That Lady Byron was a brilliant human being (1792-1860) not the stereotypical demon Lord Byron turned her into in his later poetry.
Lady Byron and her Daughters
That she was a single mother who raised her daughter, Ada Countess of Lovelace on her own.
That Ada became Countess of Lovelace due to Lady Byron's influence with her first cousin Lord Melbourne, Prime Minister and mentor to young Queen Victoria.
That Queen Victoria gave Lady Byron the keys to her gardens at Escher
That Lady Byron introduced the first Infants Schools for the working poor in England, based on the one designed by socialist Robert Owen in Scotland.
That on their wedding day, Lord Byron wrote he had Lady Byron on the couch before dinner.
That Lord Byron would have had her sooner, but that he was surprised by her sexuality and resisted during their engagement.
That Lady Byron founded the first Co- Operative School in England for the working poor, based on the progressive Industrial School Hofwyl in Switzerland. By the 1960s it became the Ealing School of Art where rockers Pete Townsend, Ronnie Wood and Freddie Mercury were educated. Apparently, she could never escape the bad boys.
That Lady Byron was one of the founders of the allotment system which gave the working poor small plots of land on which they could grow healthy produce for their family or to sell..
That Lady Byron was New Age, circa 1840. She was a great believer in cupping as a cure for what ailed her. Cupping brings blood up the surface of the back. This practice has suddenly reappeared as "cupping therapy," promising to relieve tension by sucking stress to the surface. . Go know.
That Lady Byron believed in phrenology and thought a high forehead- she had one- a sign of intelligence and goodness.
That most of Lady Byron's close friends had high foreheads and when she met Cardinal Newman she found his low forehead a bad sign.
That Lady Byron saved Lord Byron and sister Augusta Leigh's daughter Medora Leigh, from certain death, bringing Medora back with her from France back to England, having already introduced Medora to Ada as her half-sister..
That Lady Byron read letters Medora kept with her. Medora had been raped by her brother- in- law by the time she was 13 and had two illegitimate pregnancies before she was 16. The letters Medora kept suggested her mother Augusta Leigh had given Medora to her oldest daughter's husband as a sign of Augusta's devotion to him. For the first time Lady Byron thought perhaps the older Augusta had been the one to initiate incest with younger brother, Lord Byron, not the other way around.
That Lady Byron was a mathematical genius herself and introduced Ada to Charles Babbage. Subsequently daughter Ada wrote of Babbage's "Analytical Engine" and created an algorithm based on it a century before there was a computer on which to run it. A variation of that program used by the United States Military in the 1980s is now named ADA.
That Lady Byron was accused of being cold and relentless because after she asked for a separation of bed and board from Lord Byron, she would not meet with him or respond to his subsequent love letters or to his poem, "Fare Thee Well". But under English law of the day, any such response from a "Wife" would be considered "condonation," nullifying all of a husband's previous acts of cruelty, and Lady Byron and daughter Ada could be forced to return to Lord Byron's legal control. A "Wife" had next to no legal rights in those day, and a husband was the legal possessor of, as the law had it, his child's "body"
That there was an element of soft bondage in Lord and Lady Byron's love making resulting from Lord Byron showing Lady Byron that her aunt, Lady Melbourne had written to him, calling her niece a "spoiled child" who needed to be disciplined. So in bed, almost as a response to that letter, they made hay to the rhythm of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew."
That her friendship with Harriet Beecher Stowe began when Lady Byron brought run -away slaves from America to England to her schools after the fugitive slave act was passed.
That after Lady Byron's death, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Lady Byron Vindicated" to counteract the effect of Byron's former mistress Countess Guicccioli's 1869 best seller, recounting her love of Byron and calling Lady Byron a monster.
In "Lady Byron Vindicated" Harriet Beecher Stowe revealed that Lady Byron had told her that Lord Byron had an incestuous relationship with his sister and the two had a daughter Medora. She quoted her! Because of this, the "little woman" who President Lincoln once said began the Civil War because of the effect of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" on the conscience of the world became vilified and her grand reputation lost. Even if what she wrote were true, some said, how could a woman print such a thing?
And 21 for good measure. Charles Babbage always wished that he could spend a half hour at a future time. If he and Ada were to walk into an Apple store today they would be the only two of their time, who rather than reeling in confusion, would cry, "Eureka!"
By Julia Markus
Author of "Lady Byron and Her Daughters".
Lady Byron and her Daughters is published by W.W. Norton & Company Ltd and out on 13th October.