Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 2.djvu/473

 BYRON 457 1791) was s. and h. of the well-known Admiral, the Hon. John Byron, next br. to the last Lord. He was b. 22 Jan. 1788, probably at Dover,(*) but possibly in Holies Str., and was bap. i Mar. in Marylebone ; was ed. at the Free School, Aberdeen; at Harrow (1801), and at Trin. Coll. Cambridge (Oct. 1805); M.A., 4 July 1808. F.R.S. 11 Jan. 18 16. He was a Whig in politics. C') He m., 2 Jan. 18 15, at Seaham Hall, her father's seat (spec, lie), Anne Isabella, only da. and h. of Sir Ralph Mil- BANK.E (afterwards Noel), Bart., by Judith, da. of Edward (Noel), Viscount Wentworth. From her, however, in a year's time, he, by mutual consent, was separated, from which time he lived entirely on the continent.('^) By the death of his wife's mother. Dame Judith Noel, he and his wife inherited a fortune of about ^{^ 8,000 a year (which was partitioned equally between them), and by Royal lie, 27 Feb. 1822, he took the name oi Noel only. Having enthusiastically espoused the cause of Greece against Turkey, he d. from the effects of over exertion and fever, at Missolonghi, s.p.m., in his 36th year, 19 Apr., and was bur. 16 July 1824, at Hucknall-Torkard, Notts.('^) Will dat. 29 July 18 15 to Nov. 181 8, in which (with the full approbation of his wife who was well provided for) he leaves all to his sister Augusta Leigh (who d. 18 Oct. 1 85 1, aged 67) and her children. His widow, who was b. 17 May 1792, became, on 12 Nov. 1856 (when the abeyance of the Barony terminated by the death of Lord Scarsdale) sua jure Baroness Wentworth. She d. 16 May i86o(') at St. George's Terrace, Regent's Park, Midx., in (=) N. (^ Q., 8th Ser., vol. ix, p. 389. Q") Hisprincipal works appeared in the following order, i;/z.: Hours of Idleness, 1807; English Bards and Scottish Reviewers, 1809; Childe Harold, 1812-18; Bride of Ahydos, 1813, Wc, ending with Don fuan, 1819-23. See an able notice of his career in Diet. Nat. Biog., by its Editor, Sir Leslie Stephen. (•=) In Nov. 18 1 7, through his ever recurring pecuniary difficulties, he sold the ancestral estate of Newstead. The Augustinian Priory of Newstead was acquired in 1540 by Sir John Byron, of Colwick, whose heir was his illegit. son, John Byron, who, probably, converted it into a residence. The estate was about 3,200 acres. As early as Sep. i8i2 a contract for its sale, at ^Ti 40,000, had been made, but on pay- ment of jr25,000, was abandoned. The price obtained by Lord Byron from Col. Wildman in 18 17 was ;^95,ooo, on whose death it was again sold, in 1861, to Mr. W. F. Webb. (^) His character was by no means altogether attractive as is suggested by the bitter couplet of Walter Savage Lander: — "Byron was not all Byron, one small part Bore the impression of a human heart." The loathsome charges which his wife thought fit to make secretly against him and his estimable sister, Mrs. Leigh, were published to the world by Mrs. Beecher Stowe (who had been one of the confidantes) in 1869. Such evidence as exists is all against their credibility, and while their publication may be fairly traced to love of gain or notoriety, their origin may be charitably attributed to a diseased mind rather than to fiendish malice. V.G. (*) Augusta Ada Byron, their only child, h. 10 Dec. 1815, m., 8 July 1835, William (King, afterwards King-Noel), ist Earl of Lovelace, and d. v.m., 29 Nov. 1852, leaving issue, who inherited, in her right, the Barony of Wentworth. 59