Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/514

 508 BYROM up tables similar to those afterward published by Napier in his " Canon " of logarithms, and invented a sector and pendulum clock. BY ROM, John, an English poet, born at Ker- sall, near Manchester, in 1691, died in Man- chester, Sept. 28, 1763. He was educated at Trinity college, Cambridge, studied medicine in France, and became a member of the royal society. Having married against the wishes of his family, he was deprived of all means of sup- port, and maintained himself by teaching a sys- tem of stenography of his own invention, until the family estates devolved upon him by the death of his elder brother. In the latter part of his life he was a disciple of Jacob Boehm. His reputation rests mainly upon his pastoral "Colin and Phoebe," beginning "My time, O ye muses, was happily spent," which appeared in the " Spectator," No. 603. His works were published at Manchester in 1773 (2 vols. 8vo), and at Leeds in 1814 ; and his " Private Jour- nal and Literary Remains" at Manchester, 1854-'8. BYRON. I. George Gordon, lord, an English poet, born in London, Jan. 22, 1788, died at Missolonghi, Greece, April 19, 1824. His grand- father, Admiral John Byron, was the younger brother of William, fifth Lord Byron. His father, John Byron, was a captain in the guards, whose reckless dissipation gained for him the name of "mad Jack Byron." At the age of 23 he eloped with Amelia d'Arcy, daughter of the earl of Holderness, in her own right Baroness Conyers, and wife of the mar- quis of Carmarthen, afterward duke of Leeds. They went to France, where she died in 1784, leaving a daughter Augusta, afterward Mrs. Leigh. In 1786 John Byron married Catharine Gordon, a Scottish heiress, with a fortune of about 25,000, of which 3,000 was settled upon her, and most of the remainder went to pay her husband's debts. They went to France, and returned to England just before the birth of their son. Augusta, then six years old, was sent to her grandmother, the countess of Hol- derness, by whom she was brought up, and Mrs. Byron and her infant went to Aberdeen, their only means of support being 160 a year, the interest of the sum which had been settled upon her. Her husband remained awhile in London, but at length visited Aberdeen, and induced his wife to borrow a few hundred pounds for him, with which he set out for Paris, but died on the way in 1791. Mrs. Byron was ungainly in person, with a nar- row intellect and violent temper. At the time of Byron's birth the bones of his right foot were partially displaced, and he grew up lame. In her fits of passion she would taunt him as a lame brat, while in her moods of fondness she would stifle him with caresses, and praise the beauty of his eyes. They remained at Aber- deen till 1798, when his great-uncle, William, Lord Byron of Rochdale and Newstead Abbey, died without direct heirs, and the lame boy succeeded to the titles and estates. The estates BYRON were large, but much encumbered, the net in- come from them for some years amounting to not more than 1,500. Lord Byron, as a minor peer, became a ward of chancery, his guardian being his distant kinsman the earl of Carlisle, lie was sent to school at Dulwich, where some attempts were made to restore his foot to its proper position. These were only partially successful; though there was no marked de- formity, the ankle remained weak, and he al- ways walked with a slight limp. Still, as he grew up, he excelled in athletic exercises ; was a fair cricketer, a capital swimmer, and an ex- pert boxer. In 1800, at the age of 12, he was sent to Harrow school, where he remained five years. He was a careless student, but an om- nivorous reader, especially of history and fic- tion. During a six weeks' vacation, while in his 16th year, he fell in love with his distant relative Mary Anne Chaworth, whose great- uncle had been killed by his own great-uncle. She was two years his senior, and soon after married another. Byron was wont to say, in prose and verse, that this boyish passion was the turning point of his life. In 1805 he went to Trinity college, Cambridge, and in the next year printed for private circulation a small volume of poems. Most of these, with many additions, are contained in the "Hours of Idleness," which he published in 1807. Byron was much elated at some favorable notices which appeared of this volume, and at once set about writing an epic, a novel, and a satire. But a contemptuous criticism in the "Edinburgh Review" made him exceedingly angry. He determined to have his revenge, and so set himself at work to finish the satire which he had begun months before, and pub- lished months after (March, 1809), under the title of " English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." Some of the keenest passages which appear in this satire were added in a second edition, published a few weeks later. Byron came of age in January, 1809, and prepared to take his seat in the house of peers ; but there was some difficulty in proving the marriage of his grandfather, Admiral Byron, so that he did not take his seat till March. The last two years had been passed in coarse dissipations at Cam- bridge and London, and he was not recognized by a single member of his order who would in- troduce him to the house of peers. The earl of Carlisle, his kinsman and guardian, refused to perform this act of formal courtesy, and was repaid by Byron with a lampoon interjected into his satire. Upon taking his seat, Byron, as far as present income went, was the poorest peer of the realm. His great-uncle had sepa- rated from his wife, quarrelled with his son and grandson, both of whom he survived, and seems to have set himself at work to destroy the value of the inheritance which would fall to his heirs. He cut down the timber at New- stead Abbey, and suffered the house to fall into decay. He sold the more valuable estates of Rochdale, for which he could give no legal title.