Son of London merchant and banker Sir Francis Baring, Alexander Baring (1773-1848) was sent to Amsterdam in 1794 to work at Hope & Company. French occupation forced Baring’s return to London in 1795. Later that year his father and Hope & Company dispatched him to the United States to invest in land owned by William Bingham. In 1796, Baring purchased 1,225,000 acres of Bingham’s land in Maine. Baring married Bingham’s older daughter, Ann Louisa, in 1798 and returned to London with his family in 1801. In April 1803, he went to Paris on behalf of the Baring and Hope firms to finance the U.S. purchase of Louisiana. Baring left for the United States in August to complete the agreement. Sir Francis Baring retired late in 1804, and, in 1807, the firm became Baring Brothers & Company. By 1809, Alexander Baring was the senior partner. He served as Gallatin’s intermediary during peace negotiations with the British in 1813 and 1814. In 1835, Baring became Baron Ashburton. He was called out of retirement in 1841 to serve as a British ambassador to settle the boundary dispute between the United States and Canada, which resulted in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 (DNB description begins H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, eds., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, In Association with The British Academy, From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000, Oxford, 2004, 60 vols. description ends ; Raymond Walters, Jr., Albert Gallatin: Jeffersonian Financier and Diplomat [New York, 1957], 154, 266, 268, 271-3, 286, 292, 300; Robert C. Alberts, The Golden Voyage: The Life and Times of William Bingham, 1752–1804 [Boston, 1969], 113, 310, 313, 323, 346, 433-5; RS description begins J. Jefferson Looney and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Princeton, 2004- , 11 vols. description ends , 7:440n).

For the letter entrusted to Baring, see TJ to Monroe, 8 Jan. Baring also carried a letter from Madison to Monroe of 18 Jan. (Madison, Papers description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, J. C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, Chicago and Charlottesville, 1962- , 37 vols.: Sec. of State Ser., 1986- , 10 vols.; Pres. Ser., 1984- , 8 vols.; Ret. Ser., 2009- , 2 vols. description ends , Sec. of State Ser., 6:355-7).