Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, 7th Earl of WinchilseaPC (2 July 1647 – 1 January 1730) was an English
Tory politician and peer who supported the
Hanoverian Succession in 1714. Through his great granddaughter
Lady Charlotte Cavendish, he was the ancestor of
King Charles III.
Little is known about his upbringing. He entered
Westminster School in 1658, where he boarded for three years at the house of Dr.
Richard Busby, the headmaster and his father's former tutor at
Christ Church, Oxford. Daniel also went to Christ Church and the excellence of his studies made his father doubt their authenticity. He matriculated at Christ Church as a Gentleman Commoner on 26 July 1662.[2]
In April 1663, his father wrote to him, advising that he "loose not the reputation which I am told you have gayn'd of diligence and sobriety".[3] His father also advised him a month after he had arrived in Oxford "to frequent the publique prayers, and study to reverence and defend, as well as to obey, the Church of England" and when his first Easter away from home was approaching, he wrote, "Nothing can make you truly wise but such a religion as dwells upon your heart and governs your whole life". However, Finch suffered from illness and it may be due to this that he left Oxford without graduating.[4]
Finch went on his
Grand Tour from 1665 to 1668, visiting
Frankfurt, Munich,
Venice,
Florence,
Naples, Rome and Paris.[5] After he returned to England he was appointed a Fellow of the
Royal Society and his cousin Sir
Roger Twysden wrote to Finch's father that "every body speaks him a very gentleman, and one you and your lady are likely to have much comfort in".[6]
Later in 1689, he sold Nottingham House in Kensington to King William and Queen
Mary for £20,000, the house was then expanded by
Christopher Wren into
Kensington Palace.[7][8]
Career
Daniel Finch entered parliament for
Lichfield in 1679. In 1682 he succeeded his father as
Earl of Nottingham. He was one of the privy councillors who in 1685 signed the order for the proclamation of the Duke of York, but during the whole of the reign of
James II, he kept away from the court. At the last moment, he hesitated to join in the invitation to
William of Orange and after the flight of James II, he was the leader of the party who were in favour of James being King in name and William being regent.[9]
He declined the office of
Lord Chancellor under William and
Mary, but accepted that of
Secretary of State, retaining it until December 1693. Under Queen
Anne in 1702, he again accepted the same office in the ministry of
Lord Godolphin, but finally retired in 1704.[9]
In 1711, during the
War of the Spanish Succession, the Tory ministry of
Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford was attempting to negotiate peace with France. On 7 December Finch moved the '
No peace without Spain' amendment to the vote of thanks, which condemned any peace with France that left Spain and the West Indies in possession of a member of the
House of Bourbon. Finch spoke for one hour and declared that "though he had fourteen children, he would submit to live upon five hundred pounds a year rather than consent to those dark and unknown conditions of peace".[10]
Nottingham built
Burley on the hill mansion in Rutland, he was to a large extent his own architect and involved himself in the minutiae of its construction, before embarking on the project, Lord Nottingham consulted Sir
Christopher Wren, but instead employed Henry Dormer (died 1727) just to supervise its building. It was completed in 1705, but he and his large family moved in before its completion.[11][12][13]
On the accession of King
George I he was made
Lord President of the Council but in 1716 he finally withdrew from office. On 9 September 1729, he succeeded to the title
Earl of Winchilsea after his 2nd cousin
John Finch, 6th Earl of Winchilsea died unmarried. Nottingham was reluctant to receive the superior title due to his own familial pride with the Nottingham title, so he combined the title (henceforth became united with his paternal title of Earl of Nottingham). he died on 1 January 1730 on
Burley on the hill.[9]
Marriages and issue
He married twice:
Firstly, on 16 June 1674, to Lady
Essex Rich,[14] a daughter of
Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick by his wife Anne Cheeke. By his first wife he had 8 children of whom only one daughter survived to adulthood:
Lady Charlotte Finch (1693 (?1711) – 21 January 1773), who in 1725 became the second wife of
Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and was the mother of Lady Charlotte Seymour and Lady Frances Seymour.
This son, Earl Daniel, was an honourable and virtuous man. Though enslaved by some absurd prejudices, and though liable to strange fits of caprice, he cannot be accused of having deviated from the path of right in search either of unlawful gain or of unlawful pleasure. Like his father he was a distinguished speaker, impressive, but prolix, and too monotonously solemn. The person of the orator was in perfect harmony with his oratory. His attitude was rigidly erect: his complexion so dark that he might have passed for a native of a warmer climate than ours; and his harsh features were composed to an expression resembling that of a chief mourner at a funeral. It was commonly said that he looked rather like a Spanish grandee than like an English gentleman. The nicknames of Dismal, Don Dismallo, and Don Diego, were fastened on him by jesters, and are not yet forgotten. He had paid much attention to the science by which his family had been raised to greatness, and was, for a man born to rank and wealth, wonderfully well read in the laws of his country. He was a devoted son of the Church, and showed his respect for her in two ways not usual among those Lords who in his time boasted that they were her especial friends, by writing tracts in defence of her dogmas, and by shaping his private life according to her precepts. Like other zealous churchmen, he had, till recently, been a strenuous supporter of monarchical authority. But to the policy which had been pursued since the suppression of the
Western insurrection he was bitterly hostile, and not the less so because his younger brother Heneage had been turned out of the office of Solicitor General for refusing to defend the King's dispensing power.
Notes
^Henry Horwitz, Revolution Politicks. The Career of Daniel Finch, Second Earl of Nottingham, 1647–1730 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), p. 2.
^44 Berkeley Square, A Commentary by Lord Kinross
Illustrated by Adrian Daintrey, London, 1962
[1]
^Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second. Popular Edition in Two Volumes. Volume I (London: Longmans, 1889), p. 449.