Early Life
She was born Dorothea (sometimes called Dorothy or Dora) Bland near Waterford, Ireland, the daughter of Francis Bland (d. 1778) and his mistress, Grace Phillips. She was the paternal granddaughter of Nathaneal Bland (d. 1760), Vicar General of Ardfert and Aghada, and Judge of the Prerogative Court of Dublin, Ireland, and his wife Lucy (née Heaton).
In 1774, when she was 13, Dorothea's father, who worked as a stagehand, abandoned the family to marry an Irish actress. Though he continued to support the family by sending them meagre sums of money, they were poor and Dorothea had to go to work to help support her four siblings. Her mother, an actress by profession, saw potential in Dorothea and put her on the stage.
Read more about this topic: Dorothea Jordan
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“All of Western tradition, from the late bloom of the British Empire right through the early doom of Vietnam, dictates that you do something spectacular and irreversible whenever you find yourself in or whenever you impose yourself upon a wholly unfamiliar situation belonging to somebody else. Frequently it’s your soul or your honor or your manhood, or democracy itself, at stake.”
—June Jordan (b. 1939)
“A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)