, The Council of Constance to the death of John Hus

1900-1949

* 1900 Charles Firth, Cromwell's army : a history of the English soldier during the Civil Wars, the Commonwealth and the Protectorate
* 1901 Charles Plummer, The life and times of Alfred the Great
* 1902
* 1903 Julian Corbett, England in the Mediterranean
* 1904 Leslie Stephen, English literature and society in the eighteenth century
* 1905 Arthur L. Smith, The Church and State in the Middle Ages
* 1906
* 1907 Francis Haverfield, The Roman Occupation of Britain
* 1908
* 1909 Arthur Johnson, The Disappearance of the Small Landowner
* 1910 George Edmundson, Anglo-Dutch rivalry during the first half of the seventeenth century
* 1911 John William Fortescue, British Statesmen of the Great War, 1793-1814
* 1912 Reginald L. Poole, The Exchequer in the Twelfth Century
* 1913 T.F. Tout, The place of the reign of Edward II in English history
* 1914
* 1915
* 1916 A. G. Little, Studies in English Franciscan History
* 1917
* 1918
* 1919
* 1920
* 1921 Sir Richard Lodge, Great Britain & Prussia in the eighteenth century
* 1922 J. Armitage Robinson, The times of Saint Dunstan
* 1923 C. L. Kingsford, Prejudice & promise in XVth century England
* 1924
* 1925
* 1926 H. W. Carless Davis, The age of Grey and Peel
* 1927 F. M. Powicke, Stephen Langton
* 1928 F. M. Stenton, The First Century of English Feudalism, 1066-1166
* 1929 Alfred Francis Pribram, England and the International Policy of the European Great Powers, 1871-1914
* 1930 Keith Feiling
* 1931
* 1932
* 1933 A. Hamilton Thompson, The English clergy and their organization in the later Middle Ages
* 1934 Lewis Namier
* 1935
* 1936
* 1937
* 1938
* 1939 James A. Williamson, The Ocean in English History
* 1940 Eileen Power, The Wool Trade in English Medieval History
* 1941 V. H. Galbraith, Studies in the public records
* 1942
* 1943 Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond, Statesmen and Sea Power
* 1944 Wilhelm Levison, England and the Continent in the Eighth Century
* 1944 Austin Lane Poole, Obligations of Society in the XII and XIII Centuries
* 1945 David Matthew, The Social Structure in Caroline England
* 1946
* 1947 T. F. L. Plucknett, Legislation of Edward I
* 1948 Sir Charles Webster
* 1949 David Knowles, The episcopal colleagues of Archbishop Thomas Becket

1950-1999

* 1950
* 1951 Richard Pares, King George III and the politicians
* 1952
* 1953 K. B. McFarlane, The Nobility of Later Medieval England
* 1954 C.R. Cheney, From Becket to Langton : English church government 1170 - 1213
* 1955 A. J. P. Taylor, The Trouble Makers: Dissent over Foreign Policy, 1792-1939
* 1956 Philip Grierson
* 1957
* 1958 Norman Sykes, From Sheldon to Secker : aspects of English church history, 1660-1768
* 1959 G. Kitson Clark, The making of Victorian England
* 1960 Sir Goronwy Edwards, The second century of the English Parliament
* 1961
* 1962
* 1963
* 1964 Norman Gash, Reaction and reconstruction in English politics, 1832-1852
* 1965
* 1966
* 1967
* 1968 Robert Blake, The Conservative Party from Peel to Churchill
* 1969
* 1970 J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, Early Germanic kingship in England and on the continent
* 1971 Michael Howard (historian), The continental commitment: the dilemma of British defence policy in the era of the two world wars.
* 1972
* 1973 Rodney Hilton, The English peasantry in the later Middle Ages
* 1974 John Gallagher, The Decline, Revival and Fall of the British Empire
* 1975 J. P. Kenyon
* 1975
* 1976
* 1977 G. W. S. Barrow, The Anglo-Norman era in Scottish history
* 1978 F. S. L. Lyons, Culture and Anarchy in Ireland, 1890-1939
* 1979 Patrick Collinson, The religion of Protestants : the church in English society, 1559-1625
* 1980 Donald A. Bullough, Alcuin: Achievement and Reputation
* 1981 Owen Chadwick, Britain and the Vatican during the Second World War
* 1982
* 1983 Ian R. Christie, Stress and stability in late eighteenth-century Britain: reflections on the British avoidance of revolution
* 1984
* 1985 John Habakkuk, Marriage, debt, and the estates system : English landownership 1650-1950
* 1986 Keith Robbins, Nineteenth-century Britain : England, Scotland and Wales : the making of a nation
* 1987 Conrad Russell, The Causes of the English Civil War
* 1988
* 1989 Barbara Harvey, Living and dying in England 1140-1540, the monastic experience
* 1990 Paul Langford, Public Life and Propertied Englishmen, 1689-1798
* 1991
* 1992
* 1993 F. M. L. Thompson, Gentrification and the Enterprise Culture: Britain 1780-1980
* 1994 Paul Slack, From Reformation to improvement : public welfare in early modern England
* 1995
* 1996 J Campbell, Origins of the English state'
* 1997 R. R. Davies, The first English empire: power and identities in the British Isles, 1093-1343
* 1998 T. C. Smout, Use and delight: environmental history in Northern England since 1600
* 1999 Keith Thomas

From 2000

* 2000 Christopher Dyer, An Age of Transition? Economy and Society in England in the Later Middle Ages
* 2001
* 2002
* 2003 Quentin Skinner, Freedom, representation, and revolution, 1603–51
* 2004 John Maddicott
* 2005 Marianne Elliott, Religion and Ireland
* 2006 John Morrill, Living with revolution
* 2007 Robert Bartlett, The learned culture of Angevin England
* 2008 Ross McKibbin, Parties People and the State: Politics in England c.1914-1951

External links and references

Current Regulations for the Lectureship: [http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/statutes/354-051b.shtml#_Toc28142710/ Oxford University Statutes on Ford's Lectures]

W.W. Wroth, 'Ford, James (1779-1850), revised by M.C. Curthoys, "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" (2004).