The preliminary work on the Timelines of the Regency Era has now been presented. 50 years of happenings, events, births and deaths of prominent figures. It is not over. There are probably a good thousand more events to be recorded. In fact, at this point only those details through 1802 have been added into the Timeline.
The rest takes a great deal of editing, as well as searching and placing the graphics. The first years of 1787 to 1801 can all be found at Regency Assembly Press’ Timeline page
There are a lot of pictures shown there. It will add to your visualization of the Regency. But now, what to include in my daily posts. For months now we have had something new every day, and by the number of hits we are not getting, there is a small following.
Soon we will have an Edwardian Timeline, but for now, Regency Personalities is something I have thought to start on.
Over the next few days I thought it might be useful for me to have a guide.
Amongst other royalty and notables will be:
Maria Fitzherbert
Lord Byron
Shelley
Keats
Lady Caroline Lamb
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
Charles James Fox
William Wilberforce
Thomas Clarkson
Hannah More
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Edmund Kean
John Phillip Kemble
John Burgoyne
Harriet Mellon
Mary Robinson
Wellington (the Military man)
Nelson
Howe
St. Vincent
Packenham
General Banastre Tarleton
Henry Paget
Stapleton Cotton
Thomas Picton
Constable
Lawrence
Cruikshank
Gillray
Rowlandson
Patronesses of Almacks
Emily Lamb, Lady Cowper
Amelia Stewart, Viscountess Castlereagh
Sarah Villiers, Countess of Jersey
Maria Molyneux, Countess of Sefton
Mrs. Drummond Burrell
Dorothea Lieven, Countess de Lieven, wife of the Russian Ambassador
Countess Esterhazy, wife of the Austrian Ambassador
Previous Notables (Click to see the Blog):
Today, the next personality of our period, Dorothea Jordan, mistress of William IV. Much of this is work I have done for the English Historical Fiction Authors, of which I am a member of.
Dorothea Jordan
November 21st 1761 to July 5th 1816
This is my favorite of the mistresses of the sons of George III, for with ten children, this was a true marriage between successful people. Dorothea Bland was the daughter of a stagehand and an actress, theater people, and when thirteen, her father left her mother and four other siblings for another actress.
Dorothea thus went into the family business and became famous, known to have the most beautiful legs on stage of the day. There was no Mister Jordan, as the other ladies of the royals were married prior to catching a Prince. She did have an affair with the manager of the Theater Royal, Cork, Richard Daly and had a daughter when she was twenty, named Frances.
Then in England, she had an affair with an army Lieutenant named Charles Doyne. He proposed but she went to work for the theater company operated by Tate Wilkinson. This is when she took the name Mrs. Jordan. After Wilkinson, she had an affair with George Inchbald. She would have married Inchbald, but he did not ask. In 1786, she began an affair with Sir Richard Ford, who promised to marry her. They had three children together. When she realized that Ford was never going to wed her, she traded up to William.
She began her affair with William in 1791 and moved in with him at Bushy House.
They raised their ten children there for the next twenty years. Sounds like a marriage to me. While married she contented to act, and also made public appearances with the Duke. William had been rather sexually active in his youth but once with Mrs. Jordan he was dedicated to her, and then when he married Adelaide, he transferred his affections to his new wife. As an actress during this period she became a favorite of the public which included Jane and Cassandra Austen.
After twenty years Dorothea and William separated, William having to enter the Matrimonial Marathon and William gave her a yearly stipend. William and Dorothea’s eldest son George was made the 1st Earl of Munster, so that family can trace their roots to Dorothea.
Dorothea raised the girls and he took custody of his sons. For his dignity, he asked that she not return to the stage to continue to receive her stipend. When one of her son-in-laws came into debt and needed funds, she did return to the stage to raise the necessary monies. William then cut her off and took back care of their daughters.
Now broke, she fled to France in 1815 and died a year later in poverty. Her descendants include many of the famous. One is David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as of this posting.
What a very sad ending.