George Gordon Noel Byron was born in London on the twenty-second of January in 1778. As a child he was simply known as George Gordon. He was born with a clubfoot that was a problem for him the first decade of his life.
His mother, Catherine Gordon, was alone during the end of her pregnancy and had to ask for financial assistance. This was ironic because she was a descendant of the King of Scotland. Her husband squandered the family's fortune and eventually died in poverty in France. The boy Byron and his mother moved to Aberdeen, Scotland, to live near her family.
In Scotland Bryon attended grammar school. He was extremely sensitive of his abnormality, as many of us can relate to how little boys can be. Bryon had a nurse at this point by the name of May Gray, and it was rumored that she made physical advances towards the child when he was only nine! It is easy to assume this experience affected his attitude towards women for the rest of his life.
Byron inherited the title and estates of his great-uncle at the age of ten. He and his mother went back to England. His uncle's estates included the ruins of Newstead Abbey, which had been presented to the Byron family by King Henry VIII. Lord Byron fell in love with it and he and his mother lived in its ruins for a while. While staying here he had a private tutor in Nottingham and a private doctor for his clubfoot. His doctor is said to have been a quack.
John Hanson, who was Mrs. Byron's attorney, decided to rescue the young boy from the influence of his nurse, the tortures of his doctor, and the uneven temper of his mother. He took Byron to London, found a respectable doctor for him, and sent him off to school in Dulwich. .
Lord Byron courted his distant cousin, Mary Chaworth, during the summer of 1803. He was spending the summer with his mother at Southwell, but decided to stay in Newstead to be with Mary. She eventually grew tired of Lord Byron, calling him "that lame boy" because of his club foot.
