The family's earliest known ancestor is Peter Baring (or Petrus Baring), who was a burgher of the city of Groningen, then a semi-independent city-state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire and the Hanseatic League, now part of the Netherlands, around 1500.

In the Electorate of Hanover, the Baring family belonged to the upper bourgeoisie, the so-called Hübsche Familien (from hübsch, pretty, or good looking), which comprised the third division of the ruling class of the Holy Roman Empire, after the nobility and the clergy.

The English branch of the family is descended from Franz Baring (1657–1697), a professor of theology in Bremen.

He was the father of Johann Baring (1697–1748), who moved from his hometown of Bremen to Exeter in England to take up an apprenticeship with a wool-exporter in 1717.

Over the years, Johann Baring, who was later also known as John, built a small fortune as a wool merchant.