April 21, 1816 - Ada’s mother, Lady Byron

Anne Isabella Milbanke (Annabella), an “unimaginative and humorless wife” (Brittanica), as Lord Byron referred to her, was 23 when Ada was born.

Anabella was “an exceptionally intelligent woman who excelled in everything from linguistics to mathematics” (Rioux).  Lord Byron nicknamed her the “Princess of Parallelograms,” meant to be affectionate.

Lady Bryon “famously and scandalously, left her famous husband,” who was “a man capable of great cruelty and deceit” (Rioux). Ada was only two months old when Lady Byron legally separated from Lord Byron. He signed the papers on April 21, 1816, according to County Line Magazine.

When Ada was only four years old, her mother wrote a private poem dated December 16, 1819, “guiltily entitled ‘The Unnatural Mother'” (Seymour).

“‘My Child! Forgive the seeming wrong / The heart with-held from thee…’  A month earlier, Annabella confessed that the first real evidence of Ada’s affection had come as a huge relief: ‘I had a strange prepossession that she would never be fond of me'” (Seymour).