William Byron (1722 - 1798) inherited Newstead Abbey in 1736 at the age of fourteen, whilst at Westminster School. He was removed from school at sixteen and sent into the Navy. Coming of age in 1743 he left the Navy, and married Elizabeth Shaw in 1747. She was the daughter and heiress of Charles Shaw of Besthorpe, Norfolk. They had four children, two of whom survived to adulthood.
In January 1765, he (accidentally) killed his cousin and neighbour William Chaworth in a duel with swords at the Star and Garter tavern in Pall Mall. The dispute began over whose estate had more game. It escalated when the two men retired to a poorly lit private room to settle the matter with swords. William Chaworth was mortally wounded and died the next day. Byron was imprisoned in the Tower of London and tried for murder. He was judged guilty only of manslaughter, paid a small fine, and was set free.
Throughout his life, expenditure outstripped income. He was known to have lavished money on the estate during his younger years before his financial situation deteriorated. Money was largely spent on building Gothic follies. The Folly Castle was a sham castle built on a hill overlooking the lake with four guns on a rampart. It served as a banqueting house and was fashionably furnished with servants’ quarters in the basement to prepare food for the parties hosted there. A small fortification with guns, called the Battery, was constructed on the shore of the lake, with a boathouse beside it. Turrets and battlements were later added to the mill located across the lake from the Battery to create a Fort.
Byron continued to visit London frequently
and brought back parties of friends to shoot ducks or enjoy mock naval battles
from the Battery. He acquired a miniature fleet of five ships and a 20-gun
schooner carrying its own cannon. These were manned by a full-time crew of
sailors - and some of his servants!
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| Photo S. Freeman |
William’s hopes of securing a wealthy heiress for his son were thwarted when his son eloped with his first cousin, Juliana Elizabeth Byron (daughter of Vice-Admiral John Byron). Mythology suggests that in a fit of rage, Lord Byron intentionally neglected the ancestral home. He felled trees and sold off valuables to pay creditors and spite his son and heir.
Arguably this is far from the truth. Despite finances in a dire condition, William Byron attempted to maintain the estate and treated tenants and servants well. The neglect and decay stemmed from his inability to pay off his debts. The Brass Eagle Lectern and Candlesticks which had been thrown into a large, rectangular pool at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, were discovered when the pond was drained by the 5th Lord. He sold these to Sir Richard Kaye (who later donated them to Southwell Minster). This was followed by the ‘Great Sale’ of 1778, held at Newstead Abbey. Included in sale were the 4th Lord’s paintings along with much of the Abbey’s furniture and other valuables. William had also leased out the colliery rights in Rochdale. A paltry income was derived from the coal mines and stone quarries in Rochdale and the farms and mills at Newstead.
His wife left him after the ‘Great Sale’ and
took with her, their only surviving child. Caroline died in 1784, leaving the
couple childless.
William outlived his grandson who was killed by cannon fire at the siege of Calvi in Corsica in 1794.
Finally, William became an ‘eccentric and
misanthropic’ recluse attended by Elizabeth Hardstaff and his butler Joe
Murray.
When the 5th Lord died in 1798, at the age of
seventy-five, Newstead Abbey passed to his great-nephew, George Gordon Byron.
Whilst the House had fallen into a state of disrepair, the estate was not
encumbered by debt or subject to legal restraints.
As a result of stories told following the duel, his life of eccentric behaviour and the decline of the ancestral estate, the 5th Lord was infamously known by the nicknames ‘the Wicked Lord’ and ‘the Devil Byron’. Elizabeth Hardstaff was one of the few people mentioned in his will. After the Lord’s death, ‘Lady Betty’, as she was known locally, spoke to Thomas Moore whilst he was carrying out research for his biography “Letters and Journals of Lord Byron” (published in 1830). She reinforced perceptions of the 5th Lord as a cantankerous, violent and eccentric recluse. Arguably her colourful stories, along with those of Luke Adams (a charcoal burner operating within the woodland estate) were based on memory - and were in part embellished by time and local gossip.
