William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace
William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace, FRS (21 February 1805 – 29 December 1893), styled the Honourable William King until 1833 and Lord King from 1833 to 1838, was an English nobleman and scientist.
The Earl of Lovelace | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 21 February 1805 |
| Died | 29 December 1893 (aged 88) |
| Spouse(s) | Jane Jenkins |
| Children |
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| Parent(s) | Peter King, 7th Baron King Lady Hester Fortescue |
Early life and background
Lovelace was the eldest son of Peter King, 7th Baron King, and his wife, Lady Hester Fortescue, granddaughter of George Grenville. The politician the Hon. Peter John Locke King was his younger brother.
Educated at Eton and Trinity, he entered the diplomatic service and became secretary to Lord Nugent. He succeeded in the barony in 1833 when his father died.[1] He performed architectural work in his houses.[2]
He was created Viscount Ockham and Earl of Lovelace in 1838 (through his wife Ada), and appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey in 1840, a post he held until his death.[3] On 25 November 1841, he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society.[4] He was appointed Colonel of the 2nd Royal Surrey Militia on 14 August 1852. He resigned this command on 11 April 1870, when he was appointed Honorary Colonel of the regiment (which became the 3rd Battalion, Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment), a position he held until his death.[3][5][6] In 1860, he adopted the additional surname of "Noel".
Ben Damph Estate
In 1886, the Earl purchased Ben Damph Lodge and its surrounding 12,000 acre sporting estate at the east end of Loch Torridon,[7][8] in Ross-shire, Scotland. In 1889 he became a promoter of the Aultbea Railway.[9]
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Marriages and children
In 1835, Lord King married Hon. Augusta Ada Byron, the first computer programmer[3][10] and the only legitimate daughter of poet George Byron, 6th Baron Byron. They had three children:[3]
- Byron King-Noel (1836–1862); styled Viscount Ockham, later succeeded his grandmother as 12th Baron Wentworth.
- Lady Annabella Isabella King-Noel (1837–1917); later 15th Baroness Wentworth. She married the poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt.
- Ralph Gordon King Noel Milbanke (1839–1906); styled Viscount Ockham, later 2nd Earl of Lovelace.
After Ada Lovelace died in 1852, he married Jane Jenkins (nee Crawford?). They had one son:[3]
- Maj. Lionel Fortescue King, later 3rd Earl of Lovelace.
Lord Lovelace died in December 1893, aged 88, and was succeeded in the earldom by his second but eldest surviving son, Ralph.[3][11]
Notes
- "The Barons King & Earls of Lovelace | Lyon & Turnbull". www.lyonandturnbull.com. 2015. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021.
The Lovelace title was chosen to mark the fact that Ada was, through the families of Byron, Milbanke, Noel and Lovelace, a descendant of the Barons Lovelace of Hurley
- "East Horsley, William King – 1st Earl of Lovelace". Exploring Surrey's Past. Archived from the original on 23 October 2020.
Lovelace became famous in his time for the arched trusses in the collar roof of his banqueting hall which had been bent by the application of steam heat. This process was one on which Lord Lovelace became an authority. He delivered a paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1849, two years after his banqueting hall was built, and received praise from no less a person than the great engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
- Burke's: 'Lovelace'.
- "Fellow details". Retrieved 4 May 2017.
- Davis, Appendix A.
- 'Army List', various dates.
- "Local History | Activities at Ben Damph - Torridon - North West Scotland". www.bendamph.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2016.
- "Torridon & Shieldaig - a history". www.stevecarter.com. Archived from the original on 21 July 2018.
- Drummond, Andrew (2020), A Quite Impossible Proposal: How Not to Build a Railway, Birlinn, pp. 161 & 162
- Fuegi, J.; Francis, J. (October–December 2003). "Lovelace & babbage and the creation of the 1843 'notes'". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 25 (4): 16–26. doi:10.1109/MAHC.2003.1253887.
- "King-Noel, William, 1st Earl of Lovelace (1805–1893) {British Armorial Bindings}". armorial.library.utoronto.ca. Archived from the original on 16 January 2021.
References
- Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 100th Edn, London, 1953.
- Capt John Davis, Historical Records of the Second Royal Surrey or Eleventh Regiment of Militia, London: Marcus Ward, 1877.