Barton, Hugh (1766–1854), wine merchant and vineyard owner, grandson of Thomas Barton (qv) and fourth of six sons of William Barton (1723–92) of Grove, Fethard, Co. Tipperary, and his wife, Grace, was born on 8 January 1766 in Limerick at the house of his maternal grandfather, Charles Massy, who was dean there. Becoming his father's partner in 1786, he reinvigorated the wine business at Bordeaux started by his grandfather. Imprisoned as an alien during the Terror (1793–4), he escaped to Ireland by the connivance of his wife, Anne (1772–1842), daughter of a naturalised Frenchman of Irish origin, Nathaniel Weld Johnston of Bordeaux, whom he had married on 17 December 1791. The business was carried on during his absence by Daniel Guestier, with whom in 1802 he formed a partnership that was to pass from father to son until 1956. He acquired in 1821 a vineyard called Château Langoa and in 1822 and 1826 parts of the adjacent property of Léoville (all in the parish of St-Julien-Médoc, downstream from Bordeaux).
During the 1820s Barton lived in the south of England. In 1831 he purchased properties in Ireland, principally Straffan, Co. Kildare (from John Joseph Henry (d. 1846)). He rebuilt the house there (1832), erected a church (1837–8) and served as high sheriff of the county (1840). It was at Straffan that he died 25 May 1854. Hugh and Anne Barton had five sons and six daughters. The second son, Nathaniel (1799–1867), continued the wine business and inherited Straffan House; the third, Thomas Johnston (1802–64), acquired Glendalough House and was a grand-father of Robert Childers Barton (qv).