Francis Baring, 3rd Baron Ashburton

Who was Francis Baring, 3rd Baron Ashburton?

Francis Baring, 3rd Baron Ashburton was a British peer Whig and later Tory politician.

He was elected at the 1830 general election as a Whig Member of Parliament for the borough of Thetford in Norfolk, and held the seat until the 1831 election, which he did not contest. He was re-elected in 1832 as a Tory, and held the seat as a Conservative until the 1841 general election, which he did not contest.

He was returned again for Thetford at a by-election in August 1848, and held the seat until his resignation through appointment as Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds on 30 November 1857.

Baring succeeded to the barony in 1864, on the death of his brother, Bingham Baring, becoming the 3rd Baron Ashburton.

He was the father of Alexander Baring, 4th Baron Ashburton and Hon. Marie Anne Louise Baring, by his French wife Claire Hortense Maret de Bassano.

The town of Ashburton, New Zealand is named for Francis Baring.