Francis Channing, 1st Baron Channing of Wellingborough

Francis Allston Channing, 1st Baron Channing (21 March 1841 – 20 February 1926), known as Sir Francis Channing, Bt, between 1906 and 1912, was an American-born British barrister, academic, and Liberal Party politician.

Background and education

Channing born in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, the youngest child and only son of American parents, Reverend William Henry Channing and Julia Maria Allen (died 1889). His sister was Blanche Mary Chaning, a writer a poet.

He was the great-grandson of the Honourable William Channing, Attorney General of Rhode Island, by Lucy Ellery, daughter of William Ellery, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. He was the great-nephew of Dr William Ellery Channing, Walter Channing and Edward Tyrrel Channing and a first cousin once removed of William Ellery Channing.

He was naturalized as a British subject in 1883. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford and subsequently became a fellow, lecturer and tutor in philosophy at University College, Oxford, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn. A passionate Protestant he attended and spoke at the United Protestant Demonstration in London on 29 January 1900 which resolved ) “to uphold and maintain the Protestantism of the nation and to demand the suppression of the Mass and the Confessional in the Established Church.”

Political career

Channing was elected as Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for East Northamptonshire at the 1885 general election, and held the seat until the December 1910 general election. From 1893 to 1896 he was a member of the Royal Commission on Agricultural Depression. He was made a Baronet, of Maiden Newton in the County of Dorset, on 3 December 1906, and on 9 July 1912 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Channing of Wellingborough, in the County of Northampton.