Dorothea Jordan : Short Biography

Dorothea Jordan was born Dorothea Bland in Waterford on the 22nd of November 1761. She was the third of six children born to her father Francis Bland and his mistress Grace Phillips. 

When Dorothea was just a newborn, the family moved to England. When she was 13, her father abandoned the family to marry an Irish actress, though he continued to send them money on the condition that none of the children would bear his name. As a result, Dorothea then became known as Dorothea Phillips, using her mother's name. Since money was short, Dorothea was forced to start working. Since her mother was an actress, it seemed only fitting that she would place Dorothea in the same line of work. 

It wasn't long before Dorothea was earning great acclaim on the stage both in Ireland and England. Her work ranged from Shakespearean tragedy to contemporary comedy. 

Dorothea soon became as well known for her dramatic life off stage as that of her on stage persona. Her love life was particularly interesting with her even going on to become the mistress of King William IV with whom she had 10 children. When the pair separated due to William's need to find a suitable wife, Dorothea was given a yearly stipend of £4,400 for the raising of their daughters. Their sons remained in William's custody. A condition of the stipend was that Dorothea could not return to her life of acting and so her career on the stage ended. However, she did return to acting to raise money for her son-in-law's considerable debts. When word reached William, he removed their daughters from her care and ceased the stipend. 

A year later, in 1815, Dorothea retired fully and bought a home in France where she would spend the rest of her days. She was conned out of her money by her daughter and son-in-law and died in poverty on the 5th of July 1816.