Ash'burton, ALEXANDER BARING, Lord, (1774-1848), a prominent English financier and diplomat. For many years before the death of his father he was in the firm of Baring Brothers, and on his father's death be became its head. While on a trip to the United States he met and married Anne Bingham, the daughter of a United States senator; and when, in 1842, the disagreement between the United States and Great Britain in regard to the northeast and northwest boundary lines had reached a crisis, Ashburton, by reason of his American marriage and his familiarity with American ideas, was appointed to attempt the readjustment of the difficulty. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty which was negotiated averted the possibility of war. See WEBSTER-ASHBURTON TREATY; WEBSTER, DANIEL.