Francis Channing, 1st Baron Channing of Wellingborough
Francis Allston Channing, 1st Baron Channing, known as Sir Francis Channing, Bt, between 1906 and 1912, was an American-born British barrister, academic, and Liberal Party politician.
Background and education
Channing born in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, the youngest child and only son of American parents, Reverend William Henry Channing and Julia Maria Allen. His sister was Blanche Mary Chaning, a writer a poet.He was the great-grandson of the Honourable William Channing, Attorney General of Rhode Island, by Lucy Ellery, daughter of William Ellery, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. He was the great-nephew of Dr William Ellery Channing, Walter Channing and Edward Tyrrel Channing and a first cousin once removed of William Ellery Channing.
He was naturalized as a British subject in 1883. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford and subsequently became a fellow, lecturer and tutor in philosophy at University College, Oxford, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn. A passionate Protestant he attended and spoke at the United Protestant Demonstration in London on 29 January 1900 which resolved ) “to uphold and maintain the Protestantism of the nation and to demand the suppression of the Mass and the Confessional in the Established Church.”