Elizabeth Medora Leigh
| Elizabeth Medora Leigh | |
|---|---|
Elizabeth Medora Leigh
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| Born | 15 April 1814 |
| Died | 28 August 1849 (aged 35) Versols-et-Lapeyre, France |
| Resting place | Versols-et-Lapeyre |
| Spouse(s) | Jean-Louis Taillefer |
| Partner(s) | Henry Trevanion |
| Children | Marie Violette Trevanion Elie Taillefer |
| Parent(s) | George Leigh (legally) George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (presumably) Augusta Leigh |
Elizabeth Medora Leigh (15 April 1814 – 28 August 1849) was the third daughter of Augusta Leigh. It is widely speculated that she was fathered by her mother's half-brother Lord Byron, although her mother's husband Colonel George Leigh was her official father.
Three days after her birth, Byron visited Augusta and the baby. He later wrote to a friend, Lady Melbourne: "Oh! but it is 'worth while' – I can't tell you why – and it is not an Ape and if it is – that must be my fault." There was a folk belief, common in the 19th century, that a child born of incest would be an ape. Byron was forced to go into exile as a result of the scandal surrounding his break-up from his wife Annabella Milbanke and his relationship with Augusta.
The child's middle name was taken from the heroine of Byron's poem The Corsair. In the family, she was known as Elizabeth or "Libby", but she also later used the name Medora.
Medora Leigh's later life was a troubled one. As a teenager, she had an affair with her older sister Georgiana's husband Henry Trevanion, and ran away with him. Trevanion fathered her daughter Marie Violette (19 May 1834 - 1873), who became a Roman Catholic nun in France in 1856 under the name "Sister St. Hilaire". Leigh and her daughter were supported financially and emotionally for a number of years by Byron's former wife, Annabella Milbanke, and by Byron's only legitimate daughter, Ada Lovelace. Milbanke told Lovelace that Leigh was her half-sister and had been fathered by Byron.
"Medora" is the name of one of the heroines in Byron's poem The Corsair, which was written at Newstead Abbey during the three weeks in January 1814 when the poet and a pregnant Augusta were snowbound there together. However, Augusta's husband, George, never questioned the paternity of Medora, and she grew up among her brothers and sisters unaware that she might be the first of Byron's three daughters.
In fact, they were entertained by his in-laws at the family home in Leicestershire for several weeks after Byron had married Annabella Milbanke. At that time Augusta wrote to her sister-in-law about Medora, saying: "The likeness to Byron... makes her very good-humoured". In another she wrote, knowing it would be shown to Byron, "Here comes Medora".
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