(1717 - 93) of Beckett, Berks, statesman, e. s. of 1st Vct. Barrington [I]; suc. fa. 1734 as 2nd Vct.; Dilettanti 1739; educ. Geneva 1735 - 8; m. 1740 Mary Lovell, wid. of Hon. Samuel Grimston; MP 1740 - 78.
1736 - 7 [Geneva] Florence (Nov. - Dec. 1736), Rome (Dec. 1736 - Mar. 1737), Florence (Mar.), Lucca, Venice (May) [England Feb. 1738]
According to his brother, Lord Barrington went to Geneva at the age of eighteen and 'after a short residence there, made what is called the grand tour'.1 By December 1736 he had been a month in Florence with Lord Raymond,2 and later that month he was in Rome.3 At Easter 1737 he was listed at Rome living at the 'Casa dei Gesuiti', near the Piazza di Spagna, with 'Hal' (probably John Hall of Dunglass),4 but by March he was in Florence, where during the Carnival he took part in a masque with Lord Middlesex and Lord Raymond, and the three apparently went on to produce an opera at Lucca (see Middlesex). Barrington arrived in Venice in the third week of May,5 but did not return to England until February 1738.
1. Shute Barrington, Political Life of Wm.Wildman, Vct. Barrington, 2. 2. HMC Denbigh, 5:206 - 7. 3. Scots Charta Chest, 114. 4. AVR SA, S.Lorenzo in Lucina. 5. SP 99/63, f.380 (Brown, 29 May 1737).