William Byron, 5th Baron Byron (5 November 1722 – 19 May 1798), was a British nobleman, peer, politician, and great-uncle of the poet George Gordon Byron who succeeded him in the title. As a result of a number of stories that arose after a duel, and then because of his financial difficulties, he became known after his death as "the Wicked Lord" and "the Devil Byron".
Byron was the son of William Byron, 4th Baron Byron, and his wife the Hon. Frances Berkeley, a descendant of John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. He inherited his title upon the death of his father on 18 August 1736.
He clearly had some military aspirations, enlisting in the Royal Navy as a midshipman aged 14 and serving aboard HMS Victory as a lieutenant at 18. At 17 he was also listed as a founding Governor of the Foundling Hospital, a popular charity project to look after abandoned babies that had previously been championed by his mother. After an abortive stint as a captain in the Duke of Kingston's Regiment during the Jacobite Rebellion, he went on to marry Elizabeth Shaw, daughter and heiress of Charles Shaw of Besthorpe in Norfolk, on 28 March 1747. They went on to have four children – two of whom lived to adulthood – including:
Hon. William Byron (b. 7 June 1748 – March/May 1749).
Hon. William Byron, MP (27 October 1749 – 22 June 1776).
Hon. Henrietta Diana Byron (June/August 1751 – May/June 1760).
Hon. Caroline Byron (b. 17 January 1755).
The month after his marriage he was elected Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England, a position he held until 20 March 1752. He also served as Master of the Staghounds from 1763 until 1765, though he achieved nothing of note in either role.
Byron was initiated to the Scottish Rite Masonry and became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England (Moderns) from 1747 to 1751.
On 26 January 1765, Byron killed his distant cousin and neighbour, William Chaworth, in a dispute at the 'Star and Garter' tavern (on the site of the Carlton Club), Pall Mall, in London. The fight resulted from an argument the two had been engaged in over cups of wine, with both insisting they had more game on their estates. Lord Byron and his cousin retired to a dim room to resolve their disagreement and it was there that Lord Byron thrust his sword through Chaworth's stomach. Chaworth lived until the following day, expressing his disgust that he had not been of sound enough mind to insist they fight in a location outfitted with better lighting before finally succumbing to his injury. Lord Byron was tried for Chaworth's death, but was found guilty only of manslaughter. As a peer with privilege of Parliament, he claimed the benefit of clergy under "the statute of Edward VI" (Treason Act 1547) and so instead of being "burned in the hand" was forced to pay a small fine.
Lord Byron already had a poor reputation at the time of Chaworth's death – but as he awaited his trial at the Tower of London, Horace Walpole described how countless malicious stories about him were 'revived or invented'. Some contained a kernel of truth, but others were entirely fabricated. They included the accusations that he had murdered a coachman and paid off his family, and that he had murdered his own wife.
Many more myths about him were first set in print in the 19th century, decades after his death. These first appear in the 1820s and 1830s, some of which appear to have been invented by the American writer Washington Irving, including:
That he became a recluse at Newstead Abbey after the duel of 1765;
That he intentionally laid waste to his estates and the Byron family fortune in revenge for his son's disobedience;
That he mounted the sword he used to kill Chaworth on the wall in his bedroom at Newstead Abbey;
That he spent his youth organising orgies at Newstead Abbey; and spent his later years worshipping Satan;
That in his eccentric, perhaps insane, old age, he cultivated a swarm of crickets, which he trained to race all over his body and which abandoned his home at the moment of his death.
The stories have been propagated particularly by biographers of Byron's great-nephew, the poet.