JOPPA, an ancient town and seaport, now Jaffa, on the coast of Palestine, 35 m.  NW. from Jerusalem; a place of note in sacred and mediaeval history; here Jonah took ship to Tarshish.

JORDAENS, JAKOB, a Dutch painter and engraver, born at Antwerp; was a friend of Rubens, and ranks next him among the Flemings (1615-1678).

JORDAN, a river of Palestine, which rises on the western side of Mount Hermon, and flows S. below Caesarea-Philippi within banks, after which it expands into lagoons that collect at length into a mass in Lake Merom (Huleh), 2 m. below which it plunges into a gorge and rushes on for 9 m. in a torrent, till it collects again in the Sea of Galilee to lose itself finally in the Dead Sea after winding along a distance of 65 m. as the crow flies; at its rise it is 1080 ft. above and at the Dead Sea 1300 ft. below the sea-level.

JORDAN, MRS. DOROTHEA, the stage name of Miss Bland, daughter of an actress, born at Waterford; played first in Dublin, then in Yorkshire, and appeared at Drury Lane in “The Country Girl” in 1785; her popularity was immense, and she maintained it for thirty years in the roles of boys and romping girls, her wonderful laugh winning lasting fame; she attained considerable wealth, and was from 1790 to 1811 the mistress of the Duke of Clarence, who, when William IV., ennobled her eldest son; she died, however, in humble circumstances in St. Cloud, near Paris (1762-1816).

JORTIN, JOHN, English divine, born in London, of Huguenot descent; held various appointments, was a prebend of St. Paul’s, wrote on ecclesiastical history (1698-1770).

JORULLO, a volcano in Mexico, 150 m.  SW. of Mexico city, rose one night from a high-lying plateau on Sept. 8, 1759, the central crater at a height 4625 ft. above the sea-level.

JOSEPH, the name of four persons in scripture. 1, JOSEPH, the son of Jacob and Rachel, and the story of whose life is given in Genesis. 2, JOSEPH, ST. the carpenter, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the reputed father of Jesus. 3, JOSEPH OF ARAMATHEA, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, who begged the body of Jesus to bury it in his own tomb. 4, JOSEPH, surnamed BARSABAS, one of the disciples of Jesus, and deemed worthy to be nominated to fill the place vacated by Judas.

JOSEPHINE, the Empress of the French, born in Martinique; came to France at the age of 15; was in 1779 married to Viscount Beauharnais, who was one of the victims of the Revolution, and to whom she bore a daughter, Hortense, the mother of Napoleon III.; married in 1796 to Napoleon Bonaparte, to whom she proved a devoted wife as well as a wise counsellor; she became empress in 1804, but failing to bear him any children, was divorced in 1809, though she still corresponded with Napoleon and retained the title of Empress to the last, living at Malmaison, where she died (1763-1814).