Francis Thornhill Baring, 1st Baron Northbrook PC (20 April 1796 – 6 September 1866), known as Sir Francis Baring, Bt, from 1848 to 1866, was a British Whig politician who served in the governments of Lord Melbourne and Lord John Russell.

A member of the famous Baring banking family, he was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Baronet, and his wife Mary Ursula, eldest daughter of Charles Sealy. Baring was educated at Winchester College and then Eton College. He obtained a double first class from Christ Church College, Oxford in 1817 and graduated with a Master of Arts four years later. In 1823, he was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn and in 1848, he succeeded his father as baronet.

Baring entered the British House of Commons in 1826, sitting as a Member of Parliament for Portsmouth until his retirement in 1865. A year later, he was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Northbrook. Baring was appointed a Lord of the Treasury in 1830, a post he held for the next four years until June 1834. He was then a Secretary to the Treasury until November of the same year, executing this office again between 1835 and 1839. Subsequently Baring was sworn of the Privy Council and joined the cabinet as Chancellor of the Exchequer, serving until the fall of the Melbourne government in August 1841. He returned to the cabinet in January 1849, replacing Lord Auckland as First Lord of the Admiralty in Russell's cabinet, until its fall in 1852.

Baron Northbrook, of Stratton in the County of Southampton, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1866 for the Liberal politician and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Francis Baring, 3rd Baronet. The holders of the barony represent the genealogically senior branch of the prominent Baring family. The name Northbrook is derived from a tithing of the local parish.

The holders of the barony descend from Francis Baring, whose father had emigrated to Great Britain from Germany. Francis was the founder of the family firm that grew into Barings Bank. The firm increased in wealth and influence to the point that, on 29 May 1793, Francis was created a Baronet, of Larkbeer in the County of Devon, in the Baronetage of Great Britain. His eldest son Thomas became the second Baronet, also representing Chipping Wycombe and Hampshire in the House of Commons. Sir Thomas was succeeded by his eldest son Francis, third Baronet. Sir Francis held office as Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the Admiralty. In 1866 he was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Northbrook, of Stratton in the County of Southampton.