Author: Jordan, John
Biography:
JORDAN, John (1746-1809: ODNB)
John Jordan, born and raised as a wheelwright, made himself into a useful, if sometimes credulous, historian of Stratford and of Shakespeare. The primary source for his life is the “sketch” provided along with a frontispiece portrait in the second edition of his only poem, Welcombe Hills. Typically for the author, it contains some scholarly apparatus (notes) and acknowledges the contributions made by friends more learned than himself. He was the eldest of six children of John and Elizabeth (Lock) Jordan, born at Tiddington, Warwickshire, on 9 Oct. 1746, and educated at the village school. The family moved in 1759 to Stratford. John followed his father’s trade and took over the business upon the death of the latter in 1775. But he keenly pursued his literary interests and is said to have composed an address for Garrick’s Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769. His first marriage, to the widow Elizabeth Castle, which took place at Wellsbourne, Warwickshire, on 1 Dec. 1772, ended with her death in 1775. (ODNB is mistaken about a marriage in 1783 in Birmingham.) He then married another widow, Sarah Dadley, at Loxley on 23 Dec. 1777; with her he had at least three children. The impressive subscription list for the first edition of his poem in 1777 indicates that he was already well known in the area. He is reported to have sometimes performed Shakespearean parts and to have led Shakespearean tours of Stratford, often embellishing or simply making up entertaining stories. But the great scholar Edmond Malone (1741-1812) evidently liked him and tried to help him with a subscription when his business failed in the late 1780s. Jordan collected materials for historical studies of Stratford and Shakespeare but was unable to bring them to a publishable state; that was done for him posthumously in editions by James Orchard Halliwell in 1864 and 1865. Jordan died at Stratford on 22 June 1809 and was buried, by his own request, in the churchyard behind the Shakespeare Monument. According to Wheler his wife had died on 8 Apr. 1798, but no confirming record has been found. (ODNB 27 Dec. 2024; findmypast.com 27 Dec. 2024; R. B. W. [Robert Bell Wheler], “Biographical Sketch of the Author,” Welcombe Hills [1827] ix-xiv; Goodridge) HJ