Charles Baring, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol

Charles Baring was born on 11 January 1807, the fourth son of Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Bt. He entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1825, graduating with a double-first in 1829. He was ordained in 1830. In 1847, he appointed to the benefice of All Saints, Marylebone, and in 1850, he was made chaplain-in-ordinary to the Queen. In 1856 he was appointed Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, and in November 1861, he was translated to the See of Durham. In 1878, at his request, provision was made for the division of his episcopate and the formation of the diocese of Newcastle. The Rt. Rev. Charles Baring retired in February 1879 and died on 16 September of the same year, at the age of 72.

"The name of Bishop Baring is chiefly associated with the work of church extension in the diocese of Durham. . . . He saw the formation of 102 new parishes, the building of 119 churches, and an increase of 186 in the number of parochial clergy. He was in theological opinions a strong evangelical, and in his public utterances he did not disguise the fact. . . . He took a more decided step than any other bishop by refusing to license curates to clergymen whose ritual he thought to be contrary to his interpretation of the Prayer Book. This gave rise to much controversy, but did not impair the respect in which he was personally held." [Dictionary of National Biography].

On 10 June 1830, Charles Baring married Mary Ursula Sealy, daughter of Colonel Charles Sealey. Following her death in 1840, he married Caroline Kemp, daughter of Thomas Read Kemp and Frances Baring, on 14 April 1846.

Photographed by Camille Silvy on 11 July 1861.