William IV, Mrs. Jordan, and the Family They Made
by Daniel A. Willis
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Daniel A. Willis
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 2: Dorothy Bland, aka Mrs. Jordan
Chapter 7: The Crichton-Stuarts
Chapter 9: The Kennedy-Erskines
Preface
In recent decades, we have seen a great loosening of the restrictions against whom a member of the Royal Family may marry. All of the children of our current Queen have married, with permission, commoners, some more than once. This is a relatively recent change in attitude. It was only as recently as the children of the King George V, that marriage to a foreign Princess was not required for a son of the King.
Imagine for a moment if this more relaxed attitude had been in effect in 1790, and William, Duke of Clarence, third son of King George III, were allowed to marry the woman with whom he chose to live in domestic bliss. Had this happened, the lady we currently call Queen Elizabeth II, would be merely Mrs. Philip Mountbatten, and the Sovereign would be the relatively unknown man now known as Patrick Elborough.
But who is Patrick Elborough you may ask? He is the heir-general, albeit through an illegitimate line, of King William IV and his 20-year paramour, Dorothea Bland (aka Mrs. Jordan, the actress). But Mr. Elborough is only one of roughly 900 people who descend from this union of Prince and Actress. This book will seek to introduce the reader to the rest of them.
Other prominent figures who will appear in these pages include the current Prime Minister, David Cameron; television presenter, Adam Hart-Davis; his literarily well-known father, Sir Rupert; a recent Grand Master of the Sovereign Order of Malta as well as the current Grand Prior of England; race-car driver Johnny (7th Marquess of) Bute; and a flurry of statesman, nobles, and maybe even a royal or two.
Every effort has been made to verify every fact mentioned in this book. There will be, without a doubt, errors. They are the nature of the beast when covering large numbers of people and more than 200 years of a family. For these, please accept my apologies at this time.
Daniel Willis
Denver, Colorado
March, 2011
Chapter 1: King William IV
On August 21, 1765, the world was on the brink of great change. The Holy Roman Emperor, husband of the remarkable Empress Maria Theresa, had died a few days previously. Mozart was changing the way the world viewed music. And the British parliament was about to pass the Stamp Act on the American Colonies, which proved to be the catalyst for the movement that culminated in the War of American Independence.
It was into this world that Britain’s Queen Charlotte, with little fanfare, was delivered of a third healthy son, to be named William Henry. By this point, George III already had his “heir and a spare” in his older boys, George (later King George IV) and Frederick (later Duke of York), so while a third son was no less welcome, he was also not nearly as prized as the elder two. In time, the King and Queen would become the parents of fifteen children, all but two of whom would survive to adulthood.
Prince William’s early childhood was spent in almost constant companionship with his elder brothers at Kew House, some eleven miles up the Thames from Westminster. In 1772, the elder boys were given establishments of their own so William’s education took place with his next younger brother, Edward (later Duke of Kent and father of Queen Victoria). Dr. Majendie, a Hugenot descendant from Exeter, had originally been given the job of governor for all of the young princes, but when they were separated, he remained with William and Edward. Majendie was assisted by General Bude, a Dutchman whose rank derived from military experience in the offices of high command rather than on the battlefield proper.
King George lived a rather austere life, especially when compared to the opulent courts of Versailles, Madrid, or Vienna. He expected the same frugality of his children. Meals were often simple but nourishing and outdoor exercise was plentiful. Discipline was the order of the day. The children were usually not permitted to sit in their parents’ presence, and outfits were to be meticulously cared for, as was their own personal appearance. In a day when children of the upper crust were generally kept out of sight of their parents, King George and Queen Charlotte actually gave a lot of attention to their children, and seem to have genuinely enjoyed their company, at least while they were young.
As Prince William grew, a problem developed: what to do with him. The eldest son’s path in life was destined from birth, the second son typically was given over to the military, but a surviving third son was something of an anomaly in the Royal Family. King George himself had two younger brothers, but was very disappointed in both and felt theirs were wasted lives. Now he was faced with finding things to occupy six sons as Edward was followed by Ernest, Augustus and Adolphus. William was his first foray into this uncharted water of healthy younger sons. As it had already been determined that Frederick would pursue a career in the Army, William was given over to the Navy. This turned out to be a splendid match as William’s temperament was well suited for a life at sea.
Midshipman William Guelph, as he preferred to be called, took his name from the ancient House to which his family belonged before their acquisition of Brunswick, and later Hanover, centuries earlier. It was a rather amazing piece of history that allowed the Hanovers to arrive at the British Throne at all. During the reign of the Tudors in the 16th century, many a battle was fought over the question of religion. It was, of course, Henry VIII, who had established the Church of England, and his children who battled royally over whether it should be a Catholic Church or a Protestant one. The Anglican form of Protestantism won out in the end and was pretty firmly established by the time James II ascended the Throne in 1685. However, James was married to the very Catholic Maria of Modena, and his heirs were being brought up as Catholics.
The parliament of the day was determined the Realm would remain Protestant, and so invited the King’s son-in-law, the Prince of Orange, to overthrow James in the name of his wife Mary, who was James’ eldest daughter by his first, and more importantly, Protestant, wife, Anne Hyde. The Prince staged what is remembered to history as the Glorious Revolution of 1688, placing himself and his wife jointly on the Throne as King William III and Queen Mary II. It was during William’s reign that parliament passed the Act of Settlement, which established that the Kingdom would be ruled by a non-Catholic Sovereign forevermore. Under the new law, the Crown passed from William (whose wife Mary had predeceased him) to Anne, Mary's younger sister. Upon Queen Anne’s death in 1714, dozens of Catholics were passed over to find a religiously appropriate heir.
Ultimately the Crown went to the descendants of James I’s youngest daughter, Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia, whose youngest surviving daughter, Sophia, was married to the Elector of Hanover. The Electress Sophia missed becoming Queen herself by dying a mere two weeks before Queen Anne. Therefore, it was Sophia’s eldest son who ascended the British Throne, as King George I, and was the great-grandfather of George III.
By the time Prince William joined the Navy in 1779, a mere lad of not quite fourteen, the Hanovers had successfully ruled the Kingdom for 65 years and crushed the last dregs of support for the Catholic descendants of King James II (called Jacobites). The pressing military matter of the day was the War of American Independence, still being waged across the Atlantic. The Prince’s first taste of Navy life was aboard the HMS Prince George, a 98-gun warship, which joined the battle in America.
Much of William’s naval career was spent carrying out the more mundane day-to-day tasks necessary to maintaining a ship at sea. He took to these chores with delight and insisted on being treated as any other midshipman and not as a Prince. However, being the son of the King, this could be accomplished only to a degree. Being as young as he was, William continued to have a tutor, even on shipboard. He was accompanied at sea by Rev. Henry Majendie, the son of his childhood governor at Kew House.
Once arriving at America, William’s ship was briefly docked at New York, then still in the hands of loyalists. There were reports that Gen. George Washington was plotting to kidnap the Prince, and offer to make him King of a newly independent country. Looking at the situation with the 20/20 vision that hindsight offers, it seems more likely this plan was suggested to Washington by some of his officers, but that it was rejected. Just as well, as it would have been out of character for William to even entertain such a conspiratorial notion.
After a year and a half of two-to-three month cruises, broken up by brief visits to Kew, Prince William found himself at Windsor in time for the Christmas holidays of 1780. It had been during his time at sea that one of the greatest trials that a man faces hit full force: puberty. Now being on land, and no doubt prompted by his womanizing elder brothers, William had the opportunity to discover the opposite sex. For the next several years, the Prince would fall in and out of love with women of varying degrees of propriety, but none of which came close to the standards to be an appropriate wife. Therefore, William lived two love lives, one of properly conducted courtly pursuit, without capture, of nice girls and another of downright debauchery, reserved for the prostitutes of various ports-of-call. It became all too apparent to the King that William was following in the steps of his elder brothers in his love of sex, so it was decided to keep William at sea as much as possible.
For all of this time at sea, and not having seen much action during the war with the United States, William was not advancing in rank very fast. The King, in his efforts to control the amount of time William was on land, purposely held him back. This finally came to a head in 1790, when William demanded, unsuccessfully, his own command and ultimately resigned from the Navy, ironically being promoted to Rear-Admiral upon his retirement.
Having been created the Duke of Clarence the year previously, William now began living a life of courts and balls, along with many other members of his family. This included incursions into Parliament, usually defending the payment of the Prince of Wales’s ever increasing debts. William’s financial issues were never as severe as his eldest brother’s, but he lived in debt much of his single life. He was a very generous man and insisted on his guests always being as comfortable as possible. This comfort usually came at a price higher than his stipend from Parliament allowed.
This fateful winter of 1789-90 was momentous for another reason. It was the season William met the celebrated actress, Mrs. Jordan, which was the stage name of Dorothea Bland. Within the year a full fledged affair had begun, and their first child, George, was born in 1794. Over the course of the next sixteen years, Dora, as she was known to her intimates, would produce another nine children for the Duke, who were all duly recognized and surnamed FitzClarence.
William very happily settled into a comfortable domestic life with Dora and the children. This unorthodox family, which included Dora’s children from previous relationships, melded into a blissful tribe, centered at Bushy Park, on the grounds of Hampton Palace. Bushy Park would be William’s residence for the next twenty years. The subsequent chapters of this book will be devoted to Dora, the FitzClarence clan, and their descendants.
William’s post-Dora life had further adventures. A short time after the birth of their last child, William faced, in addition to his approaching 50th birthday, what we now would call a “mid-life crisis,” complete with the wandering eye, and less resistance of the body to follow. There was also pressure from his family to find a royal wife. By this point, there was only one eligible British grandchild of King George III to succeed to the Throne: Princess Charlotte of Wales. The remainder of the grandchildren were either illegitimate or members of foreign royal houses. William and Dora had an amicable break-up. Legal papers were drawn up to ensure proper care of the children, and it was all finalized by early 1812. Dora only lived on until 1815, dying impoverished, mostly due to her own generosity, in the south of France.
In 1817, a tragedy occurred which caused all of the royal brothers to step up the pace towards the altar. Princess Charlotte of Wales, only child of the Prince Regent (after 1820, King George IV) died, along with her baby, in childbirth. This event placed William directly in the crosshairs to become King, as his second eldest brother, the Duke of York, was childless and married to a Duchess who had passed child-bearing age.
The quest for a Princess to wed was slow and tedious. William, now 52, and already with a family of ten illegitimate children, was not a prize catch for young Princesses who were still chaste and pure. Arrangements were finally made, with significant help from all of his family, for him to marry the 25-year-old Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. And just for good measure, the 1818 wedding would be a double ceremony with his next younger brother, the Duke of Kent, who had picked as his bride the widowed Princess of Leiningen, born Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg. To round out the marriages of the sons of George III, the Duke of Cumberland married, in 1815, their first cousin, Duchess Frederica of Mecklenburg. The youngest surviving son, the Duke of Cambridge, married Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel only a few days before William’s marriage. The next to youngest son, the Duke of Sussex, proved to be the marital black sheep of the family. He entered into two alliances which did not conform to the Royal Marriages Act, therefore being declared illegal. Both would-be brides were from the British nobility and were perfectly nice ladies, but King George (and later William himself) would not grant permission for a marriage to a non-royal.
The new Duchess of Cambridge was immediately accepting of the large brood of FitzClarences which now lived with their father, their mother already being dead. It is probably good that William had so many children on which Adelaide could lavish her love and care, since her own children both died as newborns. In later years, all of William’s children would remark on the extraordinary efforts made by their step-mother to make them feel loved, and to be sure they were properly introduced into society. The Queen, as Adelaide became in 1837, also helped her step-children find and make appropriate matches.
Old George III finally died in 1820, having long since been locked up as a lunatic, followed by his eldest son and heir, George IV, only ten years later. By the time of George IV’s death in 1830, the Duke of York was already dead, so the Throne fell to William. After 64 years of having his life controlled by his father and brother, William accepted the crown with maybe a tad more glee than was respectful of his dead brother. Nonetheless, the seven-year reign of William IV had begun.
King William IV had done so much living during his time as Prince, that his reign as King was somewhat anti-climatic, although there was one major piece of legislation passed due to the King’s direct influence. The Reform Bill of 1832 addressed what had become inequities in the country’s electoral system, a system that had been unchanged since Tudor days. But getting the Reform Bill passed was more of a challenge than anyone had anticipated. William was faced with several difficult choices regarding Parliament during this period which led him to dissolve it at one point for fresh elections, and at another point, to personally admonish the House of Lords on their failure to pass the Reform Bill. Other laws passed during his reign, though without his personal input, were the abolition of slavery in the Colonies, and greater restrictions on child labor.
The year 1834 brought another round of disagreement between King and Parliament, and eventually the King dissolved parliament, again triggering new elections which did not go as the King had hoped. Parliament sent their choice of Prime Minister to the King, but he refused Lord Melbourne a second stint, instead selecting a Tory, Sir Robert Peel. Peel’s administration never had a chance, as Melbourne’s party was in control of the House of Commons. Ultimately Melbourne was restored as Prime Minister and continued as such for the remainder of William’s reign.
King William and Queen Adelaide spent much of their reign trying to develop a friendship with, and to mentor, his niece and heir, Princess Victoria of Kent. These efforts were thwarted by Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent. The Duchess, for her part, had always gone to great lengths to shield her daughter from her paternal uncles as she viewed them all as lecherous old men. Though this assessment may have been accurate, the result lead to young Victoria ascending a Throne she was not groomed for. Fortunately, her ministers were well prepared for this situation, and she did just fine, having a Great Age of history named for her.
William IV died of a heart-attack, without much fuss or muss, just as he would have wanted, on the 20th of June, 1837, ending the Hanoverian era that had lasted since 1714. He was buried in the Royal Crypt at Windsor Castle where much of his family rests. Queen Adelaide lived on until the end of 1849. She was always remembered for the kindness she showed others, particularly her numerous step-children, and ever-growing army of step-grandchildren. Queen Victoria was always very fond of this aunt and remembered her when naming her own first daughter, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise (later the German Empress). Her subjects also remembered the Dowager Queen fondly and named Adelaide, Australia, that country’s only large interior city, after her.
Chapter 2: Dorothy Bland, aka Mrs. Jordan
If William IV was born into the pampered world of royalty, the mother of his surviving children was reared in the exact opposite. Dorothea “Dora” Bland was born in 1761 to parents whose own marriage was “everything but legal.” Her father, Francis Bland, had parents devoted to religious service and not willing to accept aspiring actress, Grace Phillips, into their family, so a marriage was never performed. Francis and Grace simply lived away from his family “as if married” for appearances sake.
Dora was the third child of the Bland household, having an elder brother, George, and sister, Hester. The total number of children born to Grace has not been accuturately recorded, but is believed to be in the ballpark of nine, the last of whom was born in early 1774. Most of this time was spent in Dublin, where Grace was able to find work acting on a more or less regular basis.
One of the great disadvantages of not having a marriage certificate is that one cannot legally force a spouse to remain with the family or remit compensation if he doesn’t. Thus, in 1774 Francis Bland left his “wife” and children, married an heiress and began a new family with the legal wife. Francis Bland did little to support his first family after this point, so it made little difference that he only lived four more years.
It was about this time that Dora began her own remarkable odyssey on the stage. She started in Dublin, following her mother’s path. Just to be working, she initially tried out for all sorts of productions, both tragedy and comedy, but early on showed a genuine talent for the comedic roles. She quickly found herself in lead roles and working in Dublin’s better theatres.
In 1780, Dora had the misfortune to begin performing in a theatre owned by Richard Daly. A year or so later, during their second season, he seduced her. It is generally accepted that this seduction was anything but romantic, with accounts ranging from what today would be called sexual harassment to outright rape. Whatever the true circumstances were, Dora removed herself from Daly’s presence as soon as she could manage it, but not before finding herself pregnant with his child. In due course, Dora’s first child, Frances, known as Fanny, was born.
Dora was an especially affectionate mother, but once Fanny reached adulthood, their relationship was stormy on the best of days. It is easy to imagine Dora resenting a child who was begotten in such an odious manner, but her biographers have generally agreed she made every effort to not punish Fanny for the crimes of her father.
Dora’s life after Richard Daly improved considerably. Moving back to England with her mother and siblings in tow, she found work in Yorkshire with a chain of theatres owned by Tate Wilkinson. It was he who named her “Mrs. Jordan.” The name was a biblical reference, just as she had crossed the water from Ireland to be free of Daly, it was as if she had crossed the River Jordan into a Promised Land. It was by this pseudonym that she would be known the rest of her life.
As her reputation as a great actress continued to blossom, she made, in 1785, the inevitable migration to London’s Drury Lane, then the center of the theatrical world. It was here that she met and fell in love with Richard Ford a year later. The next three years were to bring relative personal happiness, a successful and profitable professional life, and three more children: Dorothea “Dodee” in 1787, a baby boy who sadly only lived a few hours in 1788, and Lucy in 1789. However, 1789 also saw the beginning of a lot of change for Mrs. Jordan.
In July of that year, Dora’s devoted mother, Grace, passed away, leaving several of Dora’s siblings in her care in addition to the three children of her own to raise. She had tried for three long years to nail Richard down on the prospect of marriage but he always managed to escape the noose. And this was the year that she caught the eye of a royal admirer: Prince William, the Duke of Clarence.
The Duke soon began efforts to woo Dora, but kept a respectable distance in public, as she was generally thought of as married to Richard Ford. In the meanwhile, Dora stepped up her efforts to get the ever-elusive legal marriage from Richard. He continued to hesitate and finally Dora delivered an ultimatum in early 1791: the Duke wanted her and would have her if Ford wouldn’t marry her. Ford let her go.
From the get go, there was an understanding that William would never be able to marry Dora. He could and would be devoted and faithful to her, but the Royal Marriages Act made a marriage out of the question. Dora seems to have been very accepting of these conditions and soon moved in with the Duke. Prior to this arrangement, Dora had purchased a home in the Petersham district of London called Somerset House. It was here that the first two of her ten children with William would be born. The remainder were all born at Bushy House.
Bushy House was a royal residence that was provided for William in his titular role as Park Warden for Bushy Park, which is near Hampton Court. It was somewhat run down as it had been uninhabited for several years, but William and Dora set about putting it to rights and even adding a bit to the original buildings. Here, Dora again found herself in an “all but legal” marital relationship, now with the Duke.
Finances were always a major issue in Dora’s life, as well as William’s. When they got together, William was horribly in debt. This was mostly due to being a Prince. He was expected to entertain and live in a certain manner, one that was well outside the annual allowance Parliament was willing to provide. He often turned to his father for debt-relief, with mixed results. Dora, for her part, had been the primary money maker for much of her family, which included three children and three unwed sisters when she took up with the Duke. She also had cared for her mother until the latter’s death. Yet she demonstrated a good head for money and actually helped her royal lover get his own debt under control.
The Clarence household was generally buoyed by Dora’s continuing income as an actress. She continued to work through nearly the entirety of her relationship with William. If the Duke was not happy with this arrangement, he did not fuss about it. He was no doubt all too happy to have the income. As the family grew, this became even more important.
The Duke of Clarence and Mrs. Jordan would go on to have ten children together between 1794 and 1807, all surnamed FitzClarence. As the family continued to grow, and domestic bliss reigned supreme at Bushy House, even the most ardent opponents to this unorthodox royal arrangement were quelled. Dora began finding herself welcome in the highest social circles and often accompanied her lover to major social events. Even old King George III and Queen Charlotte came to appreciate the calming influence Dora had on their sometimes wayward son. They accepted these illegitimate grandchildren in their own way in private, but maintained a public distance in Court life.
Dora Jordan was well known to all as a devoted and loving mother. Nearly every farthing she earned went to their care, ultimately to her ruin. Between her and their royal father, the FitzClarence children received top-notch educations and, when their age dictated, were introduced into the best social circles. Some followed the Hanoverian tradition of being quarrelsome with their parents, but never to the point of a complete rupture within the family.
Eventually, Dora’s remaining sisters married and went off to live their own lives. Her brother George remained an active part of her life. Of her children born prior to meeting the Duke, Fanny Daly married Thomas Alsop, a general waste of the flesh and blood it took to make him; Dodee Ford married Fred Marsh, the conniving illegitimate son of Lord Henry FitzGerald, himself a son of the Duke of Leinster; and Lucy Ford married a Colonel Hawker, moving with him to his various posts throughout the Empire.
By 1811, four years after their final child was born, Prince William had become restless in this not-quite-legal domestic situation. It was increasingly apparent that there might be a real chance for him to ascend the Throne, despite being the third son. His elder brothers were in their fifties and not likely to father any more children with their wives, and only one child survived: Princess Charlotte, daughter of the eldest brother, George (later King George IV). Furthermore, pressure from his family to marry a foreign Princess and make more heirs was mounting. Finally he decided to split with Dora.
In December 1811, a formal arrangement of separation was drawn up, with an allowance going to Dora for herself and each of her younger children until they reached age 13, at which point they would go to live with William. One provision that seemed out of character for the Duke, and was likely insisted upon by the Regent’s advisors, required Dora to forfeit her allowance if she returned to the stage as a working actress. She had by this time been in a state of semi-retirement.
Dora left Bushy House in February 1812, having bought herself a house in Cadogan Place. Within the year, she found herself financially required to return to the stage giving up her allowance from William. She continued working until 1814, when she left the stage, never to return. Her last performance turned into an impromptu retirement party with the theatre packed to the rafters with well-wishers and not a dry eye in the house.
Unfortunately, even with her income from the stage, she could not keep up with her debts, many of which were created by her generosity to her children. Even though the older children were now married and theoretically on their own, she found she was usually still the one keeping them out of the poor house.
In 1815, she discovered her ne’er-do-well son-in-law, Fred Marsh had been spending her money and raising debt in her name. She soon found herself hounded by debt collectors for amounts she had no hope of paying off. She retained legal counsel to help with the debt situation and was advised to move to the Continent so the debt collectors could not reach her, and to allow her lawyers some time to gather proof that Fred had fraudulently been raising her debt.
She moved to Boulogne, France, her house and belongings having now been seized and auctioned off at well below their value. Little is recorded of her last months in France. She wrote to her children regularly, but the letters have not survived. Her health apparently deteriorated rapidly, and Dora Bland, known to the world as Mrs. Jordan, died in a very cheap rental on July 5th, 1816, aged 55, completely destitute and alone. What little she had left was sold off and her debts were paid at the rate of five shillings to the pound.