BARING, Henry (1777-1848), of Devonshire Street, Portland Place, Mdx.

Baring was a partner in the family business for 20 years from 1803, but contributed little to its management or reputation. He was addicted to gambling and this, being thought harmful to the firm’s reputation, ‘was the cause of his being excluded’ from the firm in 1823.R. W. Hidy, House of Baring in American Trade, 45; Gronow, Reminiscences (1900), 120-1. His wife, divorcee heiress to £200,000 and sister of his brother Alexander’s wife, was divorced from him, on account, it is said, of a liaison she had with a Captain Webster. Baring, who managed to keep most of her fortune, ‘had no sense of honour or delicacy, threw her into the most dissipated company, was glaringly unfaithful himself and, it is said, laid a plan for her divorce when he had fallen in love with a young lady who became his second wife’.Jerningham Letters, i. 241; A. W. Morison, Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis, i. 137-8.

He came in for Bossiney in a seat placed by Lord Mount Edgcumbe at the disposal of the government of the day. He was a supporter of the Grenville ministry and voted for Brand’s motion, 9 Apr. 1807, following their dismissal. Listed a ‘staunch friend’ of the abolition of the slave trade, he is not known to have spoken. He stood unsuccessfully for Grampound in 1807, Winchester in 1812 and Lewes and Ipswich in 1818. There had been some talk of his coming in for Worcester in 1818, Francis Horner reporting to Lord Lansdowne that Lord Deerhurst was to be returned for that city ‘upon a compromise ... with Henry Baring, who is made sure of the other seat at the general election’.Lansdowne mss, 3 Jan. 1817. It was not until 1820 that he obtained a seat. Baring died 13 Apr. 1848.