[2] He was a son of Benjamin and Lydia (née Wright) Jordan and, through his father, was directly descended from the Rev.

Robert Jordan, a clergyman of the Church of England who came to America and settled in what is now the state of Maine in about the year 1640.

[1] Jordan clerked for two years in the dry goods store of William P. Tenney & Co. before working for another merchant named Pratt.

At age nineteen, one of Boston's leading merchants, Joshua Stetson, "appreciated his ability, and offered to assist him in starting business on his own account.

[14] His daughter Alice Foster built All Saints' Church, Brockhampton as a memorial to her parents; completed in 1902, it was the work of the Arts & Crafts pioneer W. R. Lethaby.