by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

Augusta FitzClarence was born on November 17, 1803, at Bushy House in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. She was the eighth of ten children and the fourth of the five daughters of the future King William IV of the United Kingdom and his mistress Dorothea Jordan. Augusta’s paternal grandparents were King George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Francis Bland, a stagehand, and his mistress Grace Phillips, an actress, were his maternal grandparents.

From 1790 until 1811, before he became king, King William IV of the United Kingdom had a long-term relationship with actress Dorothea Jordan. Their relationship resulted in ten children who were given the surname FitzClarence. The surname comes from the Anglo-Norman word  Fitz, meaning “son of” and Clarence, from King William IV’s title before he became king, Duke of Clarence.

Dorothea Jordan was born Dorothea Bland was born in County Waterford, Ireland, the daughter of Francis Bland, a stagehand, and his mistress Grace Phillips, an actress. Her mother encouraged Dorothea to enter the theater, and within a few years, she began to draw large crowds for her performances. She left Ireland in 1782 and moved to Leeds, England. It was at this point that she took the name Jordan. She performed for three years with the York Company, before being lured away in 1785 to move to the Royal Theatre, Drury Lane in London. By then, Dorothea was becoming a very popular performer and could be counted on to bring large crowds every night. It was at Drury Lane that her life would come to the attention of The Duke of Clarence several years later.

Augusta’s parents The Duke of Clarence (later King William IV) and Dorothea Jordan; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1790, Dorothea was first noticed by The Duke of Clarence (later King William IV) while performing at Drury Lane. They quickly began an affair that would last for the next 21 years. Dorothea moved in with the Duke at his home, Clarence Lodge in Roehampton, London, England and later they moved to Bushy House in Bushy Park in Richmond upon Thames, London, England.

In 1797, King George III of the United Kingdom appointed his third son William, then Duke of Clarence, the ranger of Bushy Park. The position came with the residence Bushy House in Bushy Park. William and Dorothea lived there with their ten children until their relationship ended in 1811. William continued living there with his children and later with his wife Adelaide of Saxe-Meinigen after they married in 1818.

The children of King William IV and Dorothea Jordan had an elder half-brother, William Henry Courtney, born around 1788 to an unknown mother, and named after his father whose given names were William Henry. Dorothea Jordan cared for William Henry, and she was fond of him and he was fond of her. William Henry served in the Royal Navy from 1803 until 1807 when his ship HMS Blenheim was lost in a gale off Madagascar. Despite an extensive search, no trace of the ship was ever found. 590 men were lost aboard HMS Blenheim, including King William IV’s eldest illegitimate son nineteen-year-old William Henry Courtney.

Nine of the ten children of King William IV and Dorothea Jordan were named after nine of William’s fourteen siblings. That one child was named Henry, William IV’s middle name.

Augusta’s nine siblings:

• George FitzClarence, 1st Earl of Munster (1794 – 1842), married Mary Wyndham, had seven children
• Henry Edward FitzClarence (1795 – 1817), unmarried, died at age 22
• Sophia FitzClarence (1796 – 1837), married Philip Sidney, 1st Baron De L’Isle and Dudley, had four children
• Mary FitzClarence (1798 – 1864), married Charles Fox, no children
• Frederick FitzClarence (1799 – 1854), married Lady Augusta Boyle, had two children
• Elizabeth FitzClarence (1801 – 1856), married William George Hay, 18th Earl of Erroll, had four children
• Adolphus FitzClarence (1802 – 1856), unmarried
• Augustus FitzClarence (1805 – 1854), married Sarah Elizabeth Gordon, had six children
• Amelia FitzClarence (1807-1858), married Lucius Bentinck Cary, 10th Viscount Falkland, had one son

William and Dorothea’s children married into the British aristocracy and their many descendants include some notable people including sisters Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife and Princess Maud, Countess of Southesk (granddaughters of King Edward VII and daughters of Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, a descendant of Dorothea Jordan and King William IV), Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich (British diplomat, Cabinet member, author), John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute (also known as Johnny Dumfries, racing driver), and David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

By 1811, William was pressured by his family to find a suitable wife. At the time he was fourth in line for the throne following his elder brother The Prince of Wales, the future King George IV, George’s only child Princess Charlotte of Wales, and George’s next oldest brother who was childless Prince Frederick, Duke of York. William gave in to the pressure and ended his relationship with Dorothea but ensured she was well provided for. William became closer to the throne when his niece Princess Charlotte died in 1817 giving birth to a stillborn son. When King George IV died in 1830, William succeeded to the throne. Although William had ten children with Dorothea Jordan, his marriage with Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen produced no surviving children. King William IV was succeeded by his niece Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria had relationships with her first cousins, King William IV’s illegitimate children. They are mentioned in Queen Victoria’s diaries when visiting Windsor Castle.

Augusta and her siblings had little contact with their mother Dorothea Jordan after 1811 when their father ended his relationship with her. After losing much of her savings when Augusta and her husband ran up large debts in her name, Dorothea’s health quickly began to decline. Virtually penniless, Dorothea Jordan died in Saint-Cloud, France on July 5, 1816, at the age of 54. She is buried in the local cemetery in Saint-Cloud.

From 1819 – 1822, Baron Franz Ludwig von Bibra was engaged to tutor Augusta and her younger sister Amelia in the classics and English. On July 5, 1827, Augusta married The Honorable John Kennedy-Erskine, a younger son of Archibald Kennedy, 1st Marquess of Ailsa, and Margaret Erskine. John served as a captain with the 16th Lancers and was appointed an equerry to King William IV in 1830. John Kennedy-Erskine died on March 6, 1831 at the age of twenty-eight. Augusta was pregnant with her third child was born two months after her father died.

Augusta and John had three children:

• William Kennedy-Erskine (1828 – 1870), married Catherine Jones, had three children including writer Violet Jacob
• Wilhelmina Kennedy-Erskine (1830 – 1906, married her first cousin William FitzClarence, 2nd Earl of Munster, had nine children, Wilhelmina was a novelist and short story writer, writing under the title the Countess of Munster
• Augusta Kennedy-Erskine (1831 – 1895), married James Hay Erskine Wemyss, had five children

The widowed Augusta and her children lived in a brick house on the River Thames called Railshead, next door to a house owned by her late husband’s parents. King William often visited his daughter and grandchildren there and they would often visit the king at Windsor Castle.

Five years after her husband’s death, on August 24, 1836, Augusta married Lord Frederick Gordon-Hallyburton, the third son of George Gordon, 9th Marquess of Huntly and Catherine Cope. Frederick had a career in the Royal Navy and would become Admiral of the Navy in 1868, three years after Augusta’s death. Augusta and Frederick did not have any children.

After her second marriage, Augusta continued living at Railshead, next door to her first husband’s parents. They were angered by Augusta’s second marriage and forced Augusta and Frederick to leave Railshead. Augusta asked her father King William IV for help. He gave her apartments at Kensington Palace and the position of State Housekeeper of Kensington Palace, a position held by her recently deceased sister Sophia. Just a few months after Augusta and her family settled at Kensington Palace, her father died on June 20, 1837, and Augusta’s first cousin Queen Victoria came to the throne.

In 1841, Frederick was elected to Parliament for Forfarshire in Scotland and remained in Parliament until 1852. He also served as Deputy Lieutenant for Forfarshire. In 1847, Augusta and Frederick embarked on a three-year trip to Europe, visiting Germany, France, and Italy. When they returned in 1850, they resumed residence at Kensington Palace. On April 17, 1855, Augusta’s daughters married in a double wedding.

On December 8, 1865, at Hallyburton House in Kettins, Angusshire, Scotland, Augusta died at the age of sixty-two. She was buried at Duns Cemetery in Duns, Scotland. Her husband Frederick survived her by nearly thirteen years, dying on September 29, 1878, aged seventy-nine.

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Works Cited

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