Biography

Lord Byron was born January 22^nd 1788, to John Byron and Catherine Gordon. Byron's names changed throughout his life. He was born George Gordon Byron in London. Gordon was a baptismal name, his name was changed several times. At the age of 10, he inherited the English Barony of Byron, becoming Lord Byron.  When Byron's mother-in-law, Judith Noel died in 1822, her will required that he change his surname to "Noel" in order to inherit half her estate. While not at school or college, Byron lived with his mother at Burgage Manor. Byron made friendships with Elizabeth Pigot and her brother, John, he staged two plays for the entertainment of the community with these two. Elizabeth Pigot encouraged him to write his first volumes of poetry, which were mostly poems from when he was 14. Byron's first loves included Mary Duff and Margaret Parker, his distant cousins, and Mary Chaworth, whom he met while at Harrow. Byron later wrote that his passion for Duff began when he was eight years old. Byron refused to return to Harrow in September 1803 because of his love for Chaworth. In Byron's later memoirs Mary Chaworth was the person who had adult sexual feeling with. Byron returned to Harrow in January 1804, where he had made emotional involvements with the local boys. The most successful of those was with the John FitzGibbon, who he had later run into in Italy. His later poems explain what he calls a "consciousness of sexual differences that may in the end make England untenable to him" Byron was in fact attracted to both sexes, While at Trinity, Byron met and formed a close friendship with the younger John Edleston. About his "protégé" he wrote, "He has been my almost constant associate since October, 1805, when I entered Trinity College” He later was more fond of married women, In 1812, Byron embarked on a well-publicized affair with the married Lady Caroline Lamb that shocked the British public. Byron broke up with Lamb so he would be able to date others such as Lady Oxford, but Lamb never entirely recovered, pursuing him even after he tired of her. She was emotionally disturbed, and lost so much weight that Byron cruelly commented to her mother-in-law, his friend Lady Melbourne, that he was "haunted by a skeleton.” Long after the break-up of Lady Caroline, he started to date her cousin Anne Isabella Milbanke, he had proposed several times with no luck, but eventually had gotten married at Seaham Hall, County Durham, on 2 January 1815. The marriage proved unhappy. He treated her poorly. They had a daughter. On 16 January 1816, Lady Byron left him, taking Ada with her. On 21 April, Byron signed the Deed of Separation, or a divorce, Lady Byron describes it as a very unhappy marriage.