William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace

William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace FRS (21 February 1805 – 29 December 1893), known as the Hon. William King until 1833 and as the Lord King from 1833 to 1838, was an English nobleman and scientist.

The Right Honourable The Earl of Lovelace FRS
Born	21 February 1805
Died	29 December 1893 (aged 88)
Spouse(s)	Hon. Augusta Ada Byron ​ ​ (m. 1835; died 1852)​ Jane Jenkins
Children	Byron King-Noel, Viscount Ockham Anne Blunt, 15th Baroness Wentworth Ralph King-Milbanke, 2nd Earl of Lovelace Lionel King, 3rd Earl of Lovelace
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. He succeeded in the barony in 1833. He was created Viscount Ockham and Earl of Lovelace in 1838, and appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey in 1840, a post he held until his death.[1] On 25 November 1841, he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society.[2] 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.[1][3][4] 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, in Ross-shire, Scotland. In 1889 he became a promoter of the Aultbea Railway.[5]

William King-Noel circa 1860

Marriages and children

In 1835 Lord King married Hon. Augusta Ada Byron, the first computer programmer[1][6] and the only legitimate daughter of poet George Byron, 6th Baron Byron. They had three children:[1]

• 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. They had one son:[1]

• 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.[1]

William King-Noel's coat of arms in relief on County Hall, Kingston upon Thames, London

Notes

1. Burke's: 'Lovelace'.
2. "Fellow details". Retrieved 4 May 2017.
3. Davis, Appendix A.
4. 'Army List', various dates.
5. Drummond, Andrew (2020), A Quite Impossible Proposal: How Not to Build a Railway, Birlinn, pp. 161 & 162
6. 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.

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.