He was the son of Henry Donaldson Jordan, a professor of 19th-century British and American politics at Clark University, and Lucretia Mott Churchill, great-great-granddaughter of the Quaker abolitionists and women's rights advocates James and Lucretia Coffin Mott.
The son of Henry Donaldson Jordan, a professor specializing in 19th-century British and American politics at Clark University, was also the child of Lucretia Mott Churchill, a descendant of prominent Quaker abolitionists and women's rights advocates James and Lucretia Coffin Mott.