The poet Lord Byron was born George Noel Byron on January 22, 1788. His father was Captain John 'Mad Jack' Byron whose first marriage to the Marchioness of Carmathen produced a daughter Augusta. He later married Catherine Gordon, heiress of Gight and mother of George, whose fortune he spent.The early part of the poet's life was spent at Aberdeen and with the death of his grand uncle in 1798, (his father having died seven years before) Byron inherited the title and estate. After four years at Harrow he went to Trinity College, Cambridge.
His first work, Hours of Idleness produced in 1807, was badly received but in 1809 a two year trip to the Mediterranean provided material for the first two cantos of Childe Harolds Pilgrimage. Their publication in 1812 earned Byron instant glory. By 1814 he had published The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos, The Corsair and Lara and the Hebrew Melodies. In 1815 he wrote The Bride of Corinth and Parisina. During these years he was the darling of society and the object of devotion by many women including Lady Caroline Lamb and Lady Oxford. However on the 2nd of January 1815, he married Lady Anne Isabella Milbank (1792 - 1860), heiress to the barony of Wentworth. His daughter Ada was born 1st December 1815, and in January 1816 Lady Byron left her husband's house for ever.
In 1820 he travelled to Pisa and later to Greece where he spent time in the Ionian islands. In 1824 Byron joined the Greek liberation fighters at Missolonghi, but tragically he caught malarial fever and on the 24th April he died. His body was brought back to England and buried in the church of Hacknall-Torkard, near Newstead.