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Countess Lovelace (known as Ada)

daughter of Lord George Byron and Anne Isabella Milbanke

Extract from article by Pat Sinclair-Stroud

One of the worst things about digging into the past of a famous person, is finding they were really a very troubled, neurotic soul. This is what happened when I delved into the story of the most famous of the romantic poets, Lord George Byron. He was bi-sexual and wasn't particularly kind to the women in his life. He also had a huge complex about his disability as he had a club foot. But I am not as interested in his life but rather the story of Ada, his only legitimate daughter. Lord George Byron married Anne Isabella Milbanke at Seaham Hall in January 1815. Anne Isabella Mikbanke was the only child of wealthy elderly parents Sir Ralph Milbanke and Judith (daughter of the first Viscount Wentworth).  The new Lady Byron was intelligent, well educated, religious and extremely strict in her attitudes to society and protocol. She was especially interested in mathematics and astronomy which she studied at Cambridge.

In December of 1815 Lady Byron gave birth to Ada, and within weeks of the birth left the marital home in January 1816. Lord Byron left for the continent to avoid scandal in March 1816 and was never to return to England. The scandal involved the birth of a child by his half-sister Augusta, whom he apparently adored. Lord Byron died in 1824  helping in the Greek War of Independence. Lady Byron supervised the education of her daughter who proved to be a gifted and intelligent child.

Ada later married Lord King, later to become the Earl of Lovelace, and during this time attended parties, dinners, dances etc where she met Charles Babbage, the inventor of the first mechanical computer. At first, he regarded her as just another aristocratic debutant, but as time passed he realized her tremendous mathematical ability. In fact, she understood the future potential of his invention more than he did. It was a friendship that lasted until her death. Ada joined a friendly society and became involved with heavy gambling. Driven by conscience and a painful ailment, she turned to laudanum and heavy drinking.  Threatened by exposure of her gambling addiction she turned to her Mother to save her. Lady Byron was horrified to find out the depth of debt, drug taking and drinking to which her daughter had sunk but did what she could to help Ada. Countess Ada Lovelace prematurely died of cancer in 1852, aged 36, the same age as her father Lord Byron. She requested that she be laid to rest beside him in his grave at his family estate. She is remembered for her contribution to the development of the first computer. The US Department of Defense named their main computer system ADA.

Lord George Byron's marriage certificate

Lady Anne Isabella Milbanke and Lord George Byron

Wooden carving of Lord Byron and Lady Isabella Milbanke outside Byron Shopping Centre, Seaham