Byron's mother, Catherine Gordon of Gight (b.1765), was John Byron's second wife. She was one of the Gordons of Scotland, however, at the time Catherine first met John Byron, she was residing at Bath. The two married on May 13th, 1785. I am not sure when or the reasons for the move7 but eventually "Mad Jack" took Catherine off to live on the continent (shades of the first marriage). The trouble that the Byrons had with one another mounted up, such that, apparently while still on the continent, Catherine left "Mad Jack" to go to live with her family in Scotland. While laying over at London, on her way to Scotland, Catherine gave birth to her only child, George Gordon, on the 22nd January, 1788. Thereafter, Catherine took her son to Scotland. At Aberdeen, doubtlessly with the help of her family, Catherine took a small house. "Mad Jack," not long after, was at the doorstep of Catherine's place in Aberdeen. For a short period of time the three -- Catherine, John, and their baby, George Gordon -- lived together, but not for long.8 Being pressed by his creditors, abandoning his wife and young son, John Byron fled to Valenciennes, France, where he died in August of 1791.

Byron attended Aberdeen Grammar School. Due to a pronounced limp from a congenital malformation of at least one of his lower limbs9, Byron likely had problems with the socialization process involved with his early schooling. Difficulties in the school yard surely had an effect on his developing personality. But likely that which had more of an effect on the young Byron and the string of difficulties that he was to have in his adult life, especially with his female acquaintances, was Byron's relationship with his mother. Catherine, was pathetic, generous and affectionate, but with a violent and uncontrollable temper; as a boy, she alternately petted and abused Byron.10 The temper, which Byron preserved throughout the balance of his life was "passionate, sullen, defiant of authority, but significantly amenable to kindness."11

More generally, as to his early schooling, John Nichol in his biography on Byron writes:

"... he was backward in technical scholarship, and low in his class, in which he seems to have had no ambition to stand high; but that he eagerly took to history and romance, especially luxuriating in the Arabian Nights. He was an indifferent penman, and always disliked mathematics; but was noted by masters and mates as of quick temper, eager for adventures, prone to sports, always more ready to give a blow than to take one, affectionate, though resentful."12

The reason, I suppose, that the move to London was necessary, was, because an application had to be made to Chancery Court. Being a minor and a lord and without a father, Byron was automatically a ward of the court. A solicitor was employed to handle matters in respect to the applications for approval of the guardianship, etc. The solicitor employed was John Hanson, who, thereafter, took a personal interest in the affairs of the young Byron, and, indeed, played a pivotal role in the balance of Lord Byron's life.

For the next number of years, Byron and his mother lived at London. The young Byron was sent to school at Dulwich.15 Soon, Byron's mother was complaining to Hanson that her son was meant to be educated at a better school then that of Dulwich. Catherine was to make such a nuisance of herself, that, in April of 1801, Byron was sent to Harrow. No doubt, Byron's time at Harrow, 1801-1805, was beneficial to his budding poetic mind. He learned Latin and Greek and dipped into the classics. Also, he came to the view, as generally all boys do who attend such schools as Harrow by measuring the esteem of each other, that he was made of special social wood.16

With Byron's advancement to a Baronetcy came title to the Newstead Abbey, the ancestral Byron estate in Nottinghamshire. No sooner after she settled legal matters at London, Catherine took her ten year old son to Newstead Abbey, only "to find it in almost complete decay."

"Hitherto the less ruinous portions of the abbey had been occupied by a tenant, Lord Grey de Ruthven. The banqueting hall, the grand drawing-room, and other parts of the monastic building were uninhabitable, but by incurring fresh debts, two sets of apartments were refurnished for Byron and for his mother. Dismantled and ruinous, it was still a splendid inheritance. In line with the front of the abbey is the west front of the priory church, with its hollow arch, once a "mighty window," its vacant niches, its delicate Gothic mouldings. The abbey buildings enclose a grassy quadrangle overlooked by two-storeyed cloisters. On the eastern side are the state apartments occupied by kings and queens not as guests, but by feudal right. In the park, which is part of Sherwood Forest, there is a chain of lakes -- the largest, the north-west, Byron's "lucid lake." A waterfall or "cascade" issues from the lake, in full view of the room where Byron slept. The possession of this lordly and historic domain was an inspiration in itself. It was an ideal home for one who was to be hailed as the spirit of genius of romance."17