Joseph Jordan

Sir Joseph Jordan ( – 1685) was an English naval officer. From a Thames shipowning family, he is initially recorded as importing tobacco from Nevis and Barbados aboard the Amity.

During the English Civil War, he served in the parliamentary navy commanding the merchantman Caesar in the summer guard of 1642; later that year he was recorded taking castles around the Isle of Wight. In 1643 he served as rear-admiral in the Irish guard and the following year was active off the Channel Islands and at the relief of Lyme Regis and, in 1645, the siege of Weymouth. knighted in 1665 after the Battle of Lowestoft; was rear-admiral of the Red squadron, with George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, in the inconclusive Four Days Battle, 1–4 June 1666, and vice-admiral of the Red at the victory in the St. James's Day Battle, 25 July 1666.

In the Third Anglo-Dutch War, 1672–4., as vice-admiral of the Blue, he led the fleet into action in , 100 guns, in the Battle of Solebay, 28 May 1672. At the time it was alleged he had deliberately chosen to expose to danger Admiral Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, HMS Royal James, who died in the battle, in order to protect the Duke of York, later James II of England.

After the war he was granted a pension and lived in retirement.