Lord Byron additional surname "Gordon", becoming "John Byron Gordon", and he was occasionally styled "John Byron Gordon of Gight." Byron himself used this surname for a time and was registered at school in Aberdeen as "George Byron Gordon." At the age of 10 he inherited the English Barony of Byron of Rochdale, becoming "Lord Byron", and eventually dropped the double surname. Byron's paternal grandparents were Vice-Admiral the Hon. John "Foulweather Jack" Byron, and Sophia Trevanion. Vice Admiral John Byron had circumnavigated the globe and was the younger brother of the 5th Baron Byron, known as "the Wicked Lord". He was christened at
Lord Byron and the Blessingtons. Lady Blessington based much of the material in her book, "Conversations with Lord Byron", on the time spent together there. This book became an important biographical text about Byron’s life just prior to his death. Byron was living in Genoa when, in 1823, while growing bored with his life there, he accepted overtures for his support from representatives of the movement for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. At first, Byron did not wish to leave his twenty-two-year-old mistress Countess Teresa Guiccioli who had abandoned her husband to live with him; ultimately Guiccioli's father, Count Gamba was