found: Marchand, L. A. Byron: a biography [New York: Knopf, 1957] :v. 1, p. 12-31 (John "Mad Jack" Byron, father of Lord Byron, the English poet; born at Plymouth on February 7, 1786; sent to Westminster School and later to a French military academy; his father bought him a commission in the Guarrds and he served for a time with the British forces in America, but was back in London by 1778; met Lady Carmarthen (née Lady Amelia d'Arcy) in 1778 and married her on June 9 1779 after her husband, later 5th Duke of Leeds, secured a divorce from Parliament; after retiring for a while to her house near Doncaster, the couple went to France, where they lived until her death on January 26, 1784; one child, Augusta (1783-1851), survived beyond infancy; "Captain Byron" met Catherine Gordon of Gight in Bath in the spring of 1785, married her on May 13, and soon the Byrons were established at Gight; by August 1786 they took a house in South Warnborough, Hampshire; by July of 1787 they took a house in Cowes, soon after which John Byron fled to France to escape creditors; in early January of 1788, he returned to Great Britain, moving frequently around England and Scotland; it is unknown if he witnessed the birth of his son George Gordon Byron (the poet) on January 22 of 1788 at Holles Street in London, where he eventually joined his family; the Byrons moved frequently until Mrs. Byron left the spendthrift Captain and went to Aberdeen with the baby; John Byron took a house on the coast of Kent by the summer of 1789, then joined his wife and child for a time in Scotland; he finally abandoned his wife and child in late 1790 and lived for a time at the home of his sister, Mrs. Leigh, in Valenciennes; he died on August 2, 1791)
