[1] i.e. in the existing line; see below for the earlier creation.
ASHBURTON, JOHN DUNNING, 1ST BARON[1] (1731-1783), English lawyer, the
second son of John Dunning of Ashburton, Devonshire, an attorney, was
born at Ashburton on the 18th of October 1731, and was educated at the
free grammar school of his native place. At first articled to his
father, he was admitted, at the age of nineteen, to the Middle Temple,
and called to the bar in 1756, where he came very slowly into practice.
He went the western circuit for several years without receiving a single
brief. In 1762 he was employed to draw up a defence of the British East
India Company against the Dutch East India Company, which had
memorialized the crown on certain grievances, and the masterly style
which characterized the document procured him at once reputation and
emolument. In 1763 he distinguished himself as counsel on the side of
Wilkes, whose cause he conducted throughout. His powerful argument
against the validity of general warrants in the case of _Leach v. Money_
(June 18, 1763) established his reputation, and his practice from that
period gradually increased to such an extent that in 1776 he is said to
have been in the receipt of nearly L10,000 per annum. In 1766 he was
chosen recorder of Bristol, and in December 1767 he was appointed
solicitor-general. The latter appointment he held till May 1770, when he
retired with his friend Lord Shelburne. In 1771 he was presented with
the freedom of the city of London. From this period he was considered as
a regular member of the opposition, and distinguished himself by many
able speeches in parliament. He was first chosen member for Calne in
1768, and continued to represent that borough until he was promoted to
the peerage. In 1780 he brought forward a motion that the "influence of
the crown had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished,"
which he carried by a majority of eighteen. He strongly opposed the
system of sinecure officers and pensions; but his probity was not strong
enough to prevent his taking advantage of it himself. In 1782, when the
marquis of Rockingham became prime minister, Dunning was appointed
chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, a rich sinecure; and about the
same time he was advanced to the peerage, with the title of Lord
Ashburton. Under Lord Shelburne's administration he accepted a pension
of L4000 a year. He died at Exmouth on the 18th of August 1783. Though
possessed of an insignificant person, an awkward manner and a provincial
accent, Lord Ashburton was one of the most fluent and persuasive orators
of his time. He had married Elizabeth Baring, and was succeeded as 2nd
baron by his son Richard, at whose death in 1823 the title became
extinct, being revived in 1835 by Alexander Baring.
Besides the answer to the Dutch memorial, Lord Ashburton is supposed
to have assisted in writing a pamphlet on the law of libel, and to
have been the author of _A Letter to the Proprietors of East India
Stock, on the subject of Lord Clive's Jaghire, occasioned by his
Lordship's Letter on that Subject_ (1764, 8vo). He was at one time
suspected of being the author of the _Letters of Junius_.