John Baring (1697–1748) came to England in 1717 as a German immigrant, apprenticed to a wool merchant. His decision to settle permanently in England started the Baring family on the road to becoming one of the leading family banking firms in the world.
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John (born Johan) Baring was born in Bremen, one of the old Hanseatic cities of northern Germany. His father Franz, a Professor of Theology in Bremen, died at age forty only a few weeks before Johan was born. Johan's mother Rebecca (née Vogds) was the daughter of one of Bremen's leading wool merchants, and it fell to the Vogds family to raise Johan after his father's death.
At age twenty, Johan was sent to England to learn the wool trade in Exeter. Originally planning to return to Bremen after his apprenticeship, he instead decided to stay, becoming a British citizen in 1723 and changing his name from Johan to John.
Soon after, John married Elizabeth Vowler (1702–1766), daughter of a prosperous Exeter dry goods wholesaler (at that time called a grocer). Elizabeth brought to the marriage a dowry of £20,000 and business sense to match that of her new husband. By 1737, the Barings were able to move out of the centre of town, purchasing Larkbeare House[1] and thirty seven acres of land. By the time of John's death at age fifty-one, the Barings were one of the wealthiest families in the West Country.
John and Elizabeth Baring had five children: