Genealogy
James Ford was the son of Philip Ford and Elizabeth Ford, son of John Ford. He had two brothers Philip Jr. and Richard. His father died while he was young and his mother remarried to William Prince who brought the family out to what would become Princeton, Kentucky. This second marriage would provide James with a number of step and half siblings who would provide important ties to his future political and criminal career.
In the late 1790s he married Susan Miles, the daughter of William Miles, brother of the ferry keeper at Miles Ferry which connected the Kentucky and Illinois banks of the Ohio River downriver of Cave-in-Rock near the future location of Rosiclare, Illinois. She bore James two sons, Philip (Nov. 25, 1800 - Nov. 23, 1831) and William M. (1804 - Nov. 2, 1832), and one daughter, Cassandra (1805-06 - 1863). Susan died sometime in the 1820s and in 1829 Ford married Elizabeth "Betsy" W. (Armstead) Frazier (1790-1800 - 1834-1835), a widow whose husband had died suddenly while staying at Ford's plantation in what was then Livingston County, Kentucky, and now Crittenden County, Kentucky. She bore James one son, James N. Ford, Jr., (c. 1830 - October 1844).
Read more about this topic: James Ford (pirate)