BARRINGTON, George William (1824-1886), of 19 Hertford Street, London and Beckett House, Shrivenham, Berkshire

Barrington, who sat only briefly in the Commons during this period, was an intimate of both Derby and Disraeli during their final months before death, even though the latter once described him as ‘stupid and uninteresting’.1Benjamin Disraeli to Lady Bradford, 16 Nov. 1879, quoted in Disraeli, Derby and the Conservative Party: journals and memoirs of Edward Henry, Lord Stanley, 1846-1869, ed. J. Vincent (1978), 379. He was the eldest son of William Barrington, 6^th Viscount Barrington in the Irish peerage, a wealthy businessman and chairman of the Great Western Railway, who sat as a Conservative for Berkshire, 1837-57.2Bury and Norwich Post, 12 Feb. 1867. His grandfather, Reverend George Barrington, had served as a prebendary of Durham cathedral from 1796 to 1802.3http://db.theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/DisplayCcePerson.jsp?PersonID=22320. Barrington matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, but did not graduate. He later recalled that he had ‘lived very much abroad’ during his youth, visiting ‘many foreign countries’.4Ipswich Journal, 28 July 1866.

Barrington was initially thwarted in his attempts to follow in his father’s footsteps and enter the Commons. He finished in third place at Buckingham at the 1859 general election, when he came forward as an unequivocal supporter of Derby’s ministry.5Daily News, 11 Apr. 1859. Invited by the local Londonderry interest to stand for Durham North at the 1865 general election, he was attacked by one of his Liberal opponents, his cousin Sir Hedworth Williamson, for arriving with ‘southern gold’, and was comfortably defeated.6Newcastle Courant, 7 July 1865.

Barrington’s loyalty to the Conservative cause was rewarded in June 1866 when Derby, on becoming prime minister for the third time, appointed him his private secretary. The following month Barrington came forward for the Suffolk borough of Eye, on the recommendation of his ‘old friend of twenty-five years’ Sir Edward Kerrison, who had vacated the seat in order to contest the more prestigious Suffolk West.7Ipswich Journal, 21 July 1866. Against the backdrop of the recent Hyde Park demonstrations, Barrington asserted that ‘intelligent’ and ‘thrifty’ working men should be admitted to the franchise, but opposed giving the vote to ‘the least educated section of the community’. He backed the policy of non-intervention in foreign affairs and called for a reduction in the malt tax, as beer was ‘part of the food of the country’. He was elected unopposed.8Ibid., 28 July 1866. In February the following year he succeeded his father as 7^th Viscount Barrington, giving him an estimated annual income of around £12,000 a year.9Journals and memoirs of Lord Stanley, 1846-1869, 290.

Barrington is not known to have spoken in debate in his first Parliament or to have served on any select committees. He was, though, privy to the inner workings of the Conservative government, and ‘secret’ cabinet meetings were held at his London residence, 19 Hertford Street.10Benjamin Disraeli letters, 1865-1867, ed. M.W. Pharand, E.L. Hawman, M.S. Millar, S. den Otter and M.G. Wiebe (2013), ix. 296. He was also diligent in his attendance and followed Disraeli into the division lobby on the major clauses of the Derby ministry’s representation of the people bill and the Scottish reform bill. He voted against Gladstone’s resolutions on the Irish church, 3 Apr. 1868.

During the summer of 1867, Derby, on his sickbed with gout and rheumatism, was forced to dictate his correspondence to Barrington, who in turn, kept Disraeli closely informed about the premier’s ailing health.11A. Hawkins, The forgotten prime minister: the 14th earl of Derby (2008), ii. 352, 363. According to Lord Stanley, Derby’s eldest son, Barrington believed that Disraeli would struggle to ‘manage the concern’ after Derby’s retirement.12Journals and memoirs of Lord Stanley, 1846-1869, 328.

Re-elected for Eye in 1868 and 1874, Barrington was appointed vice-chamberlain of the queen’s household in Disraeli’s second ministry and made a privy councillor. Despite Disraeli’s unflattering assessment of Barrington, he was, according to Stanley, ‘one of the few men to whom Disraeli chatted on the front bench’.13Selection from the diaries of Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby (1826-93), between September 1869 and March 1878, ed. J. Vincent (1994), 132. On hearing of Disraeli’s retirement from the Commons to become the earl of Beaconsfield in 1876, Barrington reportedly wrote to him that ‘my individual interest in the House of Commons is from this day gone, and nothing will remain but duty – a very poor substitute indeed’.14Quoted in D. Hurd and E. Young, Disraeli: or, The Two Lives (2013), 199. Barrington’s unswerving loyalty to the premier was rewarded with the barony of Shute in April 1880, elevating him to the Lords. As Beaconsfield neared his death in April 1881, Shute became a close confidante, acting as his private secretary in the absence of Baron Rowton, who was abroad.15Notes from the political diaries of the fourth earl of Carnarvon, 1857-1890, ed. P. Gordon (2009), 323. In June 1885 Shute was made a captain of the yeomen of the guard by Salisbury and the following year he became captain of the gentlemen-at-arms.16London Gazette, 3 July 1885, 10 Aug. 1886.

Shute died after being taken suddenly ill while on a shooting party at Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire, in November 1886.17The Times, 8 Nov. 1866. He left effects valued at £43,868 3s.18England and Wales, National Probate Calendar, 10 Feb. 1887. He was survived by his wife and three daughters and succeeded in the barony by his younger brother Percy (1825-1901), formerly of the Scots fusilier guards.19The Times, 8 Nov. 1866. Shute’s correspondence with Disraeli, from 1867 to 1883, and with the 4^th earl of Carnarvon, from 1876 to 1880, is held by the British Library, London.20Add. MS 58210; 60764.