Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington

The Right Honourable The Lord Carrington FRS FSA
Member of Parliament for Nottingham
In office 9 February 1779 – 20 October 1797
Preceded by	Abel Smith
Succeeded by	John Borlase Warren
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 20 October 1797 – 18 September 1838 Hereditary peerage
Preceded by	Peerage created
Succeeded by	The 2nd Baron Carrington
Personal details
Born	(1752-01-22)22 January 1752
Died	18 September 1838(1838-09-18) (aged 86)
Spouse(s)	Anne Boldero-Barnard (died 1827) Charlotte Hudson
Children	6, including Robert
Parent(s)	Abel Smith Mary Bird

Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington FRS FSA (22 January 1752 – 18 September 1838), was a British banker, slave owner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1779 to 1797 when he was raised to the peerage.

Smith was the third son of Abel Smith (1717–1788) and his wife Mary (née Bird, 1724–1780). His grandfather, also named Abel Smith (c. 1690 – 1756), was the founder of Smith's Bank of Nottingham. He married, as his first wife, Anne Boldero-Barnard (1756–1827), daughter of Lewyns and Anne (Popplewell) Boldero-Barnard, at Tottenham on 6 July 1780.^[1]

Smith succeeded his elder brother Abel, who died on 22 January 1779, three months after having been returned as MP for Nottingham. Smith was returned unopposed to replace him as MP for Nottingham in a by-election on 9 February 1779. He was reelected for Nottingham in 1780, 1784, 1790 and 1796.^[2]

In 1796, he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Carrington, of Bulcote Lodge.^[3] His elevation to the Peerage was largely due to his involvement in 'sorting out' the parlous personal financial circumstances of the Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger.^{[citation needed]}

The following year he was made Baron Carrington, of Upton in the County of Nottingham, in the Peerage of Great Britain, and had to vacate his seat in the House of Commons.^[4] He was replaced as one of the two members of parliament for Nottingham by Sir John Borlase Warren.

Smith was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1800^[5] and of the Society of Antiquaries in 1812. In 1819, he was admitted as Nobleman to Magdalene College, Cambridge.^[6] He was the Captain of Deal Castle from 1802 until his death.

According to the Legacies of British Slave-ownership at the University College London, Carrington was awarded a payment as a slave trader in the aftermath of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 with the Slave Compensation Act 1837. The British Government took out a £15 million loan (worth £1.8 billion in 2024^[7]) with interest from Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Moses Montefiore which was subsequently paid off by the British taxpayers (ending in 2015). Carrington was associated with three different claims, two of which were successful; he owned 268 slaves in Jamaica and received a £4,908 payment at the time (worth £588,342 in 2024^[7]).^[8]

Carrington's first wife, Anne, died in 1827. He married, secondly, Charlotte Hudson (1770–1849), daughter of John Hudson and Susanna Trevelyan, in 1836. He was 83, she was 65. He died in September 1838, aged 86. By his first wife he had one son and five daughters.^[1] He was succeeded in his titles by his son Robert, who changed his last name to Carrington the next year.^[9]

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.