Dorothea (sometimes Dorothy or Dora) Jordan, the comic actress, nee Bland was born to an Irish father and Welsh mother and spent her childhood in Dublin and Wales. She made her stage debut in 1777 at the age of 15 and her first Drury Lane appearance in 1785. She kept her hold on the public for nearly 30 years, mainly in comic tomboy roles.
Already the mother of five children, in 1790 she became the mistress of the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV. The relationship, which was a very happy one, produced ten children. Seven were born after they settled in Bushy House in 1797.
The King had given Bushy House to the always financially strapped Duke. Even so he needed help and Dorothea contributed to the upkeep from her own stage earnings as well as producing a further seven children.
As the years went by the Duke came under pressure from the royal family to find a suitable (preferably rich) wife. The Duke ended the relationship in 1811 when he met a young heiress, although he did not find and marry Adelaide of Saxe-Meinengen until 1818.
Dorothea is recorded as living at Gifford Lodge, on Twickenham Green, between 1808 and 1810.
Although the Duke made a generous settlement for the support of her family, Dorothea was completely devastated by the separation. After a son-in-law ran up huge debts in her name she fled to France in 1815. She died alone, in poverty, at St. Cloud, outside Paris in 1816, and was buried there.