Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton
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Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton (27 October 1774 – 12 May 1848), was a British politician,
diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...
, nobleman,
financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of property. Types of in ...
, art collector, and a member of the Baring family. Baring was the second son of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, and his wife Harriet, daughter of William Herring.


Early life

Alexander was born on 27 October 1774. He was the second son born to Harriet Herring (1750–1804) and Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet (1740–1810). Among his siblings was Maria (the mother of Francis Stainforth), Thomas, Henry (a Member of Parliament for Bossiney and
Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...
), and George Baring (who founded the Hong Kong trading house of Dent & Co.). His father, alongside his uncle, John Baring, established the London merchant house of John and Francis Baring Company, which eventually became Barings Bank. His paternal grandparents were Elizabeth Vowler and Johann Baring, a wool merchant who emigrated to England in 1717 from Germany and established the family in England. His maternal grandfather was merchant William Herring of Croydon and among his mother's family was her cousin, Thomas Herring,
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
.


Career

Alexander was brought up in his father's business, and became a partner at Hope and Company. He was later sent to the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
for various land deals, and formed wide connections with wealthy, socially prominent American families. In 1807, Alexander became a partner in the family financial firm, along with his brothers
Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Baronet Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Baronet (12 June 1772 – 3 April 1848), was a British banker and Member of Parliament. Early life Baring was born on 12 June 1772. A member of the Baring family, he was the eldest son of Harriet (née Herring) Baring ...
(1772–1848), and Henry Baring (1777–1848), and the name was then changed to Baring Brothers & Company. When Henry Hope died in 1811, the London offices of Hope & Company then merged with the bank of Baring Brothers & Company,


Political career

Baring sat in
Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
in the lower chamber of the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
for
Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...
1806–1826, later for Callington 1826–1831, and then subsequently for
Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road (England), A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, coverin ...
1831–1832 and following for North Essex 1832–1835. In 1835, he was elevated as a Lord Temporal to the upper parliamentary chamber of the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
, sitting in London for 13 years until his 1848 death. He regarded politics from the point of view of the businessman. He opposed the orders-in-council for "the restrictions on trade with the United States" in 1812, before the tragic renewed hostilities ensued between the two English-speaking nations of the
War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...
. Fifteen years later, in 1826, he also opposed the act for the suppression of small banknotes, as well as other reforms. He accepted the important post in the realm of
Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...
in the government proposed of pivotal June 1815
Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...
's victor, famed
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
general and now first Duke of Wellington's projected ministry of 1832 as
prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
; but afterwards, alarmed at the type of men then serving in
Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
declared: "he would face a thousand devils rather than such a
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
." After the financial Panic of 1847 and subsequent economic recession, Baring headed an external bi-metallist monetary movement hoping to prevent the undue restriction of the British currency and coinage of the
pound sterling Sterling (symbol: £; currency code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound is the main unit of sterling, and the word '' pound'' is also used to refer to the British currency general ...
. Baring was Master of the Mint in prime minister Sir Robert Peel's government and, on Peel's retirement in 1835, was raised to the peerage as Baron Ashburton, of Ashburton, in the County of
Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
, a title previously held by his uncle-in-law, John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton (1731–1783). In 1842, he was again sent to America, on a significant diplomatic mission, and the same year concluded the Webster–Ashburton Treaty, negotiated in the American federal national
capital city A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state (polity), state, province, department (administrative division), department, or other administrative division, subnational division, usually as its ...
of Washington, D.C., with
United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state (SecState) is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The secretary of state serves as the principal advisor to the ...
Daniel Webster Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the 14th and 19th United States Secretary of State, U.S. secretary o ...
. A compromise was settled concerning the north-east boundary of the
state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...
of
Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
with bordering provinces to the north of
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...
,
New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
, and
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
in neighboring
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
of
British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestown, ...
, plus other matters at issue remaining between the two governments of the extradition of certain criminals, which was arranged, and each state agreed to maintain a naval squadron of at least eighty guns onboard warships on the coast of
West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...
for the suppression of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the two governments then agreed to unite in a joint naval military effort to persuade other European powers to close all slave markets within their colonial territories. Despite his earlier attitude, Lord Ashburton disapproved of
prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Sir Robert Peel's free trade policies and opposed the Bank Charter Act 1844. Ashburton was a trustee of the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
and of the
National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...
, a privy councillor and DCL. He published, besides several speeches, ''An Enquiry into the Causes and Consequences of ... Orders in Council'' (1808), and ''The Financial and Commercial Crisis Considered'' (1847). Baring was the recipient of compensation when slavery was abolished in the
British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
in 1833.''Legacies of British Slave-ownership'' University College of London https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/-1411131717 Retrieved 15 September 2021. He received £10,090 sterling in compensation for the emancipation of nearly 500 owned black slaves across four estates in the colonial territory of
British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies. It was located on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first known Europeans to encounter Guia ...
(modern
Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...
) on the northeast coast of
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and the island colony of
Saint Kitts Saint Kitts, officially Saint Christopher, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one ...
in the
West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
islands chain in the
Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...
and
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...
in the
Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...
/
Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the 180th meridian.- The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Geopolitically, ...
, due to holding interests in those plantations.


Personal life

On 23 August 1798, Ashburton married Ann Louisa Bingham (1782–1848), daughter of Ann Willing Bingham and William Bingham of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, who served as a U.S. Senator and was one of the richest men in America, having made his fortune during the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
(1775–1783), through trading and ownership of
privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...
s
commerce raider Commerce raiding is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging its combatants or enforcing a blockade against them. Privateering is a fo ...
warships. Her maternal grandfather was Thomas Willing (1731–1821), the president of the
First Bank of the United States The President, Directors and Company of the Bank of the United States, commonly known as the First Bank of the United States, was a National bank (United States), national bank, chartered for a term of twenty years, by the United States Congress ...
in Philadelphia, one of the most important American financial institutions of that time. Together, they had nine children: * Bingham Baring, 2nd Baron Ashburton (1799–1864), who married Lady Harriet Mary Montagu, eldest daughter of George Montagu, 6th Earl of Sandwich. * Francis Baring, 3rd Baron Ashburton (1800–1868), who married Hortense Maret (–1882), daughter of Hugues-Bernard Maret, 1st Duke of Bassano,
Prime Minister of France The prime minister of France (), officially the prime minister of the French Republic (''Premier ministre de la République française''), is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of its Council of Ministers. The prime ...
. * Harriet Baring (1804–1892), married Henry Thynne, 3rd Marquess of Bath. * Frederick Baring (1806–1868), Rector of
Itchen Stoke Itchen Stoke and Ovington () is an English civil parish consisting of two adjoining villages in Hampshire, England, west of New Alresford, Alresford town centre in the valley of the River Itchen, Hampshire, River Itchen, north-east of Wincheste ...
, married Frederica Ashton on 24 April 1831. * Anne Eugenia Baring (died 1839), married Humphrey St John-Mildmay. * Alexander Baring (1810–1832), who died on board HMS ''Alfred'' in the Mediterranean. * Arthur Baring (1818–1838), who died unmarried. * Louisa Emily Baring (died 1888) * Lydia Emily Baring (died 1868) In 1830, Ashburton bought the country estate of Rudhall Manor in
Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...
, England. Lord Ashburton died at age 73 years old on 12 May 1848 at Longleat, in
Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...
, England. His widowed wife Ann Louisa died seven months later on 5 December 1848.


Descendants

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


Quotes

Of this great mercantile family the French Duke of Richelieu wittily remarked; "There are six main powers in Europe: Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Prussia and the Baring-Brothers!" (Vicary Gibbs, from the "Complete Peerage" published 1910).


References

Attribution: * *


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashburton, Alexander Baring, 1st Baron 1774 births 1848 deaths British people of German descent Baring, Alexander English bankers Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Masters of the Mint History of banking Baring, Alexander Baring, Alexander Baring, Alexander Baring, Alexander Baring, Alexander Baring, Alexander Baring, Alexander Baring, Alexander Baring, Alexander UK MPs who were granted peerages Baring, Alexander Baring, Alexander
Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...
Presidents of the Board of Trade 1 Peers of the United Kingdom created by William IV Recipients of payments from the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 People from Ashburton, Devon