Ada Byron at age four, from a miniature in a locket sent to Lord Byron by his sister. Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (December 10, 1815 - November 27, 1852), born Augusta Ada Byron and now commonly known as Ada Lovelace, was an English mathematician and writer. She was the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron and his wife Anne Isabella Byron. She described her approach as "poetical science" and herself as an "Analyst & Metaphysician". As a young adult, her mathematical talents led her to an ongoing working relationship and friendship with fellow British mathematician Charles Babbage, and in particular Babbage's work on the Analytical Engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognized as the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine. Because of this, she is often described as the world's first computer programmer. She also developed a vision on the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself, focused only on those capabilities. She died in 1852, at the age of 36, from uterine cancer probably exacerbated by bloodletting by her physicians.