BARING, Alexander Hugh (1835-1889), of 58 Lowndes Square, London and Buckenham House, Brandon, Norfolk

By the time Alexander Baring came of age, the prospect of a career in the family bank, founded by his great-grandfather Sir Francis Baring, was remote. While his grandfather, Alexander, had played a major role in making Baring Brothers a leading force in international finance, his father, Francis, lacked financial acumen, and following a series of catastrophic investments in Mexico in the 1820s, had been effectively removed from playing an active role in the firm.1P. Ziegler, The Sixth Great Power: Barings 1762-1929 (1988), 91; J. Orbell, Baring Brothers & Co. Limited. A history to 1939 (1985), 26-7; HP Commons, 1820-32, iv. 178-9. By the time his father resigned his nominal partnership in 1864, the management of Baring Brothers, whose halcyon days were receding, was under the control of a separate wing of the family, headed by his father’s cousin, Thomas Baring.2Orbell, Baring Brothers, 39, 44.

In December 1857, shortly after graduating from Oxford, Baring was swiftly put up for Thetford, where the family held extensive estates, in place of his father, who, after representing the borough on three separate occasions since 1830, had retired from the Commons on account of poor health.3Standard, 10 Dec. 1857; HP Commons, 1820-32, iv. 178-9. Echoing his father’s rather ambiguous political loyalties, Baring issued an address that, according to one newspaper, was ‘quite devoid of any expression of political opinion’, dwelling only on his family connections.4Birmingham Daily Post, 8 Dec. 1857. At the nomination he asserted that he would to go Parliament ‘unpledged to any party’, though he admitted that his ‘opinions would remain Conservative’. He refused to give a position on the Bank Act, claiming that ‘it would require a better financier than himself to give an opinion’, but he did offer a judgment on Indian affairs, calling for the abolition of the East India Company’s court of directors.5Standard, 10 Dec. 1857. He was elected without opposition.

In one of his first known divisions, Baring voted with Disraeli against the third reading of the government of India bill, 18 Feb. 1858, despite the fact that it transferred authority from the East India Company’s court of directors to the secretary of state, the policy he had supported on the hustings. His vote was unlikely to have been a partisan one, as the following day he backed Palmerston’s conspiracy to murder bill, 19 Feb. 1858, the defeat of which brought down the Liberal government. Thereafter Baring, who was an infrequent attender, gave steady support to Derby’s ministry and voted for its reform bill, 31 Mar. 1859.

Described as ‘naturally shy and reserved in manner’, Baring played little part in parliamentary debates.6Hampshire Advertiser, 24 July 1889. In his only known contribution, he asked the secretary of state for war whether there would be any changes to the pay, rank and retiring allowances of veterinary surgeons in the army, 24 Feb. 1859. The exact extent of his select committee service is unclear, owing to confusion with Thomas Baring (MP for Huntingdon 1844-73), the Hon. Thomas Baring (MP for Penryn 1857-66) and Henry Bingham Baring (MP for Marlborough 1832-68), but he probably sat on the 1857-8 select committee on East India railways.7PP 1857-58 (416), xiv. 162.

Re-elected unopposed at the 1859 general election, he followed Disraeli into the division lobby on most major issues, including for Charles Du Cane’s motion criticising Britain’s commercial treaty with France, 24 Feb. 1860, and voted against radical motions to reform the borough and county franchises, 13 Mar. 1861, 10 Apr. 1861. He opposed church rate abolition, 14 May 1862, and backed Disraeli’s motion condemning the Liberal ministry’s handling of the Schleswig-Holstein question, 8 July 1864. At the 1865 general election Baring justified his votes to his constituents, arguing that the government had pursued a ‘meddling policy’ in foreign affairs and that the abolition of church rates would only be ‘a preliminary to further assaults upon the church’. 8Daily News, 12 July 1865. However, opposed for the first time by a Liberal candidate, he refrained from fully nailing his colours to the Conservative mast, and at the nomination he praised Gladstone’s financial policy, of which ‘generally speaking, he approved’.9Norfolk Chronicle, 15 July 1865. Following a hard fought campaign, he was comfortably returned in second place.10Ibid.

Baring voted against the Liberal government’s reform bill, 27 Apr. 1866, and supported the Adullamite amendment in favour of the rating clause, 18 June 1866, the success of which brought down Lord John Russell’s short-lived ministry. His votes on the major clauses of the Conservative government’s 1867 representation of the people bill appear to suggest an increasing dissatisfaction with the Derby ministry. He divided against Disraeli in favour of Gladstone’s amendment to enfranchise compound ratepayers, 12 Apr. 1867, and for Acton Ayrton’s motion to reduce the residency qualification from two years to one, 2 May 1867. He also supported Robert Lowe’s amendments in favour of cumulative voting, 5 July 1867. Dismayed at the course the Conservative ministry had taken with respect to reform, Baring left for Nice and in November 1867 announced his retirement from the Commons, protesting that Derby and Disraeli had ‘weakened, if not destroyed, the Conservative party without settling the [reform] question’.11Essex Standard, 27 Nov. 1867. He took the Chiltern Hundreds, 25 Nov. 1867.

Baring succeeded his father as 4^th Baron Ashburton in September the following year, but played no part in the business of the House of the Lords. Instead he focused his energies on modernising the family estates at The Grange, Hampshire, where he became known as a dedicated landlord.12Hampshire Advertiser, 24 July 1889. He was also a prominent member of the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, and a keen hunter, though, owning to poor eyesight, he was a hopeless shot.13Ibid.

Ashburton died at his London residence of Bath House, Piccadilly, in July 1889, having been ill for some months.14The Times, 19 July 1889. He left estates valued at £200,017 2s. 11d.15England and Wales, National Probate Calendar, Index of wills and administrations, 28 Oct. 1889. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Francis Denzil Edward, who had been due to marry on the day of his father’s death.16Hampshire Advertiser, 24 July 1889. Ashburton’s papers and correspondence are held by the Baring Archives, London.