Baring, informally called "T.C." or "Charley" to distinguish him from the other Thomases, was the son of the Right Reverend Charles Baring, Bishop of Durham, younger son of Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Baronet. His mother was Mary Ursula, daughter of Charles Sealy.
He was educated at Harrow and Wadham College, Oxford, and became a partner in the family firm of Baring Brothers & Company He entered Parliament for Essex South in 1874, a seat he held until 1885, and later represented the City of London from 1887 to 1891.
With Barings facing bankruptcy following the Panic of 1890, he returned to business life to help reorganize the partnership as a limited liability company, and served as one of its Managing Directors until his death. Baring married Susan, daughter of Robert Bowne Minturn, of New York City, in 1859. He died in April 1891, aged 59.
21st United Kingdom Parliament. 22nd United Kingdom Parliament. 24th United Kingdom Parliament]
Baring also served as a Justice of the Peace for Essex, Middlesex, London and Westminster, was a member of the Royal Commission on Loss of Life at Sea from 1885 to 1887, and the author of among other works Pindar in English Rhyme and The Scheme of Epicurus: A Rendering into English Verse of the Unfinished Poem of Lucretius Entitled, De Rerum Natura.
