Daniel Ford Richardson

Today we moved the Rev. Daniel Ford Richardson Captain Daniel Ford to his new place in our home. "Uncle" Daniel (as he was long known to us) has come to us through the family. The Reverend Daniel Ford Richardson taught Ancient Languages at Wake Forest 1834-38 and died in Hanover, NH in 1884 after a long career as a Baptist minister.  We felt it was time to safe-guard him in our home lest something happen to him at Mom's.

Interestingly, the frame, which appears to be poplar (but then I'm no expert) is only gilt on the face and unfinished on all other surfaces.  It is marked "Ford" on the top edge as the painter likely had it in a box with others he had completed and this was a likely means of identifying the framed image without having to remove it from its carrier.

P.S. - After review of many family letters on this subject and a quick study of the practices of traveling portraitists of that period I've concluded that this isn't the good Reverend Uncle Daniel but rather his grandfather, Daniel Ford. While I've no doubt that the first/given name of Daniel was correctly passed down via the oral tradition, I do doubt that the traveling painter would use somebody's middle name to identify the portrait in his crate of framed portraits awaiting delivery. 

Daniel Ford served in the American Revolution and was later a ship's captain.