George Noel Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale, better known as Lord Byron, was a British poet. Born 22 January 1788 in Holles Street, London, England, and from two years old raised by his mother in Aberdeen, Scotland he moved back to England at age ten. His life was complicated by his father, who died deep in debt when he was a child. He was able to work his way through school, and his life advanced after he inherited both his great-uncle's title in 1798 and the Newstead Abbey estate.
Parents
Lord Byron's family in the English Midlands can be traced back without interruption to Ralph de Buran who arrived in England with William the Conqueror in the 11th century. His land holdings are listed in the Domesday Book.
Byron was the only child of Captain John Byron (known as 'Jack') and his second wife Catherine Gordon, heiress of the Gight estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Byron's paternal grandparents were Vice-Admiral John Byron and Sophia Trevanion. Having survived a shipwreck as a teenage midshipman, set a new speed record for circumnavigating the globe and become embroiled in a tempestuous voyage during the American Revolutionary War, John had been nicknamed 'Foul-Weather Jack' Byron by the press. The rest of the Byron family seemed to have a knack for scandal, and a history of infidelity and debt. The poet's great-uncle, William, 5th Baron Byron had virtually ruined their ancestral estate at Newstead Abbey thanks to his constant spending, and had been tried for murder after a violent encounter in a London tavern.
Byron's own father Jack was the sixth child and eldest boy of nine. Having attended school, and a military academy, he enlisted into the army. Even before he turned 21 he had developed a habit for spending, and constantly wheedled money out of his parents. While in his early twenties Byron's father Jack had previously been somewhat scandalously married to Amelia, Marchioness of Carmarthen, with whom he had been having an affair – the wedding took place just weeks after her divorce from her husband, and she was around eight months pregnant. The marriage was not a happy one, and their first two children – Sophia Georgina, and an unnamed boy – died in infancy. Amelia herself died in 1784 almost exactly a year after the birth of their third child, the poet's half-sister Augusta Mary. Though she succumbed to a wasting illness, probably tuberculosis, the press reported that her heart had been broken out of remorse for leaving her husband. Much later, 19th-century sources blamed Jack's own "brutal and vicious" treatment of her..
John Byron, in debt and deprived of his wife's £4000 a year income, went to Bath in search of another rich wife. Here he met Catherine Gordon, who was called his "Golden Dolly" for her fortune of £23,000; she was a direct descendant of James I of Scotland.Mayne 1913 p. 3
The Gordon family, like the Byron family, had a history of turmoil and death; her grandfather drowned in 1760, her sister Abercromby died in 1777, her father drowned in Bath Canal in 1779, her other sister Margaret died in 1780, and her mother died in 1782. Her parents, to preserve the family name, had introduced a clause in their will that required the husband of their daughter to take the Gordon name as his own, which John Byron was eager to do.Eisler 2000 p. 10 The two married in Bath, 13 May 1785. By July the newly-weds had settled at Gight where John Byron ran through most of the £23,000 Catherine had brought to their marriage.McGann, Jerome, 'Byron, George Gordon Noel, sixth Baron Byron (1788–1824)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2009 accessed 10 June 2010 Soon after, he sold her property, the Castle of Gight, for £18,690 to pay off his debts.MacCarthy 2002 p. 5 In March 1786 they went through a second marriage ceremony and John Byron became John Byron Gordon to fulfil the need to sell the estate in Gight. By the end of 1786, Catherine had lost her fortune and her land to John Byron's creditors but she never blamed him for her loss. In July 1787 John fled from the Isle of Wight, where the couple had been living to avoid creditors, to Paris. He was joined there the following September by Mrs Byron who was pregnant. In December she returned to London whilst Byron's father remained on the move to avoid creditors.
Childhood
George Gordon Byron was born 22 January 1788 in a house on Holles Street in London.Mayne 1913 p. 7 In 1790, Jack and Catherine moved to Aberdeen. His parents' residency in Scotland was not to last, as John wrote to his sister, "She is very amiable at a distance; but I defy you and all the Apostles to live with her two months, for if anybody could live with her, it was me".Mayne 1913 p. 9 Byron's parents then decided to live in separate houses upon the same street to see if the distance would allow them to bear each other. This left Byron to be raised by his mother and a nursemaid, Agnes Gray.MacCarthy 2002 p. 6 His parents would meet regularly until they realised that their separation did not solve their problems; John Byron would come to talk to his son, but after being allowed to take Byron to his house to spend one night, he realised that he could not tolerate either Byron or his mother any longer. Shortly thereafter, John left Scotland to live with his sister Fanny (Frances) Leigh at Valenciennes, France, where he died in 1791 of a 'long & suffering' consumptive illness, probably tuberculosis. After John Byron's death, Gordon claimed that she "ever sincerely loved" Byron, and she despaired at her loss.MacCarthy 2002 p. 7
Catherine Gordon was taught to read at a young age and had a passion for literature, a passion she shared with her son. Byron would read through the Bible, focusing predominantly on the Old Testament, and he would also read works dealing with history or narrative tales like the Arabian Nights.MacCarthy 2002 p. 9 However this passion for reading was not the only passion mother and child shared; Catherine was also known for having a violent temper.Mayne 1913 p. 4 The son inherited his mother's temper but he would not speak while he experienced various fits. On one occasion, the young Byron bit off a piece of a china saucer during his "silent rage".Mayne 1913 p. 10 Byron's problems were compounded by his mother's lack of money, especially with her having to provide for her delinquent husband. When word reached her that John Byron had died, she cried out loud enough for her neighbourhood to hear. However, her troubles were not over, for in his final moments John Byron had incurred even more debt, which burdened his widow to the point of having to move to another home in worse conditions.Mayne 1913 p. 11
Without money, she was instead forced to send her son to a day-school at the Long Acre of Aberdeen. Byron did not learn anything at the school, and his mother was forced to hire a series of tutors who taught him literature until he was able to enter the Aberdeen Grammar School which he attended until his move back to England as a ten year old in 1798. Mayne 1913 p. 12 It was here that Byron became fascinated with politics and began to practice writing narratives. Not everything taught to Byron was met with appreciation; Byron was brought up under Scottish Calvinistic influences including predestination, which encouraged a pessimistic view of life. His mother felt that Byron took in "the gloomiest Calvinistic tenets" and believed that she was also "broken against the rock of Predestination."MacCarthy 2002 pp. 9–11
Illness and Newstead In 1796, Byron suffered from scarlet fever, and his mother took him to the Scottish Highlands to stay in the mountains until his recovery. This experience affected Byron greatly, as he described in his poetry, especially his memory of the mountain of Lochnagar and a girl named Mary. He soon fell in love with another Mary, a cousin, and would still think of her until he was 27.Mayne 1913 pp. 12–13 On 21 May 1798, the death of Byron's great-uncle, the "wicked" Lord Byron, allowed the 10-year-old to become the 6th Baron Byron; he inherited the Rochdale estate in Lancashire, and Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire, coming under the care of his relative, Frederick Howard, Earl of Carlisle. Byron noticed no difference in how he was treated until the first time he was given the title dominus (meaning 'lord') in class; he was struck speechless and burst into tears while the other schoolchildren sat in amazement.Mayne 1913 pp. 15–16 However, little money came with the inheritance, as his great-uncle had already squandered most of his fortune; the fifth Lord Byron had sold the Rochdale estate illegally, and more money had to be put into a legal battle to restore Rochdale to Byron.Mayne 1913 p. 20
Although Newstead was not in a state that allowed Byron and his mother to live there, they were able to move to nearby Nottingham during August 1798. The residence formed by the ruins of Newstead Abbey adjoined by a large house served as an inspiration of Gothic themes and his belief that there are layers of history that are part of objects in life.MacCarthy 2002 pp. 14–15 During his early moments at Newstead, Byron was attended to by a nurse, May Gray, who developed a reputation for "perpetually beating him", which shocked the residents of Nottingham.Mayne 1913 p. 24 These beatings occurred as she attempted to educate Byron on religion, after which she abandoned the young boy in the dark. This darkness particularly frightened Byron, as Gray led him to believe that the house was haunted at Gray's prompting. Byron's mother did not find out about these incidents until after Gray was dismissed in 1799.Mayne 1913 pp. 24–25
When Byron was born, he suffered from lameness and a twisted foot.Mayne 1913 p. 8 After Gray was fired, Byron was put in the care of a "trussmaker to the General hospital", a man named Lavender, in hopes that he could be cured; however, Lavender instead abused the boy and would occasionally use him as a servant.Mayne 1913 p. 26 After Byron exposed Lavender as a fool, Gordon took her son to visit Doctor Matthew Baillie in London. They took up residence at Sloane Terrace during the summer of 1799, and there Byron started to receive treatment, such as specially designed boots.Mayne 1913 p. 27 This medical treatment amounted to £150 a year with 2 guineas per school visit by the physician. Not all of Byron's experiences at Nottingham were for the worse, as Byron was popular among his relatives, such as his great-aunt Frances Byron and her Mrs Parkyns, and among the gentry, middle class, and other important individuals of Nottingham society.MacCarthy 2002 p. 21
Education In August 1799, Byron entered the school of William Glennie, an Aberdonian in Dulwich. Glennie was Byron's first "serious teacher", but also one with whom Catherine Gordon would constantly squabble, especially over the control of her son's schedule.Mayne 1913 p. 28 Catherine's actions alienated her from both Glennie and Lord Carlisle, with Byron unable to do anything but observe.Mayne 1913 pp. 28–29 Regardless of his suffering, Byron was able to perform his "first dash into poetry" in 1800; he wrote a love poem in honour of his cousin, Margaret Parker, "one of the most beautiful of evanescent beings"., and she would inspire another poem two years later when she died at the age of 15.Mayne 1913 p. 30 Byron also refused to let his lameness prevent him from participating in any of the usual physical activities that schoolboys engage in, and on one occasion threw his leg brace into a pond in defiance.