Dorothea Jordan

Dorothea Jordan (née Bland; 22 November 17615 July 1816) was an Anglo-Irish actress, as well as a courtesan. She was the long-time mistress of Prince William, Duke of Clarence (later William IV) and the mother of 10 illegitimate children by him, all of whom took the surname FitzClarence. She was known professionally as Dorothea Francis and Dorothea Jordan, was informally Dora Jordan, and she commonly was referred to as Mrs Jordan and Mrs FitzClarence. Early life Dorothea Bland was born near Waterford City in Ireland on 22 November 1761, and was baptised at St Martin in the Fields, Middlesex on 5 December of that year. She was the third of six children born to Francis Bland (1736 – 2 January 1778, in Dover) and his mistress, Grace Phillips (c. 1740 – 1789 in Edinburgh). Her siblings were: George Bland (c.1758 – 1807 in Boston, Massachusetts; actor and singer) Hester Bland (baptised 2 March 1760 at St Anne Soho, Middlesex – buried at St David's, as of Trelethin, 8 March 1848) Lucy Bland (1763/64 – 1778 in Trelethin, St David's, 1778) Francis Bland (; a captain, unmarried and without issue) Nathaniel Phillips Bland (1766/67 – buried at St David's, Pembrokeshire, 3 June 1830). Her paternal grandparents were Nathaniel Bland (1695/96, in Killarney, County Kerry – 1760), Vicar General of Ardfert and Aghadoe, and Judge of the Prerogative Court of Dublin, Ireland, and his second wife Lucy (née Heaton). The reports about Jordan's maternal ancestry are unproven; Grace Phillips has been described as the daughter of a Welsh clergyman, whose parish was at Trelethyn. Before April 1774, when she was age 13, Jordan's father, who worked as a stagehand, abandoned the family to marry an Irish actress. However, he continued to support the family by sending them meagre sums of money. This allowance was on the condition that the children would not use his last name. Jordan then adopted her mother's maiden name, Phillips.