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 related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)