William Bingham Baring, 2nd Baron Ashburton, PC, DL, FRS (June 1799 – 23 March 1864), was a British businessman and a Whig politician who later became a Tory.

[1] William Bingham Baring was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in June 1799, the eldest son of the politician and banker Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton (1773–1848), and his wife Ann Louisa (died 1848), daughter of William Bingham.

[4] Baring sat as Member of Parliament for Thetford between 1826 and 1830 and 1841 and 1848,[5] for Callington between 1830 and 1831,[6] for Winchester between 1832 and 1837,[7] and for Staffordshire North between 1837 and 1841.

[9] He served under Sir Robert Peel as Joint Secretary to the Board of Control from 1841 to 1845 and as Paymaster General, with a seat in the Cabinet, from 1845 to 1846.

They had one daughter, Mary Florence (named after Florence Nightingale[17]), born on 26 June 1860 at Bath House, Piccadilly, London (a site now occupied by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority), who married William Compton, 5th Marquess of Northampton.