339

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The administration to Mrs. Jordan's effects-Announcement of dividend―These proceedings explained-Mr. Barton explains in a letter dated 1824-The author's opinion of that document-The document itself-Some remarks upon it inserted impartially, rather than from any impression in their favour.

THE first measure after Mrs. Jordan's death, was the administration to her effects. As she died in France intestate, the King's solicitor, ex officio, collected them. Accordingly letters of administration to Mrs. J.'s effects were taken out at Doctors' Commons, by the Treasury solicitor, 24th May, 1817, and the property sworn to be under 3001.

But it was not until nearly seven years had elapsed, that any thing like a settlement of her affairs could be announced to her creditors. However, on the 8th of December, 1823, the following advertisement appeared in the Morning Post, and I suppose in other journals :

"DOROTHEA Jordan, deceased. The creditors of Dorothea Jordan, late of Englefield-green, and Cadogan-place, Sloanestreet, in the County of Middlesex, spinster, deceased, who have proved their debts, may receive a dividend of five shillings in the pound, by applying at the office of the Solicitor to the Treasury, No. 5, Stone-buildings, Lincoln's-inn. And those creditors who have not yet proved their debts, are requested forthwith to furnish the Solicitor of the Treasury with proof thereof."

This payment having oeen cons.rued into a composition, and made the pretence of a fierce and calumnious attack upon a ROYAL PERSONAGE, it was very properly denounced and confuted in the following article, and the friends of the noble Duke invited to vindicate his character from such assaults, which became credited, because they were not from authority contradicted.

“A paragraph is now in progress through the newspapers, stating that the debts of this lamented and interesting lady have been compounded for five shillings in the pound, which is now in course of payment. This statement is not correct: Mrs.

Jordan died intestate in France; the consequence of which is, her property vests in the crown, and it has become the duty of the King's solicitor to collect her effects, and apply them in the first instance to the payment of her debts. He has done this, and announced a payment to the extent stated. This is the fact, but it is not a composition of the lady's debts; the same course would be adopted in the case of any other British subject dying abroad intestate. But perhaps it would not have been necessary to notice the misrepresentation, were it not for the use to which it is applied by some of the public prints, in which it is made the ground of a bitter invective against a royal personage, formerly connected with that interesting female, by many dear and intimate ties. Nothing can be more unfounded than the charge, in which it is stated that she was left totally unprovided-to pine and die in want in a foreign land. Mrs. Jordan enjoyed an income of 2,0007. a year, settled upon her by the royal Duke. It was paid quarterly at Coutts's bank, in the Strand; and the last quarter, which did not become due until after her death, was received by a lady, formerly a gover

ness at Bushy, and afterwards resident with her as a companion in France, who came over to London for the purpose. But the report of the total abandonment and destitution of Mrs. Jordan is not new; it has been so long and frequently reported, and suffered to pass without contradiction, it is now received as truth in every circle. That it has not been noticed by some of the friends of the royal personage aspersed, may excite surprise. We feel it our duty, however, to expose the misrepresentation, without regard to the wishes of the friends of his Royal Highness. The exposure is due to the cause of truth, it is due to the country which has an interest in the character of the illustrious individual so near to the throne, which could not belong to the case of a subject, however important, of inferior rank ”

At length Mr. Barton, of the Royal Mint, took upon himself the task of doing justice to his illustrious master-stating the actual provision he had made for Mrs. Jordan, and the female children by her. Mrs. Jordan's own avowal to the same effect -the settlement of every thing in the shape of a money transaction between the Duke and herself,

He

He

with interest up to the time, the payment of the balance to Mrs. Jordan, by himself, and the taking from her an acknowledgment for the same. then proceeds to detail the renewal of Mrs. Jordan's correspondence with him, and the communication of what she had suffered from a relation. publishes her own letters, and they will be read with the deepest interest. He notices the alteration made by her death in the Duke's arrangements, and states that his bounty conferred what he no longer was pledged to continue. It is an admirable

document.

"Sir,

"THE LATE MRS. JORDAN.

(( TO THE EDITOR.

"The attention of the public has lately, as it has many times before, been drawn, by notices in the daily papers, to the case of the late Mrs. Jordan, and much pains have been taken to stigmatise the conduct of an illustrious personage, as it relates to that celebrated and much esteemed favourite of the public. These censures upon the