George Gordon (Byron) Noel (1788 - 1824)

Born 22 Jan 1788 in Marylebone, Middlesex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Anne Isabella (Milbanke) Noel — married 2 Jan 1815 in Seaham, Durham, England, United Kingdom

Descendants

Died 19 Apr 1824 at age 36 in Mesolóngion, Aetolia-Acarnania, Greece

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Biography

Descendant of Macbeth Brodie of Brodie, circa 1210.

George (Byron) Noel is Notable.

George (Byron) Noel was featured in works by Georgette Heyer.

Lord Byron was an English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and the short lyric She Walks in Beauty. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets.

Early Years

Born on 22 January 1788, George Gordon Byron was the only child of Captain John "Mad Jack" Byron and his second wife, Catherine Gordon.^[1] Byron was baptised at St Marylebone Parish Church, Marylebone, London, England on 1 March 1788.^[1][2] Byron's father moved to France to escape English creditors, and in the summer of 1789 Byron moved with his mother to Aberdeen, Scotland.

With the death in 1798 of his great-uncle, the fifth Lord Byron, 10-year-old Byron became the sixth Baron Byron of Rochdale, heir to Newstead Abbey, the family seat in Nottinghamshire. He attended school at Harrow and wrote Childish Recollections, a collection of poems about his friendships there.^[1] He attended Trinity College at Cambridge, intermittently from October 1805 until July 1808, when he received a Master of Arts degree.^[1] He became a celebrity with the publication of the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage in 1812.^[1]

Later Years

On 2 January 1815, he married Anne Isabella Milbanke, Baroness Wentworth, at Seaham Hall, County Durham, England.^[1][3] Their daughter, Augusta Ada, was born in December 1815. Lady Byron left with her infant daughter in January 1816, and they legally separated in March. In April 1816, the scandal of their separation, the rumors about his affair with his half-sister Augusta, and his ever-increasing debt, forced him to leave England. He spent the last eight years of his life in Switzerland, Italy, and Greece.

Surname change: Byron to Noel

Anne Milbanke's parents had changed their surname from Milbanke to Noel in 1815 as a condition of the inheritance from her mother's brother Thomas Noel, Viscount Wentworth. As Anne was her parents' only child, to inherit the Noel estates, she and Byron also had to take the surname and arms of Noel upon the death of Anne's mother in 1822. The Royal Licence was granted on 2 March 1822 and published in the Gazette. ^[4]

From that point, Byron signed himself "Noel Byron" (the usual signature of a peer being merely the name of the peerage, in this case simply "Byron").

Greek Independence

Byron was—as he wrote in Don Juan, Canto VIII—a firm believer that “Revolution/Alone can save the earth from hell’s pollution”. He supported Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire and spent £4,000 of his own money to refit the Greek fleet. He employed a fire-master to prepare artillery and took part of the rebel army under his own command, but fell ill before the expedition could sail. Among his last recorded words were, “I have given [Greece] my time, my means, my health – and now I give her my life! – what could I do more?” The Greek nation was overwhelmed by grief. At memorial services throughout the country, Byron was proclaimed a national hero. His death served to unite Greece against the enemy and elicited support from all over the world.

Death

Lord Byron died on 19 April 1824 at Missolonghi, Greece at age 36.^[1] He was buried on 16 July 1824 at Hucknall-Torkard, Nottinghamshire, England.^[1]

But I have lived, and have not lived in vain:
My mind may lose its force, my blood its fire,
And my frame perish even in conquering pain,
But there is that within me which shall tire
Torture and Time, and breathe when I expire

(from Canto IV of Childe Harold)

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7} Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, vol 1. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, 630.
2. ↑ "England, Middlesex Parish Registers, 1539-1988", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSF7-QT17?cc=3734475&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3A68K8-2LTQ: 11 Jul 2023); St Marylebone, Middlesex, London, George Gordon Byron, 1 Mar 1788.
3. ↑ Foster, Joseph. Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire (W. Wilfred Head, London, 1873-1874) Vol. 3, 244.
4. ↑ Royal Licence to change surname The London Gazette Publication date: 5 March 1822 Issue:17796 Page:385 Gazette online accessed 11 July 2023 Whitehall, March 2 1822
   The King has been pleased to grant unto the
   Right Honourable George-Gordon Baron Byron,
   of Rochdale, in the county palatine of Lancaster,
   and to Anne-Isabella Baroness Byron his wife, His
   royal licence and authority, that they may, in com-
   pliance with a clause contained in the last will and
   Testament of Thomas late Viscount and Baron
   Wentworth, of Nettlested, in the county of Suffolk,
   deceased, the maternal uncle of the said Anne-
   Isabella Baroness Byron, take and use the surname
   of Noel only, and also bear the arms of Noel only;
   and that the said George-Gordon Baron Byron
   may subscribe the said surname of Noel before all
   titles of honour; such arms being first duly ex-
   emplified according to the laws of arms, and re-
   corded in the Heralds' Office, otherwise His Ma-
   jesty's said licence and permission to be void and of
   none effect:
   And also to order, that the said royal con-
   cession and declaration be registered in His Ma-
   jesty's College of Arms

See also:

• Wikipedia:Lord Byron
• Wikidata: Item Q5679, en:Wikipedia
• http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/lord-byron
• http://www.onthisdeity.com/19th-april-1824-–-the-death-of-lord-byron/
• 'Martin-Leake, Double VC' by Ann Clayton