Editing Ada Lovelace (section)

==Biography==
===Childhood===
[[Lord Byron]] expected his child to be a "glorious boy" and was disappointed when [[Lady Byron]] gave birth to a girl.{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=35}} The child was named after Byron's half-sister, [[Augusta Leigh]], and was called "Ada" by Byron himself.{{Sfn|Stein|1985|p=17}} On 16 January 1816, at Lord Byron's command, Lady Byron left for her parents' home at [[Kirkby Mallory]], taking their five-week-old daughter with her.{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=35}} Although English law at the time granted full custody of children to the father in cases of separation, Lord Byron made no attempt to claim his parental rights,{{Sfn|Stein|1985|p=16}} but did request that his sister keep him informed of Ada's welfare.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=80}}

[[File:Miniature of Ada Byron.jpg|thumb|Ada Byron, aged four|alt=Ada Byron, portrait at age four]]

On 21 April, Lord Byron signed the [[deed of separation]], although very reluctantly, and left England for good a few days later.{{Sfn|Turney|1972|pp=36–38}} Aside from an acrimonious separation, Lady Byron continued throughout her life to make allegations about her husband's immoral behaviour.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=74–77}} This set of events made Lovelace infamous in Victorian society. Ada did not have a relationship with her father. He died in 1824 when she was eight years old. Her mother was the only significant parental figure in her life.<ref name="Turney p. 138">{{Harvnb|Turney|1972|p=138}}.</ref> Lovelace was not shown the family portrait of her father until her 20th birthday.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=10}}

[[File:Ada Lovelace child portrait Somerville College.jpg|thumb|left|Ada Byron, aged seven, by [[Alfred d'Orsay]], 1822, [[Somerville College, Oxford]]|alt=Ada Byron, portrait at age 7]]

Lovelace did not have a close relationship with her mother. She was often left in the care of her maternal grandmother Judith, Hon. Lady Milbanke, who doted on her. However, because of societal attitudes of the time—which favoured the husband in any separation, with the welfare of any child acting as mitigation—Lady Byron had to present herself as a loving mother to the rest of society. This included writing anxious letters to Lady Milbanke about her daughter's welfare, with a cover note saying to retain the letters in case she had to use them to show maternal concern.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=85–87}} In one letter to Lady Milbanke, she referred to her daughter as "it": "I talk to it for your satisfaction, not my own, and shall be very glad when you have it under your own."{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=86}} Lady Byron had her teenage daughter watched by close friends for any sign of moral deviation. Lovelace dubbed these observers the "Furies" and later complained they exaggerated and invented stories about her.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=119}}

[[File:Ada Byron aged seventeen (1832).jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Ada Byron, aged seventeen, 1832|alt=Ada Byron, portrait drawn at age 17]]

Lovelace was often ill, beginning in early childhood. At the age of eight, she experienced headaches that obscured her vision.{{Sfn | Stein|1985|p=17}} In June 1829, she was paralyzed after a bout of [[measles]]. She was subjected to continuous bed rest for nearly a year, something which may have extended her period of disability. By 1831, she was able to walk with crutches. Despite the illnesses, she developed her mathematical and technological skills.

{{Blockquote|text=When Ada was twelve years old, this future "Lady Fairy", as Charles Babbage affectionately called her, decided she wanted to fly. Ada Byron went about the project methodically, thoughtfully, with imagination and passion. Her first step, in February 1828, was to construct wings. She investigated different material and sizes. She considered various materials for the wings: paper, oilsilk, wires, and feathers. She examined the [[anatomy of birds]] to determine the right proportion between the wings and the body. She decided to write a book, ''Flyology,'' illustrating, with plates, some of her findings. She decided what equipment she would need; for example, a compass, to "cut across the country by the most direct road", so that she could surmount mountains, rivers, and valleys. Her final step was to integrate steam with the "art of flying".<ref name=ABCL/>}}

Ada Byron had an affair with a tutor in early 1833. She tried to elope with him after she was caught, but the tutor's relatives recognised her and contacted her mother. Lady Byron and her friends covered the incident up to prevent a public scandal.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=120–21}} Lovelace never met her younger half-sister, [[Allegra Byron|Allegra]], the daughter of Lord Byron and [[Claire Clairmont]]. Allegra died in 1822 at the age of five. Lovelace did have some contact with [[Elizabeth Medora Leigh]], the daughter of Byron's half-sister Augusta Leigh, who purposely avoided Lovelace as much as possible when introduced at court.{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=155}}

===Adult years===
[[File:Ada Lovelace portrait.jpg|thumb|Watercolour portrait of Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, {{Circa|1840}}, possibly by [[Alfred Edward Chalon]]|alt=Ada King, Countess of Lovelace. Watercolour portrait circa 1840]]

Lovelace became close friends with her tutor [[Mary Somerville]], who introduced her to Charles Babbage in 1833. She had a strong respect and affection for Somerville,{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=138–40}} and they corresponded for many years. Other acquaintances included the scientists [[Andrew Crosse]], [[David Brewster|Sir David Brewster]], [[Charles Wheatstone]], [[Michael Faraday]] and the author [[Charles Dickens]]. She was [[debutante|presented at Court]] at the age of seventeen "and became a popular belle of the season" in part because of her "brilliant mind".{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=138}} By 1834 Ada was a regular at Court and started attending various events. She danced often and was able to charm many people, and was described by most people as being dainty, although [[John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton|John Hobhouse]], Byron's friend, described her as "a large, coarse-skinned young woman but with something of my friend's features, particularly the mouth".{{Sfn|Turney|1972|pp=138–39}} This description followed their meeting on 24 February 1834 in which Ada made it clear to Hobhouse that she did not like him, probably due to her mother's influence, which led her to dislike all of her father's friends. This first impression was not to last, and they later became friends.{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=139}}
[[File:Ada Lovelace's husband William King in uniform.webp|thumb|William King, 1st Earl of Lovelace in uniform]]
On 8 July 1835, she married [[William King, 1st Earl of Lovelace|William, 8th Baron King]], becoming Lady King. They had three homes: [[Ockham Park]], Surrey; a Scottish estate on [[Torridon|Loch Torridon]] in [[Ross-shire]]; and a house in London. They spent their honeymoon at Ashley Combe near [[Porlock Weir]], Somerset, which had been built as a hunting lodge in 1799 and was improved by King in preparation for their honeymoon. It later became their summer retreat and was further improved during this time. From 1845, the family's main house was [[Horsley Towers]], built in the [[Tudor Revival architecture|Tudorbethan]] fashion by the architect of the Houses of Parliament, [[Charles Barry]],<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/surrey/vol3/pp349-352 |title=A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3. Parishes: East Horsley|access-date=26 February 2017 |quote=Horsley Towers is a large house standing in a park of 300 acres, the seat of the Earl of Lovelace. The old house was rebuilt about 1745. The present house was built by Sir Charles Barry for Mr. Currie on a new site, between 1820 and 1829, in Elizabethan style. Mr. Currie, who owned the combined manors, 1784–1829, rebuilt most of the houses in the village and restored the church.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Andrew Crosse and the mite that shocked the world: The life and work of an electrical pioneer |last=Wright |first=Brian |isbn=978-1-78462-438-5 |page=262 |year=2015 |publisher=Matador }}</ref> and later greatly enlarged to Lovelace's own designs.

They had three children: [[Byron King-Noel, Viscount Ockham|Byron]] (born 1836); [[Lady Anne Blunt|Anne Isabella]] (called Annabella, born 1837); and [[Ralph King-Milbanke, 2nd Earl of Lovelace|Ralph Gordon]] (born 1839). Immediately after the birth of Annabella, Lady King experienced "a tedious and suffering illness, which took months to cure".{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=139}} Ada was a descendant of the extinct [[Baron Lovelace|Barons Lovelace]] and in 1838, her husband was made [[Earl of Lovelace]] and Viscount Ockham, meaning Ada became the Countess of Lovelace.<ref>{{cite news |via=[[NewspaperArchive.com]] |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/entertainment-clipping-apr-09-1841-1422479/ |work=[[Macon Georgia Telegraph]] |location=[[Macon, Georgia|Macon]], Georgia |date=9 April 1841 |page=3 |title=New York Fifty Years Ago }}</ref> In 1843–44, Ada's mother assigned [[William Benjamin Carpenter]] to teach Ada's children and to act as a "moral" instructor for Ada.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=285–86}} He quickly fell for her and encouraged her to express any frustrated affections, claiming that his marriage meant he would never act in an "unbecoming" manner. When it became clear that Carpenter was trying to start an affair, Ada cut it off.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=289–96}}

In 1841, Lovelace and [[Elizabeth Medora Leigh|Medora Leigh]] (the daughter of Lord Byron's half-sister Augusta Leigh) were told by Ada's mother that Ada's father was also Medora's father.{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=159}} On 27 February 1841, Ada wrote to her mother: "I am not in the least ''astonished''. In fact, you merely ''confirm'' what I have for ''years and years'' felt scarcely a doubt about, but should have considered it most improper in me to hint to you that I in any way suspected."{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=160}} She did not blame the incestuous relationship on Byron, but instead blamed Augusta Leigh: "I fear she is more inherently wicked than he ever was."{{Sfn|Moore|1961|p=431}} In the 1840s, Ada flirted with scandals: firstly, from a relaxed approach to extra-marital relationships with men, leading to rumours of affairs;{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=302}} and secondly, from her love of gambling. She apparently lost more than £3,000 on the horses during the later 1840s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/theory-babbagesdancer-print.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030628211849/http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/theory-babbagesdancer-print.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 June 2003|title=Babbage's Dancer|first=Simon|last=Schaffer|publisher=the hypermedia research centre|access-date=4 August 2017}}</ref> The gambling led to her forming a syndicate with male friends, and an ambitious attempt in 1851 to create a mathematical model for successful large bets. This went disastrously wrong, leaving her thousands of pounds in debt to the syndicate, forcing her to admit it all to her husband.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=340–42}} She had a shadowy relationship with Andrew Crosse's son John from 1844 onwards. John Crosse destroyed most of their correspondence after her death as part of a legal agreement. She bequeathed him the only heirlooms her father had personally left to her.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=336–37}} During her final illness, she would panic at the idea of the younger Crosse being kept from visiting her.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=361}}

===Education===
[[File:Ada Lovelace sonnet The Rainbow Somerville College.JPG|thumb|Sonnet titled ''The Rainbow'' in Lovelace's own hand ([[Somerville College Library|Somerville College]])]]
From 1832, when she was seventeen, her mathematical abilities began to emerge,{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=138}} and her interest in mathematics dominated the majority of her adult life.{{Sfn|Stein|1985|pp=28–30}} Her mother's obsession with rooting out any of the insanity of which she accused Byron was one of the reasons that Ada was taught mathematics from an early age. She was privately educated in mathematics and science by [[William Frend (social reformer)|William Frend]], [[William King (physician)|William King]],<ref name=williamkings group=lower-alpha>William King, her tutor, and William King, her future husband, were not related.</ref> and Mary Somerville, the noted 19th-century researcher and scientific author. In the 1840s, the mathematician [[Augustus De Morgan]] extended her "much help in her mathematical studies" including study of advanced calculus topics including the "[[Bernoulli number|numbers of Bernoulli]]" (that formed her celebrated algorithm for Babbage's Analytical Engine).<ref>Thomas J. Misa, "Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, and the Bernoulli Numbers" in ''Ada's Legacy: Cultures of Computing from the Victorian to the Digital Age'', edited by Robin Hammerman and Andrew L. Russell (ACM Books, 2015), pp. 18–20, {{doi|10.1145/2809523}}.</ref> In a letter to Lady Byron, De Morgan suggested that Ada's skill in mathematics might lead her to become "an original mathematical investigator, perhaps of first-rate eminence".{{Sfn|Stein|1985|p=82}}

Lovelace often questioned basic assumptions through integrating poetry and science. Whilst studying [[differential calculus]], she wrote to De Morgan:

<blockquote>I may remark that the curious transformations many formulae can undergo, the unsuspected and to a beginner apparently impossible identity of forms exceedingly dissimilar at first sight, is I think one of the chief difficulties in the early part of mathematical studies. I am often reminded of certain sprites and fairies one reads of, who are at one's elbows in ''one'' shape now, and the next minute in a form most dissimilar.{{Sfn|Toole|1998|p=99}}</blockquote>

Lovelace believed that intuition and imagination were critical to effectively applying mathematical and scientific concepts. She valued [[metaphysics]] as much as mathematics, viewing both as tools for exploring "the unseen worlds around us".{{Sfn|Toole|1998|pp=91–100}}

===Death===
[[File:Ada Lovelace in 1852.jpg|thumb|Painting of Lovelace seated at a piano, by [[Henry Wyndham Phillips|Henry Phillips]] (1852). Although in great pain at the time, she agreed to sit for the painting as her father, [[Lord Byron]], had been painted by Phillips' father, [[Thomas Phillips]].|alt=Ada Lovelace, painted portrait circa 1852]]

Lovelace died at the age of 36 on 27 November 1852<ref>{{Citation |publisher=GRO |title=Register of Deaths |contribution=December 1852 1a * MARYLEBONE&nbsp;– Augusta Ada Lovelace}}.</ref> from [[cervical cancer]] (which contemporary accounts called uterine cancer, since a distinction between the two was not made at time).{{Sfn|Baum|1986|pp=99–100}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lowy |first=Ilana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b0vgZtfspJMC&dq=ada+lovelace+cervical+cancer&pg=PP1 |title=A Woman's Disease: The History of Cervical Cancer |date=2011-11-10 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-954881-1 |language=en}}</ref> The illness lasted several months, in which time Annabella took command over whom Ada saw, and excluded all of her friends and confidants. Under her mother's influence, Ada had a religious transformation and was coaxed into repenting of her previous conduct and making Annabella her executor.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=370}} She lost contact with her husband after confessing something to him on 30 August which caused him to abandon her bedside. It is not known what she told him.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=369}} She was buried, at her request, next to her father at the [[Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Hucknall|Church of St. Mary Magdalene]] in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.<ref name="Nast Wolfram 2015 d713">{{cite magazine  |last=Wolfram | first=Stephen | title=Untangling the Tale of Ada Lovelace | magazine=WIRED | date=22 December 2015 | url=https://www.wired.com/2015/12/untangling-the-tale-of-ada-lovelace/ | access-date=6 April 2024}}</ref>