Major General Hon John Barrington

The Honorable John Barrington was born c1722, the son of John Shute Barrington, 1st Viscount Barrington of Ardglass and his wife, Anne (née Daines). The family home was Beckett Hall, Shrivenham, Berkshire. His elder brother, William Wildman Shute Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, was Secretary at War during the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence, and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1761. The family produced other notable individuals; Daines Barrington, lawyer and naturalist, Admiral Samuel Barrington, and Shute Barrington, Bishop of Llandaff, Salisbury and Durham.
John was commissioned into the 3rd Foot Guards but transferred to the 2nd Coldstream Guards as Captain-Lieutenant in 1746. By 1756 he was a colonel and ADC to King George II. On 21 April 1758 he was appointed Colonel of the newly formed 64th Regiment (formerly the 2nd Battalion, 11th Regiment). He had a successful campaign (ultimately) in the West Indies in 1759. The commander, Peregrine Hopson died and Barrington took over. He established a base on Guadeloupe after John Moore had sent the fleet round to batter Fort Louis to the point of surrender. The men were succumbing to sickness but the move from Martinique to Guadeloupe temporarily improved the situation. Barrington sent out forces under Brigadier General Crump and John Clavering to raid French positions. These were so successful that the French capitulated on 2 May 1759, thus completing the capture of Guadeloupe. However, disease on the island took its toll, killing at least 800 men.
Barrington’s next appointment was the colonelcy of the 40th Regiment which he took up on 9 June 1759 but that did not last long as he was removed to the 8th King’s Regiment on 24 Oct 1759 which he retained for the rest of his life. He was also Governor of Berwick from 1749.
Major-General the Hon John Barrington was married to Elizabeth Vassall, daughter of a wealthy Jamaican landowner and slave-owner, Florentius Vassall, They had four children, three sons who successively became the 3rd, 4th and 5th Viscount Barrington, and a daughter. John Barrington died in Paris on 2 April 1764. The portrait is by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

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