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Clara Allegra Byron (12 January 1817 – 20 April 1822) was the illegitimate daughter of the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, and Claire Clairmont. Born in Bath, England, she was initially named Alba, meaning "dawn", or "white", by her mother. At first she lived with her mother, her mother's stepsister, Mary Shelley, and Mary's husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. When she was fifteen months old, she was turned over to Byron, who changed her name to Allegra. Byron placed her with foster families and later in a Roman Catholic convent, where she died at the age of five of typhus or malaria. Early life Allegra was the product of a short-lived affair between the Romantic poet and her starstruck teenage mother, who was living in reduced circumstances in the household of her stepsister and brother-in-law. Clairmont wrote to Byron during the pregnancy begging him to write back and promise to take care of her and the baby; however, Byron ignored her pleas. After her birth, she was initially taken into the household of Leigh Hunt as the child of a cousin. A few months later, the Shelleys and Clairmont took the baby back as an "adopted" child. Clairmont bonded with her baby daughter and wrote in her journal with delight about her close, physical connection with little Allegra, but she was also dealing with emotional and financial pressures from the Shelleys that made it difficult for her to keep the baby with her. The Shelleys were fond of Allegra, but Mary Shelley feared that neighbours would believe Percy Bysshe Shelley had fathered her as the truth about her relationship to Clairmont leaked out. William Godwin, Mary's father and Clairmont's stepfather, had immediately leapt to that conclusion when he learned of Allegra's birth. In an October 1817 letter to Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley remarked that their toddler son William disliked Allegra, but was fond of his baby sister Clara. She saw her son's reaction to Allegra, who was no blood relation to him, as "an argument in favour of those who advocate instinctive natural affection". In addition, the Shelleys were constantly in debt and Mary Shelley wanted the baby to be sent to Byron and wanted her difficult and temperamental stepsister, who had too close a relationship with her husband, to leave her house. After the child's birth, Shelley wrote to Byron "of the exquisite symmetry" and beauty of "a little being whom we ... call Alba, or the Dawn." He asked Byron what his plans were for the child. Later, Shelley acknowledged the child's presence was becoming something of an embarrassment. Byron asked his half-sister Augusta Leigh to take Allegra into her household, but Leigh refused. Hostile to Clairmont and initially sceptical that he had fathered her daughter, Byron agreed to take custody of Allegra under the condition that her mother have only limited contact with her. Shelley warned Clairmont that this might not, after all, be the best plan for Allegra, but Clairmont hoped that her daughter would be more financially comfortable and would have a better chance at a good life if she lived with her father. "I have sent you my child because I love her too well to keep her", she wrote to Byron. Byron requested that her name be changed from Alba, which also related to "Albé", Clairmont's nickname for Byron, to Allegra, an Italian name meaning "cheerful, brisk" and relating to the musical term "allegro". During the journey to turn the child over to Byron, Clairmont wrote in her journal that she had bathed her daughter in Dover, but then crossed the passage out, as if afraid to mention the baby's name. The child was baptised with the name Clara Allegra before her mother relinquished her to Byron. Byron discussed spelling Allegra's surname as "Biron" instead of as "Byron" to further distinguish her from his legitimate daughter, Augusta Ada Byron. Byron offered to pay Shelley for the expense of Allegra's upkeep during her first months of life, but Shelley indignantly refused and said the cost was a trifle. Resemblances to Byron Mary Shelley had called the baby Allegra "the little Commodore" because of her sturdy body and alert, intelligent look. Byron was also pleased with Allegra's resemblances to himself in appearance and temperament. When she was eighteen months old, he wrote in a letter to a friend: "My bastard came three days ago—very like—healthy—noisy & capricious." In an 1818 letter to his half-sister Augusta Leigh, Byron wrote that "She is very pretty — remarkably intelligent ... She has very blue eyes — that singular forehead — fair curly hair — and a devil of a spirit. but that is Papa's." In 1819, in another letter to Leigh, Byron described two and a half-year-old Allegra as "very droll" and again commented on her resemblance to himself in physical appearance, temperament and interests: "(She) has a very good deal of the Byron. Can't articulate the letter 'r' at all—frowns and pouts quite in our way—blue eyes—light hair growing darker daily—and a dimple in the chin—a scowl on the brow—white skin—sweet voice—and a particular liking of Music—and of her own way in every thing—ah, is that not B. all over?" The child had forgotten any English she had learned and now spoke only Venetian Italian. In March 1820, he complained in a letter that three-year-old Allegra was quite vain and "obstinate as a mule". Her behaviour was sometimes unmanageable, probably as a result of her unstable living arrangements and frequent changes in caregivers. At the age of four, the naughty child terrorised Byron's servants with her spectacular temper tantrums and other misbehaviour and told frequent lies. As she grew older, Allegra also demonstrated a talent for acting and singing. Teresa, Contessa Guiccioli, who was Lord Byron's lover while he was living in Ravenna and whom Allegra called "mammina", remarked on Allegra's talent for mimicking the servants and for singing popular songs. Byron felt her talent for mimicry, another talent she shared with him, might amuse other people in the short term but would eventually be a cause of trouble for her. Convent education Shelley, who visited the toddler Allegra while she was being boarded with a family chosen by Byron, objected to the child's living arrangements over the years, though he had initially approved of Clairmont's plan to relinquish her to her father. During the summer of 1819, Allegra stayed with four different families and was abandoned by her nursemaid. Byron sent her to stay for long periods with his friend British consul Richard Belgrave Hoppner and his wife, who sent her to stay with three other families in as many months. Hoppner did not like Allegra. However, Hoppner's wife wrote to Shelley that they had grown worried because Allegra had grown quiet and serious while they cared for her. Byron demonstrated care for his daughter as well. He dismissed a servant who had allowed Allegra to fall. He also drafted a codicil to his will in which he bequeathed to her five thous.... Discover the Allegra Taylor popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Allegra Taylor books.