Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton

Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton
Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton
Born	Template:Birth date
Died	May 12, 1848 (aged 73); Longleat, Wiltshire, England
Occupation(s)	Statesman, diplomat, financier, art aficionado
Known for	Negotiation of the Webster–Ashburton Treaty; Master of the Mint; partner in Baring Brothers & Company
Notable work	An Enquiry into the Causes and Consequences of ... Orders in Council (1808), The Financial and Commercial Crisis Considered (1847)

Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton (27 October 1774 – 12 May 1848) was a distinguished British statesman, diplomat, financier, and art aficionado, belonging to the influential Baring family. He was the second-born son of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet and Harriet Herring.

Early life

Alexander entered the world on 27 October 1774 as the second son of Harriet Herring (1750–1804) and Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet (1740–1810). His family included siblings such as Maria, mother to Francis Stainforth, Thomas, Henry Baring, who served as a Member of Parliament for Bossiney and Colchester, and George Baring, founder of the Hong Kong-based trading firm Dent & Co.. His father and uncle, John Baring, founded the London merchant enterprise John and Francis Baring Company, which later developed into Barings Bank.

On his paternal side, his grandparents were Elizabeth Vowler and Johann Baring, a German wool merchant who relocated to England in 1717. Maternal lineage included merchant William Herring of Croydon as grandfather, with family ties extending to cousin Thomas Herring, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Career

Trained within his father’s commercial ventures, Alexander became a partner at Hope and Company. He was subsequently dispatched to the United States to pursue land transactions, where he forged relationships with affluent American families. In 1807, he joined his brothers Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Baronet and Henry Baring as partners in their family banking enterprise, renamed Baring Brothers & Company. Following the death of Henry Hope in 1811, Hope & Company’s London operations merged with Baring Brothers & Company.

Political career

Baring represented several constituencies in the House of Commons: Taunton from 1806 to 1826, Callington from 1826 to 1831, Thetford from 1831 to 1832, and finally North Essex between 1832 and 1835. He was elevated to the House of Lords as a Lord Temporal in 1835 and remained there until his passing in 1848.

Approaching governance through a commercial lens, Baring opposed trade barriers against the United States during the War of 1812 and resisted efforts to restrict small banknotes in 1826. Though briefly accepting a governmental role under Prime Minister Duke of Wellington in 1832, he later expressed criticism toward Parliament’s structure. After the financial Panic of 1847, he championed bi-metallism to safeguard Britain’s monetary stability.

Appointed Master of the Mint under Sir Robert Peel, Baring was granted the peerage title Baron Ashburton in 1835. In 1842, he successfully negotiated the Webster–Ashburton Treaty alongside U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster. This treaty resolved territorial disputes between Maine and British North America, established extradition protocols, and coordinated joint naval operations to combat the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Although initially supportive of Peel’s administration, Ashburton later opposed Peel’s free trade initiatives and the enactment of the Bank Charter Act 1844. In addition to his political roles, he served as trustee for both the British Museum and National Gallery, was appointed a privy councillor, and earned a Doctorate in Civil Law. His written works include An Enquiry into the Causes and Consequences of ... Orders in Council (1808) and The Financial and Commercial Crisis Considered (1847).

Following the abolition of slavery across the British Empire in 1833, Ashburton received £10,090 in compensation for nearly five hundred enslaved individuals associated with estates in British Guiana and Saint Kitts, reflecting his involvement in plantation ownership.

Personal life

On 23 August 1798, Ashburton entered into marriage with Ann Louisa Bingham (1782–1848), the daughter of William Bingham, a prosperous U.S. Senator from Philadelphia who built his wealth through commerce and privateering during the American Revolutionary War. Her maternal grandfather, Thomas Willing, served as president of the First Bank of the United States, a pivotal financial institution of that period. The couple had nine offspring:

Bingham Baring, 2nd Baron Ashburton (1799–1864), who wed Lady Harriet Mary Montagu, daughter of the 6th Earl of Sandwich.
Francis Baring, 3rd Baron Ashburton (1800–1868), married Hortense Maret, daughter of Hugues-Bernard Maret, 1st Duke of Bassano and former French Prime Minister.
Harriet Baring (1804–1892), who became the wife of Henry Thynne, 3rd Marquess of Bath.
Frederick Baring (1806–1868), served as Rector of Itchen Stoke and married Frederica Ashton.
Anne Eugenia Baring (died 1839), married to Humphrey St John-Mildmay.
Alexander Baring (1810–1832), who died aboard HMS Alfred in the Mediterranean.
Arthur Baring (1818–1838), who passed away unmarried.
Louisa Emily Baring (died 1888).
Lydia Emily Baring (died 1868).

In 1830, Ashburton purchased the Rudhall Manor estate located in Herefordshire, England.

Lord Ashburton passed away at age 73 on 12 May 1848 at Longleat in Wiltshire. His widow, Ann Louisa, died seven months later on 5 December 1848.

Descendants

Through his firstborn son, he was grandfather to Mary Florence Baring (1860–1902), who married William Compton, 5th Marquess of Northampton. Via his second son, his grandchildren included Alexander Baring, 4th Baron Ashburton (1835–1889) and Maria Anne Louisa Baring (1833–1928), who became the wife of William FitzRoy, 6th Duke of Grafton.

Quotes

The French Duke of Richelieu once observed, "There are six main powers in Europe: Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Prussia and the Baring-Brothers!" underscoring the family's considerable sway in European finance and politics.

References

Attribution:

Baring pedigree
Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911 edition

External links

Hansard contributions for Alexander Baring