Elizabeth Medora Leigh

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Elizabeth Medora Leigh
Elizabeth Medora Leigh
Born	April 15, 1814
Died	August 28, 1849 France
Parents	George Leigh (legally); George Gordon, Lord Byron (presumably) and Augusta Leigh

Elizabeth Medora Leigh (April 15, 1814 - August 28, 1849) was the third daughter of Augusta Leigh. Her father was officially Augusta's husband Colonel George Leigh, but it has been widely speculated that she was actually fathered by Augusta's half-brother George Gordon, Lord Byron.

Three days after her birth, Byron visited Augusta and the baby. He later wrote to a friend, Lady Melbourne: "Oh! but 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. (Benita Eisler, Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame 1999: 423). 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 also later used the name Medora.

Elizabeth Medora's later life was a troubled one. As a teenager, she had an affair with and ran away with her older sister Georgiana's husband Henry Trevanion. Trevanion fathered her daughter Marie, who was born on May 19, 1834. Medora and Marie 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. Annabella told Ada that Medora was her half-sister and had been fathered by Byron.

Medora had later an affair with a French officer who abandoned her. She ultimately ended with his servant, a former sergent called Jean-Louis Taillefer with whom she went to live in south Aveyron near Saint-Affrique (a hilly region in southwestern France). She bore him a son, Elie, on January 27, 1846, who became a Catholic priest in Aveyron. She married Taillefer on August 23, 1848, legitimating both children. She died in France on August 28, 1849.