It is named in honor of Sir Francis Baring, First Lord of the Admiralty.
Francis Bacon | Francis I of France | Francis Ford Coppola | Baron | Pope Francis | Connie Francis | Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma | Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson | Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener | Francis I | Francis Poulenc | Francis of Assisi | Francis Drake | Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis | 1st United States Congress | Richard Francis Burton | Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts | Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein | William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley | Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham | Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor | Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford | Francis | baron | William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham | Francis Xavier | Sacha Baron Cohen | James Francis Edward Stuart | Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister |
Ashburton was named by the surveyor Captain Joseph Thomas of the New Zealand Land Association, after Francis Baring, 3rd Baron Ashburton, who was a member of the Canterbury Association.
Sir Francis Baring, chairman of the East India Company, was quick to see the danger.
He met John Robert Godley on 24 November 1849 to discuss educational matters for the proposed settlement in Canterbury, New Zealand, and gave £600 for education as a memorial to Charles Buller, who had died in the previous year.
In 1800 Henry Hope became influential together with his London friend Francis Baring in financing the Louisiana Purchase.