Louisa Baring

Louisa Caroline Baring, Baroness Ashburton (; 5 March 1827 – 2 February 1903) was a Scottish art collector and philanthropist who had close connections with several artistic and literary figures of the period.

Early life

Louisa Caroline Stewart-Mackenzie was born on 5 March 1827 at Seaforth Lodge, Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, the youngest daughter and sixth child of James Alexander Stewart-Mackenzie (1784–1843), a Scottish politician and British colonial administrator, and his wife Mary Elizabeth Frederica Mackenzie (1783–1862), known as "The Hooded Lassie". Her name Louisa honoured the isle of her birth. Her early childhood was spent at Brahan Castle near Dingwall, which her mother had inherited from the Seaforth family. In adolescence, she lived in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), while her father was governor and then in 1841, the family moved to Corfu, Greece, when he became Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. Upon his death in 1843 the family returned to Brahan Castle, where Louisa lived until her marriage.

Of fiery temper, insatiable restlessness, and socially ambitious, she collected paintings and important friends with an almost manic need. In her youth, Louisa studied drawing with John Ruskin, who saw her as a romantic young girl, with a desperate desire to marry.

Personal life

On 17 November 1858 Louisa married the widowed Bingham Baring, 2nd Baron Ashburton (1799–1864), a member of the Baring family of merchants and bankers. His first wife, Lady Harriet Mary Montagu (eldest daughter of George Montagu, 6th Earl of Sandwich), had died the previous year. Lord Ashburton and Louisa were the parents of Mary Florence Baring (1860–1902), who was named after Florence Nightingale, who was a close friend of Louisa. Mary married William Compton, 5th Marquess of Northampton, in 1884, becoming the Marchioness of Northampton.

After a year of ill health, Lord Ashburton died in 1864.

Death and legacy Lady Ashburton died of breast cancer on 2 February 1903, aged 75, at Kent House, Rutland Gardens, Knightsbridge, London. She is buried at Kinlochluichart Church, Garve, Highland, Scotland.