Baring, Sir Francis Thornhill, Lord Northbrook 1796-1866, statesman, was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Baring, the second baronet, and was born at Calcutta 20 April 1796. He was educated at Winchester School and Christ Church, Oxford, gaining the distinction of a double first class in 1817. In 1826 he was elected as a whig to the House of Commons for Portsmouth, and represented the place without an interruption until 1865. He climbed from step to step of the official ladder, and was a lord of the treasury Nov. 1830 to June 1834, its joint secretary June to Nov. 1834 and April 1835 to Sept. 1839, and chancellor of the exchequer Aug. 1839 to Sept. 1841. From 1849 to 1852 he was the first lord of the admiralty. He was created Baron Northbrook 4 Jan. 1866, and died at Stratton Park 6 Sept. 1866. Lord Northbrook was twice married: first, 7 April 1825, at Portsmouth, to Jane, youngest daughter of the Hon. Sir George Grey, K.C.B., by whom he was father of Thomas George, created Earl Northbrook in 1876; and secondly, 31 March 1841, at St. George's, Hanover Square, to Lady Arabella Georgiana Howard, second daughter of the first Earl of Effingham. His first wife died at Belgrave Square, Pimlico, 23 April 1838; his second wife is still living. The speech which he made, 17 May 1841, on the budget resolutions for the year, was printed as a pamphlet; his proposals were keenly criticised by Sir Robert Peel. Several improvements were effected at the admiralty during his presidency of the board.

Sources:
     Burke's Peerage
     Men of the Time
     Times, 8 Sept. 1866.

Contributor: W. P. C. [William Prideaux Courtney]

Published: 1885