Lord Ashburton, a celebrated English counsellor, was the second son of Mr. John Dunning of Ashburton, Devonshire, an attorney. He was born at Ashburton, on the 18th of October 1731, and was educated at the free grammar school of his native place, where he soon distinguished himself by his proficiency in classical literature as well as the mathematics. On leaving school he was taken into his father's office, where he remained until the age of nineteen, when he was sent to the Temple. After he came to the bar he got very slowly into practice. In the year 1762 he was employed to draw up A Defence of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, and their Servants, particularly those at Bengal, against the Complaints of the Dutch East India Company to his Majesty on that subject; which was considered as a masterpiece of language and reasoning, and from which he derived not only immediate profit, but such a large share of reputation as secured him extensive practice in his profession.

In 1763 he distinguished himself as counsel in the memorable proceedings in the case of Wilkes, and his professional business, 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 on the 23rd of December 1767 he was appointed to the office of solicitor-general, which he held until the month of May 1770, when he retired, along 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 party, 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 1782, when the Marquis of Rockingham became prime minister, Mr. Dunning was appointed chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster; and about the same time he was advanced to the peerage, by the title of Lord Ashburton. He died while on a visit to Exmouth, on the 18th of August 1783.

The person of Lord Ashburton was by no means agreeable or prepossessing. He was a short, thick man, with a sallow countenance, a constant shake of the head, and a hectic cough, which frequently interrupted the stream of his eloquence. His oratory, however, was at once fluent, elegant, and argumentative, and he possessed a sound knowledge of the laws, and of the theory of our constitution. His language was pure and classical, yet peculiar to himself; and he had a great fund of wit and humour. His disposition was originally timid, but this defect he overcame by practice, as he became more familiar with forensic habits. Of the great extent of his practice some notion may be formed from the fortune he left behind him, which was all earned by his own exertions, and amounted to no less a sum than L180,000.

Sir William Jones has pronounced a splendid eulogium on the character of Lord Ashburton. "His language," says that accomplished scholar, "was always pure, always elegant; and the best words dropped easily from his lips into the best places, with a fluency at all times astonishing; and, when he had perfect health, really melodious. His style of speaking consisted of all the turns, oppositions, and figures, which the old rhetoricians taught, and which Cicero frequently practised, but which the austere and solemn spirit of Demosthenes refused to adopt from his first master, and seldom admitted into his orations, political or forensic. That faculty, however, in which no mortal ever surpassed him, and which all found irresistible, was his wit. This relieved the weary, calmed the resentful, and animated the drowsy; this drew smiles even from such as were the objects of it; scattered flowers over a desert; and, like sun-beams sparkling on a lake, gave spirit and vivacity to the dullest and least interesting cause. He was endowed with an intellect sedate yet penetrating, clear yet profound, subtle yet strong. His knowledge, too, was equal to his imagination, and his memory to his knowledge."

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. His lordship was at one time suspected of being the author of the celebrated Letters of Juvenius. (See Chalmers's Biog. Dict., and Sir W. Jones's Works, vol. iv.)