JORDAN, DOROTHEA (1762-1816), Irish actress, was born near Waterford, Ireland, in 1762. Her mother, Grace Phillips, at one time known as Mrs. Frances, was a Dublin actress. Her father, whose name was Bland, was according to one account an army captain, but more probably a stage hand. Dorothy Jordan made her first appearance on the stage in 1777 in Dublin as Phoebe in As You Like It. In 1785 she made her first London appearance at Drury Lane as Peggy in A Country Girl.
Before the end of her first season she had become an established public favourite, her acting in comedy being declared second only to that of Kitty Clive. Her engagement at Drury Lane lasted till 1809, and she played a large variety of parts. Among her most successful parts were Lady Teazle, Rosalind and Imogen, and such "breeches" parts as William in Rosina. During the re building of Drury Lane she played at the Haymarket; she trans ferred her services in 1811 to Covent Garden. Here, in 1814, she
made her last appearance on the London stage, and the following year, at Margate, retired altogether. Mrs. Jordan had a daughter by her first manager, in Ireland, and four children by Sir Richard Ford, whose name she bore for some years. In 1790 she became the mistress of the duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV.), and bore him ten children, who were ennobled under the num of Fitz Clarence, the eldest being created earl of Munster. Ir 1811 they separated by mutual consent, Mrs. Jordan being granted a liberal allowance. In 1815 she went abroad. She it generally understood to have died at St. Cloud, near Paris, on July 3, 1816, but the story that under an assumed name she lived for seven years after that date in England finds some credence. See James Boaden, Life of Mrs. Jordan (1831).