John Baring

John Baring (centre) with his brother Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet (left), and Charles Wall (right). 18061807 painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence.

John Baring (5 October 1730 – 29 January 1816) was a British merchant, banker and politician.

Early life He was the eldest son of Elizabeth Vowler and Johann Baring (1697–1748), a clothier from Bremen in Germany who had settled in Exeter, where he built up a large business and obtained English citizenship, having Anglicised his name to "John". The younger John was brought up at Larkbeare, his father's country residence just outside the city of Exeter, and was educated in Geneva. He had three younger brothers, Thomas, Francis and Charles, and a sister Elizabeth. He was also appointed Sheriff of Devon for 1776.

Charlotte Baring (1763–1833), who married John Jeffrey Short (b. 1753) in 1786. Short was the son of John Short Sr. of Bickham House, Kenn, who had been in 1744 a partner with John Baring and his brother Charles in the Baring's bank in Exeter. Charlotte's eldest son was John Short (1790–1818) who died unmarried and was succeeded at Bickham by his brother Francis Baring Short.

In 1755, Baring purchased for £2,100 the estate of Mount Radford in the parish of St Leonards, on the outskirts of Exeter, adjacent to his father's residence of Larkbeare. He also purchased the adjoining manors of Heavitree and Wonford. In the last year of his life he encountered financial difficulties and sold Mount Radford and his other Exeter properties to his cousin Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Baronet (1772–1848), who later sold them to a commercial builder.