William Byron, 5th Baron Byron William Byron, 5th Baron Byron 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, 6th Baron Byron who succeeded him . As a result of a number of stories that arose after a duel, and then because of his financial difficulties, he became known as "the Wicked Lord" and "the Devil Byron". Byron was the son of William Byron, 4th Baron Byron and his wife Hon. Frances Berkeley, a descendant of John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. He inherited his title
Frances Byron, Baroness Byron little being known about Frances Berkeley's early years, she is identified in John Faber's graving of 1736, before the death of her first husband, Lord Byron. Historians have suggested that she married young because her father's letter refers to "a disproportionate match to their ages"; thus it is inferred that Lord Byron was a much older man; he is thought to have been at least thirty years older than Frances. During this marriage, Frances had six children, until Lord Byron's death on 8 August 1736. It was "through her second son John [that Frances was] the great-grandmother of Lord Byron,