Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jordan, Joseph
JORDAN, Sir JOSEPH (1603–1685), vice-admiral, was probably related to John Jourdain [q. v.], president of the English factories in the East Indies, slain there in June 1619 (Cal. State Papers, East Indies, 3 May 1620). The arms on his monument show that he belonged to London (Clutterbuck, Hist. and Antiq. of Hertfordshire, ii. 368; Berry, Encyclopædia Heraldica, vol. ii. s.n. ‘Jor- dayne’), and that he possessed considerable landed property appears from his will (in Somerset House, Cann, 73). There is, however, no mention of him in the public service till 1642, when he successively commanded the Penington and Cæsar on the coast of Ireland and in the summer guard. In 1643 he was in the Expedition as rear-admiral of the squadron on the Irish coast under Swanley, and he continued in the same ship on similar service till 1648, when he threw up his command and accompanied the seceders to Holland, but apparently in a purely private capacity (Penn, i. 269; see Batten, Sir William). Afterwards, making his peace with the parliament, he returned to England, and was admitted again into their service. In September 1650 he was named as captain of the Pelican, for the winter guard and to attend the army in Scotland; but in November the Pelican was attached to the squadron sent to the Mediterranean, returning to England in March 1652 [see Penn, Sir William]. During the first year of the Dutch war Jordan was unemployed; it was not till after the battle off Portland (18 Feb. 1652–3) that he was appointed to the Vanguard, in which, as vice-admiral of the blue squadron, under the immediate command of Admiral (afterwards Sir John) Lawson [q. v.], he took part in the battles of 2–3 June and 29–31 July 1653, and for his services on these days received the gold chain and medal granted to the flag officers. In the last of these battles the Vanguard was so shattered that, after some delay, Jordan was turned over to the George, in which, in 1654, he accompanied Blake as rear-admiral of the fleet which scoured the Mediterranean, reduced the pirates of Tunis and Algiers, and blockaded Cadiz [see Blake, Robert]. He returned to England with Blake in October 1655.
In 1664, when the second Dutch war was imminent, he was re-admitted into the king's service, on the representation of Sir William Penn (Penn, ii. 294), and appointed captain of his old ship, the St. George. He took part in her in the battle of 3 June 1665, till, on Sir John Lawson being wounded, he was specially sent by the Duke of York to take command of the Royal Oak, and, according to Pepys, ‘did brave things in her’ (Diary, 8 June 1665). On the return of the fleet he was knighted, 1 July, and appointed rear-admiral of the white squadron. In the ‘four days' fight’ (1–4 June 1666) he was with the Duke of Albemarle as rear-admiral of the red squadron, and in consideration of his gallant service was appointed vice-admiral of the red, which command he held in the battle of 25 July. In 1667 he had command of a squadron of small vessels at Harwich, and made repeated attempts to disturb the Dutch fleet when it was lying in the mouth of the Thames after its successful attack on the ships in the Medway. Nothing, however, of any importance was effected, on account, it was alleged, of bad weather, want of boats, and the superior vigilance of the Dutch (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 29 June, 27 July, 3 Aug. 1667; Pepys, 29 July). During the peace he was for some little time captain of the Victory and of the Henry, and in 1672 was appointed vice-admiral of the blue squadron, with his flag in the Sovereign, and led the van of the fleet into action at Solebay on 28 May [see Montagu, Edward, first Earl of Sandwich]. The Sovereign and some of the other leading ships afterwards forced their way to windward of the Dutch, and tacked to the southward, thus placing the enemy between two fires and relieving the Duke of York, then closely pressed by De Ruyter. It was afterwards said that in doing this Jordan sacrificed Sandwich, to whom, as the admiral of the blue squadron, he was more especially bound. It appears, however, well established that he was acting in obedience to a special order from Sandwich, and also that at the time the commander-in-chief was in urgent need of support, the admiral of the blue was not; it was not till later, when her captain was below, having his wound dressed, that the Royal James was grappled by the fatal fireship [see Haddock, Sir Richard].
Owing to his advanced age, and not, as has been suggested, in consequence of his desertion of his admiral, Jordan did not go to sea again. ‘In consideration of his many and faithful services,’ and ‘as a mark of the royal favour and bounty,’ he was granted the unusually liberal pension of 500l. per annum (Addit. MS. 28937, f. 201), which he held till his death in 1685. In his will, dated 9 May 1685 (proved in London 12 June), he describes himself as ‘of Hatfield Woodside in the parish of Bishop's Hatfield in the county of Hertford, being in perfect memory … considering my thread of life, by reason of my great age, is almost spun out to the latter end of my days.’ The bulk of the property he left to his eldest son, Joseph, with provision for his wife, Dame Mary Jordan; and his second son, Hartoake [sic], still a minor. A son, Lake, born in 1666 (Lysons, Environs of London, iv. 125), would seem to have died before him; he is not named in the will. Jordan was buried within the communion rails of Hatfield parish church, beneath a stone, since removed in the course of so-called restoration, which recorded that he died on 2 June 1685, in the eighty-second year of his age (Chauncy, Hist. Antiq. of Hertfordshire, p. 312 b). His portrait, by Sir Peter Lely (Pepys, 18 April 1666), is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. i. 108; Granville Penn's Memorials of the Life of Sir William Penn, freq.; Cal. State Papers, Dom.]