Jordan, Richard, 1756-1826

Richard Jordan was a well-traveled Quaker minister who lived in Virginia, North Carolina, and New Jersey, and who traveled in Europe from 1800 to 1802. Jordan was born in Norfolk County, Virginia, to Joseph and Patience Jordan, on 19 December 1756. In 1786 the family moved to Rich Square, North Carolina. Jordan eventually married Pharaby Knox, and the couple settled on a farm near his parents. In 1781 he began to speak in the ministry and made visits to other Quakers in North Carolina. In 1797 he visited Northern states in his capacity as a minister, often calling upon goverment officials to procure justice for African Americans. In 1800 his calling as a minister took him across the Atlantic. For two years he traveled through England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Holland, and France, returning home in 1802. In 1804 Jordan and his wife moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where he bore testimony against a disorganizing spirit among New England Quakers, but after 5 years the couple moved again, this time to Newton, New Jersey. Jordan died there in October 1826 in his 70th year. He visited in his ministerial capacity every yearly meeting of the Society of Friends then in existence