Barrington was ordained a deacon by
Thomas Secker,
Bishop of Oxford, on 28 November 1756 at
St Aldate's Church,
Oxford; he was presumably ordained a priest within a year. In 1761 he was a made a canon of
Christ Church, Oxford and in 1768 a canon of
St Paul's from where he moved to be a canon at
St George's Chapel, Windsor. In 1769 he was elevated to the episcopate as
Bishop of Llandaff; his
election was
confirmed on 23 September and he was consecrated a bishop on 1 October at
Lambeth Palace chapel by
Frederick Cornwallis,
Archbishop of Canterbury (assisted by
Richard Terrick,
Bishop of London, and
Zachary Pearce,
Bishop of Rochester.) He was elected on 14 August 1782 to become
Bishop of Salisbury, and was translated to that see upon the confirmation of that election on 27 August at
St Mary le Bow. As Bishop of Salisbury he was also
ex officio Chancellor of the Order of the Garter. He was further translated to be
Bishop of Durham following his election on 25 June 1791. Barrington was a vigorous
Protestant, though willing to grant
Roman Catholics "every degree of toleration short of political power and establishment." He published several volumes of sermons and tracts, and wrote the political life of his elder brother,
William Barrington. From 1805 to 1826 he was the Visitor of
Balliol College, Oxford and in 1806 backed the then Master,
John Parsons, in opening the Fellowships to competition. On 5 February 1807, during a debate in the
House of Lords over the proposed
Slave Trade Act 1807, Barrington spoke in support of the act and claimed that the
Atlantic slave trade was "wholly inconsistent with the spirit of the Christian religion". Barrington was a great patron of architecture and education in the diocese of Durham. One school,
Bishop Barrington Academy, still exists today in
Bishop Auckland. To mark his fiftieth year in the prelacy, the diocese of Durham built the Clergy Jubilee School in Newcastle and arranged that
Dame Allan's Schools should be housed there. In architecture he employed
James Wyatt to remodel
Salisbury Cathedral, as well as the Georgian Gothic interiors of
Auckland Castle, his favoured residence. Barrington was also a primary litigant in
Morice v Bishop of Durham (1805)10 Ves 522, which is a leading case on the conditions necessary to form a trust in English law. Barrington had an extensive correspondence with the West Indies expert
Colonel Thomas Moody ADC Kt., who named one of his sons,
Shute Barrington Moody (1818-1851), after Shute Barrington. He died in
Soho in
Middlesex (now
Greater London). He is buried at
St John the Baptist's Church, near his home at Mongewell Park, close to
Wallingford, Oxfordshire. ==Memorials==