Ben Jeapes - Ada Lovelace

Ben Jeapes is a childrens book author who also runs his own independent science fiction publishing house based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

Nick Ward is an illustrator, a writer, and the creator of several popular picture books for children.
He lives in England.

Babbage, Charles. The Life of a Philospher. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Moore, Thomas. Letters and Journals of Lord Byron. London: J. Murray, 1830.

Padua, Sydney. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer. New York: Pantheon, 2015.

Swade, Doron. The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer. New York: Penguin Books, 2002.

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. The Vision of Sin. Quoted in Tennysons Poems: The Vision of Sin. GradeSaver. See www.gradesaver.com/tennysons-poems/e-text/the-vision-of-sin.

Toole, Betty A. Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers: Prophet of the Computer Age. Moreton-in-Marsh, UK: Strawberry Press, 1998.

Woolley, Benjamin. The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byrons Daughter. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.

Adas father, George Gordon, was the sixth Lord Byron (lets just call him Byron for short). He came from a long line of drunkards, addicts, gamblers, and murderers.

He carried on the family theme of wild, dangerous living, even though he didnt have any money before he got married! He liked to throw parties for his friends at the family home, Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. Newstead had once been a monastery, and its said Byron liked to drink his wine out of a cup made from an old skull found in the monks graveyard. Ew! Byron started writing poetry at the age of fourteen, and in 1812, when he was twenty-four, he published the first half of his epic poem, Childe Harolds Pilgrimageit sold out in just three days! Byron became a superstar overnight. In those days, he was about as cool as a YouTuber with fifty million followers. As he said himself: I awoke one morning and found myself famous. Just think what he could have done if hed written the whole poem!

Childe Harold made a small fortune for its publisher, but it didnt help Byrons debt problems. Strangely, he wouldnt take any of the money for himself.

Byrons money troubles finally changed when he met Anne Isabella Milbanke.

Anne Isabella called herself Annabella. She was the cousin of a future prime minister and stood to inherit 20,000 (a few million dollars today) from a very old uncle. For Byron, it was the money that sealed the deal. In those days every penny a woman owned officially became her husbands when they got marriedand then she had absolutely no control over it.

Byron might not want to earn money, but he had no problem with marrying a rich woman and taking all her wealth. It was a family tradition after all!

There was more to the match than just money, however. Byron and Annabella agreed about important things like social justice and helping people who were too poor to help themselves. His first speech in the House of Lords had been about workers in the north of England losing their jobs because of new fangled machines taking their places. Byron was on the workers side and so was Annabella.

T HE H OUSE OF L ORDS

Britains Parliament consists of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Members of the Commons are elected, but to join the Lords, you just needed to be a lord. So, Byron was automatically a member. He did have to give a speech, though, and a members first speech was usually on a subject very close to their heart.

They got married on January 2, 1815, had their first big argument on their honeymoonit was downhill from then on. The unhappy couple moved to a fashionable part of London, and ten months later, on December 10, 1815, Ada was born. She was christened Augusta Ada Gordon, but generally addressed as Miss Byron. And to avoid confusion with her fathers half-sisteralso named Augustashe was known by family and friends as Ada.

Byron cared about Adahe even wrote a bit about her in the second part of Childe Harold, and by his standards thats probably the nicest thing he could have done.

But he wasnt ready to be tied down, and other things were going wrong too. Annabellas uncle had finally died, but then Byron learned, to his horror, that the old mans money would go to Annabellas mother first. Byron wouldnt get a penny until she died. By now Byron owed so much that debt collectors moved into his London home to make sure he didnt run off with any of the valuables.

The pressure of their money troubles made Byron so angry and violent that his personal servant had to be on constant guard to make sure he didnt attack his wife. Meanwhile, Annabella was worried that Byron was going madand she wasnt too pleased to discover that, despite being married, he was still having other relationships.

By January 15, 1816, Annabella had had enough. She was worried about her money and her own safetyand if she wasnt safe, then neither was her baby. Thats why she ended up sneaking away from Byron, taking Ada with her.

Rattling as fast as it could toward Kirkby Hall, near Leicesterwhere Annabellas parents livedthe journey lasted days. Byron might have guessed where his wife was heading, but with no money, he couldnt afford to chase after her. However, the law was still on his side. If she was caught, shed have to hand Ada back. So, when they stopped overnight to rest the horses, Annabella barely slept.

It was practically unheard of for a wife to leave her husband back then. Annabellas reputation was at risk! Even though Byron was a horrible husband, everyone would say she was the one in the wrong.

She wrote to a helpful doctor, who she hoped could prove Byron was mad. If he was mad, she reckoned, then he could be cured, and they could all get back to being one fairly unhappy family.

When they reached Kirkby Hall, Annabella could finally relax... a little. Her rich dad, Sir Ralph Milbanke, was there to protect her, while her anxious mom hurried off to London to find the best lawyer she could.