Early Life of George Gordon Byron - Parents

Parents

Byron was the son of Captain John "Mad Jack" Byron and his second wife, the former Catherine Gordon, heiress of Gight in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The Byron family had a spotted history: many of those with the title Lord Byron had a history of inconstancy and debt, and the fifth Lord Byron gained reputations of being a whoremaster and a murderer. John Byron was the first child of Vice-Admiral John "Foulweather Jack" Byron, the second son of the fourth Lord Byron. Like the rest of his family, his personal history was one of turmoil; he was one of nine children and was sent to a military school when it became clear that he was unfit for academia. He gambled profusely until his parents refused to pay off his debts, and he soon developed a reputation for womanizing and exploiting his companions for money. In 1778, when 22, he ran off to France with the already married Amelia D'Arcy, the heiress of the Earl of Holderness and of Baroness Conyers and the current Marchioness of Carmarthen. He married her in 1779; they had three children, of whom only their daughter Augusta survived. Conyers died in 1784, and 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 pounds; she was a direct descendant of James I of Scotland.

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, in order 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. 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. Soon after, he sold her property, the Castle of Gight, for £18,690 to pay off his debts. In March 1786 they went through a second marriage ceremony and John Byron became John Byron Gordon in order 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 in order to avoid creditors.