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William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace, FRS (21 February 1805 – 29 December 1893), styled The Lord King from 1833 to 1838, was an English nobleman and scientist. He was the husband of Lord Byron's daughter Ada, today remembered as a pioneering computer scientist.
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]
In 1835, Lord King (as he then was) married as his first wife Ada Byron, the only daughter of the poet Lord Byron and his wife Anne Isabella Milbanke. 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.[3] 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 extinct Barons Lovelace. The couple had three children: Byron (born 1836), Anne (born 1837), and Ralph (born 1839). Lady Lovelace died in 1852, leaving her husband, in his forties, a widower.
In 1860, the Earl's eldest son, Byron, succeeded his maternal grandmother to become 12th Baron Wentworth according to its special remainder. However, he died, still unmarried, just two years later, and his brother Ralph became 13th Baron Wentworth. In 1861, Ralph assumed by Royal licence the surname of Milbanke in lieu of Noel.
In 1865 he remarried, to the widow Jane Crawford Jenkins. They had one child, Lionel (1865–1929), who would eventually succeed as 3rd Earl of Lovelace in 1906.
Lord Lovelace acquired Horsley Towers (now a hotel) in East Horsley and was patron of the parish church funding the rebuilding of the chancel and the nave in 1869.[6] He also rebuilt the wall of the churchyard which included a number of architectural features such as the gazebo and its family crest-engraved walls. He planned for his death 20 years before he died when began work on a mausoleum in another corner of the churchyard. This mausoleum, has recently been restored.[7]
He had fifteen bridges, known as the Lovelace Bridges, constructed on his estate in East Horsley to facilitate the transport of timber by horse-drawn carts. The bridges were built where the tracks crossed existing bridleways or roads. Ten bridges still exist.
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,[8][9] in Ross-shire, Scotland. In 1889, he became a promoter of the Aultbea Railway.[10]
Death and succession
The 1st Earl of Lovelace's Mausoleum in the churchyard of Martin's Church, East Horsley
At his death on 29 December 1893, his titles as Earl of Lovelace, Viscount Ockham and Baron King passed to his second (and eldest surviving) son Ralph, who was already the 13th Baron Wentworth. The first Earl of Lovelace was buried in his mausoleum in the churchyard of Martin's Church, East Horsley, which still contains his tomb and that of his second wife.[11]
^"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.
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