In Byron's Wake

by Miranda Seymour

  Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen, 424, 447, 456

  Blyth, James, 455

  Boissy, Hilaire Etienne Octave Rouillé, Marquis de, 442

  Boissy, Teresa, Marquise de (earlier Contessa Guiccioli), 204, 319, 442, 454–5; The Life of Lord Byron in Italy, 443n; Lord Byron jugé par les témoins de sa vie, 442–6, 450

  Boutell, Miss (governess), 247, 254n

  Boyce, Susan, 94, 96–7, 102, 109

  Boys, Thomas, 338

  Branch Hill Lodge, Hampstead, 134, 154

  Brewster, Sir David, 185, 334, 374–7

  Briggs, Eliza, 148, 151, 154, 178

  Brighton: Ada visits, 176, 289–90, 340; Ada presented at court, 179; Ada’s home in, 313–14; Wellington in, 330

  Brinvilliers, Madame de, 446

  British Meteorological Society, 376

  Brocket (house), Hertfordshire, 116

  Brooklands Park, Surrey, 329, 463

  Brougham, Henry, Baron, 123, 158, 184

  Brown, Ephraim, 425

  Brown, James, 81, 398

  Brown, Sarah (née Willis), 398

  Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 347, 363, 410

  Browning, Robert, 347, 363

  Brown’s hotel, Dover Street, London, 397, 406

  Brunel, Isambard Kingdom, 289, 427

  Buchan, John, 461n

  Bulwer-Lytton, Edward, 1st Baron Lytton, 352

  Bulwer-Lytton, Emily, 352n

  Burges, Sir James Bland, 75, 93

  Burr, Daniel, 380

  Burr, Margaretta, 380–1

  Byron, Allegra (Claire Clairmont’s daughter with Byron), 457

  Byron, Annabella, Lady (Anne Isabella; née Milbanke): dancing, 3–4; painted by Hoppner, 3–5, by Hayter, 28, by Haydon, 233–4; childhood and upbringing, 4–7, 11; proposed marriage settlement and inheritance, 8, 19; fondness for Seaham Hall, 9; education, 10–11; religious beliefs, 10, 74, 317, 386; sketching, 10; poetry, 11, 15, 33, 173, 196; uneasy letter-writing, 11; taught by Frend, 12–13; appearance, 15; first visits to London, 15–18, 28; judges character by appearance, 15–16; liked by Seaham villagers, 15; rejects suitors, 17, 20–5, 34, 38, 56; prospective inheritance from Lord Wentworth, 19–20, 84; entertaining and social life in London, 24–5; recurrent ill health, 25–6, 95, 131, 145, 154, 158, 425–6, 434–5; differences with mother, 26–7; returns to London from Seaham, 27–8; meets Byron, 28–36, 43; Byron courts, 34; Byron proposes marriage, 38, 41; estimate of Byron, 38–9; temper, 39, 41, 62n, 63; declines Byron’s marriage proposal, 40, 56; requirements in husband, 41, 46; ‘Auto-Description’ (1831), 43; resumes relations and correspondence with Byron, 44–53; declares Byron incompatible, 57–8; engagement to Byron, 58–60, 64; thanks Augusta for support, 60–1; Byron meets at Seaham, 61–2; unaware of Augusta’s relations with Byron, 64; as family lawyer, 65n, 164; wedding, 68–70; honeymoon, 71–7; saves Byron from suffocation at Seaham, 72–3; drops wedding ring, 73; goodwill towards Augusta, 73; and Byron’s sexual practices with Augusta, 75n, 77; pregnancy, 78, 83, 90, 94, 99; stays with Byron at Augusta’s, 78–80; becomes aware of Byron’s feelings for Augusta, 79–80, 85; home in Piccadilly Terrace, 81–2; invites Augusta to stay in London home, 83; life and marriage relations in Piccadilly Terrace, 83–90; nurses dying Lord Wentworth, 85; Byron’s aggression towards, 87, 92, 98; Ticknor describes, 89; proposes reforms for Byron, 95–6; believes Byron going insane, 96, 101, 103–4; Byron informs of affair with Susan Boyce, 96, 102; gathers friends and staff as support, 97–8; birth of daughter (Augusta) Ada, 99; and Byron’s intention to go abroad, 99; Lady Noel invites to north with family, 101, 103; leaves Byron, 104–5; loving letters to Byron on leaving, 105–8; admires Byron’s poetry, 107n; impending separation from Byron, 112–19; divided over separation, 114; informs Lushington of Byron’s behaviour and supposed murder, 117, 121; protects Augusta from scandal, 118, 120, 416; writes to Byron on decision to leave, 119; hardens attitude to Byron and Augusta, 122–3; accepts certainty of Byron’s incest, 123; called ‘spoilt child’, 126n, 443; public reputation and image, 127–31, 137, 147; never divorces, 128; portrayed in Caroline Lamb’s Glenarvon, 128–9; denies Augusta access to Ada, 132; resumes friendship with Augusta, 132; shares Byron’s correspondence with Augusta, 132–3; 446; maintains relations with John Murray, 134; satirised in Byron’s works, 134, 136; and Ada’s upbringing and education, 145–6, 148–50, 176; behaviour after separation criticised, 146; interest in phrenology, 146n, 192, 207; philanthropic and educational work, 146–7, 158, 166, 174–5, 231–3, 313, 324–6, 417n, 426; told of Byron’s death, 151; inheritance, 154; redresses inheritance injustice to Wentworth’s grandchildren, 154; visits to Europe, 156–7, 419; continuing feelings for late husband, 157; influenced by Fellenberg, 158; supports Trevanion-Georgiana marriage, 163–4; financial acumen, 164, 324–5; obstructs publication of Byron letters, 165; sailing, 166; quarrel with Augusta over appointment of Byron executor, 167–8; and Trevanion’s affair with Libby (Medora), 170; reads Byron’s poetry to Ada, 173; buys and moves to Fordhook (house), Ealing, 174, 176; educational principles, 175–6, 232; received by king and queen, 179–80; accompanies Ada to Babbage’s, 191; on Ada’s changeability in interests, 192; tours England on factory inspections with Ada, 193; declines to invest in Babbage’s machine, 195–6; and William’s courtship and marriage to Ada, 203–4; and Ada’s marriage settlement, 205; content after Ada’s marriage, 206; nickname (‘the Hen’), 206, 208; writes on industrial schools, 207; commissions portrait of Ada, 208–9; character portrait of Ada, 210; names grandchildren, 211; praises Ada’s ability to communicate difficult ideas, 214; cares for granddaughter, 216; accompanies Edward Noel to Germany, 217–18, 220–1, 225; more relaxed relations with Ada, 217; letter from De Morgan on Ada’s potential, 228; in France, 231, 234–5, 242; reforms conditions for teachers, 232; exhaustion, 234, 292; helps Medora Leigh, 235–7, 244; rift with Augusta Leigh, 235, 252; indiscretions, 236; and Medora’s accounts of treatment, 237; railway investments, 240n; prunes family papers, 248; flees from Medora’s rage, 251–2; letter from Medora, 254–5; and Medora’s return to France, 256; on William’s meanness towards Ada, 268–9; and Medora’s claims on property, 271; Ada gives Babbage translation to, 275; finds tutor for Ada’s children, 285; advocates mesmerism for Ada, 290; disagreement with Edward and Fanny Noel, 291; offers financial help to William Carpenter, 292, 315; supports Ada’s proposed scientific research, 301; patronises London madhouse, 307; subsidises Ada’s home in Brighton, 313; on Ada’s poor health, 316; and grandchildren’s upbringing, 316, 336–7, 339, 417; and Ada’s spat with William, 320; social relief in England and Ireland, 324–5; takes control of Ockham schools, 326; and Lovelace’s earldom, 328; and Ada’s financial difficulties, 330–1; suspects Ada, 330; consigns family papers to Fanny Carr, 339–40; relations with Frederick Robertson, 340, 356, 358–61, 379, 415, 421–2; retrospective romantic view of marriage to Byron, 340, 358, 361; fears repetition of incest among grandchildren, 342–3, 460; lends money to William Lovelace, 347; hatred of gambling, 348, 370; and Ada’s view of Lord Byron, 357; suggests Ada acquire Newstead, 357; proposes preface to cheap edition of Byron’s works, 359; Reigate meeting with Augusta Leigh, 360–1, 461; accused of being despotic, 361n; writes to Emily Leigh on mother’s death, 362; favours Ada’s moving abroad, 363; accuses Lovelace of betraying Ada, 370–1, 403; Ada visits in Brighton, 371; and Ada’s electromagnetic experiments, 376–7; nominated for membership of British Meteorological Society, 376; nurses grandson Ralph, 377–8, 379; told of Ada’s cancer, 379; asks for list of Ada’s debts, 381; money gift to Lovelace, 382; told of Ockham’s success in navy, 382; Ada confesses gambling debts to, 383–4; thanks Agnes Greig, 386; and Ada’s pawning of Lovelace diamonds, 388, 392–3; and Ada’s wish to be buried in Byron’s vault, 389; visits sick Ada, 390; moves into Great Cumberland Place, 391–2; defends Ada’s reputation, 392; and Ada’s death, 394–5; moves into Brown’s Hotel, London, 397, 406; papers destroyed, 399–400; refuses Lovelace’s wish for reconciliation, 400–2, 406, 426, 435; and
negotiations over Crosse’s letters, 404; learns of Ada’s low-life activities, 406; dispute with Babbage, 407–9; estrangement from Anna Jameson, 410–11, 412, 426; memoir (third person), 415– 17, 435; and upbringing of grandchildren after Ada’s death, 418–19; attends Robertson’s funeral, 421; takes in grandson Ockham in Brighton, 421; Henry Crabb Robinson praises, 422–3; acts of coldness, 426; emotional isolation in later years, 426; co-founds The National Review, 427; generosity, 428–30; houses, 429n; friendship with Harriet Beecher Stowe, 431–4; moves to final home in St George’s Terrace, 434; death and funeral, 435; will, 436–7; personal papers sealed and deposited in bank, 437; Harriet Martineau’s essay on, 438–41; Teresa Guiccioli (de Boissy)’s accounts of, 442–4; posthumous accounts and gossip on, 443–53, 457; letters to Ada on incest and Augusta Leigh, 445; Harriet Beecher Stowe defends and reveals Byron’s incest, 449–50; in Ralph Wentworth’s Astarte, 461; named on Reformers’ Memorial, 464; reputation, 464–6; influence on Ada, 467; ‘Byromania’ (poem), 34; ‘Remarks’, 127, 174; ‘The Unnatural Mother’ (poem), 144

  Byron, Augusta Ada see Lovelace, Countess of

  Byron, Revd Augustus, 445, 456n

  Byron, Catherine (née Gordon; Byron’s mother), 30

  Byron, Clara Allegra (Byron’s daughter by Claire Clairmont), 130, 141–2

  Byron, Eliza (Byron’s cousin), 48

  Byron, Elizabeth, Lady (née Chandos-Pole; Admiral George Byron’s wife), 97, 109, 114

  Byron, George, 8th Baron (Admiral George’s son), 152–3, 168

  Byron, Admiral (earlier Captain) George Anson, 7th Baron (Byron’s cousin): Hastings holiday, 56; at Newstead, 93; courts Elizabeth Chandos-Pole, 97, 109; Annabella writes to on Byron’s absence, 103; at Piccadilly Terrace, 108–20; on Byron as threat to Annabella, 112; marriage, 114; visits Kirkby Mallory to comfort Annabella, 114; and Byron’s leaving Annabella, 115; informs Annabella of Byron’s death, 151; sails for Sandwich Islands, 152; and Ada’s marriage to William, 205; Annabella takes refuge from Medora with, 252; Ada visits on autumn tour, 352; at Horsley, 357n; Emily Leigh contacts, 360; attends Ada’s funeral, 400; accuses Lovelace of stealing Annabella’s letters, 436

  Byron, George Gordon, 6th Baron: meets Annabella, 28–38; appearance and manner, 29–30; family background, 30; lameness, 30, 70, 77; speech in Lords attacking repression of rioters, 31, 324; wild character, 31; praises Annabella’s poems, 33; Annabella’s estimate of character, 38–40; proposes to Annabella, 38, 41; serves on Drury Lane committee, 39, 88, 95; Annabella first declines marriage proposal, 40, 56, 60; Lady Melbourne intercedes in courtship with Annabella, 40–2; Annabella resumes acquaintance and correspondence with, 44–53; failed attempts to sell Newstead Abbey, 44–5, 57, 78; reunited with Augusta, 44, 46, 51; begins journal, 50; incest with Augusta, 54–5, 79, 85, 110, 123, 133; Annabella declares incompatible, 57–8; Annabella consents to marry, 58–60; vacillations over engagement to Annabella, 61–6; visits Annabella at Seaham, 61–4; visits Six Mile Bottom, 66, 78, 91; wedding at Seaham, 68–70; honeymoon, 71–7; near suffocation at Seaham, 72; irritability and temper, 73, 87, 91; financial worries and debts, 74–5, 87, 91–3, 96; religious beliefs, 74, 427; drinking, 77, 95, 109; love for Augusta, 77; declares fondness for Annabella, 78–9; marriage relations in Piccadilly Terrace, 81, 85–90; Phillips portrait in Albanian costume, 82, 145, 199, 347, 385, 459; diseased liver, 87; taunts and threatens Annabella, 87, 92, 98; draws up will, 90, 124; drinking parties with friends, 94, 96; Annabella proposes reform programme, 95–6; informs Annabella of affair with Susan Boyce, 96–7, 102; suggested insanity, 96, 101, 103–4; and Augusta’s presence at Piccadilly Terrace, 98; intention to move abroad, 98–9, 115; visits Annabella nursing Ada, 101; alludes to ‘mysterious act’, 102; Annabella leaves, 104–5; letters from Annabella on leaving, 105–8; declared rational in mind, 113; impending separation, 113–14; Caroline Lamb accuses of sodomy, 116; Annabella tells Lushington of shocking acts and practices, 117; agrees to separation, 121; suspected of murder, 121; books sold, 123; social ostracism, 123; leaves England in new coach, 124, 127; requests Annabella keep informed of family and children, 124; caricatured and criticised, 125–7; affairs and lovers after separation, 128; and burial of daughter Clara Allegra, 130; abuses Annabella in letters, 132–4; describes Annabella as ‘a moral Clytemnestra’, 133–4, 446; public attitude to, 136; writes self defence, 136; changing attitudes to Annabella, 137; death in Greece, 137, 143–4, 151; maintains interest in daughter Ada, 142–4; Annabella takes portrait to Hampstead home, 151; body returned to England and buried, 151, 353; and sale of Newstead, 162, 216; concern for Augusta’s financial security, 164; Annabella helps financially, 168–9; Thorwaldsen bust and statue, 317–18; granted memorial in Westminster Abbey, 318n, 454 & n; on poverty in England, 323; Annabella’s romantic memories of, 340, 358; Ada’s view of, 357; Guiccioli’s (de Boissy’s) accounts of, 442–4; relations with Teresa Guiccioli, 443, 446; incest made known in later biographies and accounts, 445–55, 457; letters published, 460–2, 465; letters to Lady Melbourne, 460, 462; drinking allergy, 476; suggested epilepsy and bipolar condition, 476; The Bride of Abydos, 53; Childe Harold, 29–30, 42, 134–6, 417; The Corsair, 52; The Deform’d Transformed (play), 427; Don Juan, 134, 136; ‘Fare Thee Well’ (poem), 122–5, 173; ‘Framers of the Frame Bill’ (poem), 30; The Giaour, 173; ‘Lines, on hearing Lady Byron was Ill’ (poem), 134; Manfred, 460; ‘Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte’, 55; Parisina, 107n; Ravenna Journal, 99; ‘The Satire’, 173; The Siege of Corinth, 94, 107n; ‘A Sketch from Private Life’, 122; ‘Stanzas to Augusta’, 123; Werner (play draft), 86

  Byron, Captain John (Byron’s father; ‘Mad Jack’), 101

  Byron, Admiral John (of the Wager), 163

  Byron, Lucy, Lady (née Wescomb; wife of 8th Baron), 153, 352, 357n

  Byron, Mary, Lady (George junior’s wife), 168

  Byron, Sophia, 101, 118

  Bystram, Baron, 319

  Calliphronas, Charlotte (née King; Ada’s sister-in-law), 200–1, 213, 215, 229, 248–9, 252–3

  Calliphronas, Demetrius, 248, 252–3

  Campbell, Thomas, 35

  Canning, Stratford, 48

  Carlisle, Henry, 452n

  Carlyle, Thomas, 190

  Carpenter, Margaret, 208–9, 338, 459

  Carpenter, Mary, 285, 426, 437–8

  Carpenter, Dr William: as tutor to Ada’s children, 285–90, 292, 315– 16; relations with Ada, 286–7, 297, 309, 314; Annabella offers financial help to, 292–3, 314–15

  Carpenter, Lant, 285

  Carr family, 147, 152

  Carr, Frances (Fanny), 145n, 339–40, 437, 441

  Carr, Mr (of Hampstead), 145

  Carr, Sarah see Lushington, Sarah

  Chalon, Alfred, 215, 296

  Chaloner, Elizabeth, 14

  Chaloner, Louisa, 14, 157, 164

  Chambers, Robert: Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, 300, 304, 310–12

  Champion, The (newspaper), 123–4

  Chandos-Pole, Elizabeth see Byron, Elizabeth, Lady

  Charles Albert, King of Sardinia,

  222–3

  Charlotte, Queen of George III, 83

  Charlotte Augusta, Princess, 122

  Chartism, 324

  Chaworth, Mary, 457, 462

  Chichester, Mary, Countess of (Augusta’s half-sister), 361–2, 458

  Chiles, Samuel (tipster), 365

  Clairmont, Claire, 128, 133, 141–2, 457

  Clare, John Fitzgibbon, 2nd Earl of, 348

  Clark, Sir James, 368

  Clark, Mrs (Florence Nightingale’s housekeeper), 399

  Clarkson, Thomas, 233

  Claughton, Thomas, 45, 78, 93

  Clement, Joseph, 189

  Clermont, Mary Anne: housekeeping for Sophy Curzon, 8; teaches handwriting to Annabella, 10; letters from Annabella, 88, 105; joins Annabella’s household, 97; believes Byron capable of murdering Annabella, 98; and Byron’s reaction to birth of daughter, 100; and Annabella’s leaving Byron,
105, 112, 115; on Byron’s condition after Annabella leaves, 109; controls Lady Noel’s temper, 113; Byron blames and abuses for marriage breakdown, 122–3, 173; Annabella severs relations with, 131

  Colburn, Henry (publisher), 164–5

  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: defends Frend, 12; relations with Byron, 94; in Somerset, 302; ‘Christabel’, 94; Kubla Khan, 240

  Combe, Andrew, 146n, 192, 208n, 234

  Combe, Cecilia (née Siddons), 146n

  Combe, George, 146n, 208n, 232; The Constitution of Man, 207–8, 214

  Cooper, Miss (governess), 287, 315–16

  Cork, Mary Boyle, Countess of, 17

  Cowper, Emily, Lady, 32

  Crabbe, George, 30

  Crabbet Park (Sussex), 463–4

  Crabbet Stud, 463

  Craft, Ellen, 430

  Craft, William, 430

  Craig, Mr (Ealing headmaster), 207, 231–2

  Crauford, Sir George, 249, 252–4, 335, 400

  Crauford, Hester, Lady (née King; Ada’s sister-in-law): relations with Ada, 211–16; stays with Robert Noel in Germany, 215; takes care of Ada’s children, 229; courtship and marriage, 249, 252–4, 259; Ada takes to theatre, 258; death, 335

  Crosse, Andrew, 190, 302–8, 311–12, 314, 367, 405, 475

  Crosse, Cornelia, 405

  Crosse, John: relations with Ada, 308– 14, 329–30, 349, 367, 384, 386–7, 391, 404–6; secret marriage to Susan Bowman, 321; requests financial help from Ada, 322, 331, 346; in Ada’s gambling circle, 364, 367; helps pawn Lovelace diamonds, 384, 392, 401; marriage and children revealed, 384–6; claims Ada’s life insurance, 403–4; letters from Ada, 404–5; changes name to Hamilton, 405