Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham

The Right Honourable The Earl of Nottingham PC
Lord President of the Council
In office 1714–1716
Monarch	George I
Preceded by	The Duke of Buckingham and Normanby
Succeeded by	The Duke of Devonshire
Secretary of State for the Southern Department
In office 1702–1704
Monarch	Anne
Preceded by	The Earl of Manchester
Succeeded by	Sir Charles Hedges
Secretary of State for the Northern Department
In office 1692–1693
Monarch	William III and Mary II
Preceded by	The Viscount Sydney of Sheppey
Succeeded by	Sir John Trenchard
Secretary of State for the Southern Department
In office 1690–1693
Monarch	William III and Mary II
Preceded by	The Earl of Shrewsbury
Succeeded by	Sir John Trenchard
Secretary of State for the Northern Department
In office 1689–1690
Monarch	William III and Mary II
Preceded by	The Viscount Preston
Succeeded by	The Viscount Sydney of Sheppey
First Lord of the Admiralty
In office 1681–1684
Monarch	James II
Preceded by	Sir Henry Capell
Succeeded by	Charles II
Personal details
Born	2 July 1647 London, Kingdom of England
Died	1 January 1730(1730-01-01) (aged 82) Burley on the Hill Kingdom of Great Britain
Political party	Tory

Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, 7th Earl of Winchilsea PC (2 July 1647 – 1 January 1730), was an English Tory statesman during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

Early life

Nottingham's father, the 1st Earl of Nottingham.

Nottingham was the son of Heneage Finch (later the first earl of Nottingham and Lord Chancellor of England) and Elizabeth Harvey, daughter of Daniel Harvey.^[1] Little is known about his upbringing. Nottingham entered the Inner Temple and Westminster School in 1658, where he boarded for three years at the house of Dr. Richard Busby, the headmaster and his father's tutor at Christ Church, Oxford. Nottingham went to Christ Church too and the excellence of his studies made his father doubt their authenticity. Nottingham 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 Nottingham 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 Nottingham's first Easter away from home was approaching: "Nothing can make you truly wise but such a religion as dwells upon your heart and governs your whole life". However Nottingham suffered from illness and it may be due to this that he left Oxford without graduating.^[4]

Nottingham 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 Nottingham's father that "every body speaks him a very gentleman, and one you and your lady are likely to have much comfort in".^[6]

Political career

Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham and 7th Earl of Winchilsea, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, c. 1720.

Daniel Finch entered parliament for Lichfield in 1679. 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.

He declined the office of Lord Chancellor under William and Mary, but accepted that of secretary of state, retaining it till December 1693. Under Anne in 1702 he again accepted the same office in the ministry of Lord Godolphin, but finally retired in 1704.

In 1711 during the War of the Spanish Succession, the Tory ministry of Robert Harley was attempting to negotiate peace with France. On 7 December Nottingham 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. Nottingham spoke for one hour, in which he 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".^[7]

On the accession of George I he was made Lord President of the Council, but in 1716 he finally withdrew from office. He succeeded to the Earldom of Winchilsea (with which the Nottingham title now became united) on 9 September 1729, and died on the 1 January 1730.

Marriages and children

Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, 1747, by Jacobus Houbraken

Daniel first married Lady Essex Rich on 16 June 1674.^[8] Essex was daughter of Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick and Anne Cheeke. Anne was daughter of Sir Thomas Cheeke of Pirgo and a senior Essex Rich.

The elder Essex was daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick and Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich. Essex was probably named after her maternal grandfather Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex. Her maternal grandmother was Lettice Knollys.

Daniel and Essex had a single daughter: Mary Finch, later married to John Ker, 1st Duke of Roxburghe.^[9] Mary was also a lover of William Savile, 2nd Marquess of Halifax, and later his wife, following the death of his first wife Elizabeth Grimston.

Portrait of Anne Hatton by Jonathan Richardson, circa 1726

Daniel was secondly married on 29 December 1685 to Anne Hatton, daughter of Christopher Hatton, Viscount Hatton. They had ten children:

• Daniel Finch, 8th Earl of Winchilsea (24 May 1689 – 2 August 1769). He was first married to Lady Frances Feilding, daughter of Basil Feilding, 4th Earl of Denbigh and Hester Firebrace. He was secondly married to Mary Palmer, daughter of Sir Thomas Palmer, 1st Baronet Palmer. No known descendants.
• William Finch (? – 25 December 1766). He married Charlotte Fermor, daughter of Thomas Fermor, 1st Earl of Pomfret. They were parents of Sophia Finch and her younger brother George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea.
• John Finch (before 1743 – 1763), who left a daughter.
• Henry Finch
• Edward Finch (c.1697 – 16 May 1771). He was married to Elizabeth Palmer, another daughter of Thomas Palmer, 1st Baronet Palmer. They had three children. He later took the surname Finch-Hatton was grandfather of George Finch-Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea.
• Essex Finch (d. 23 May 1721). She was married to Sir Roger Mostyn, 3rd Baronet of Mostyn. They were parents to Sir Thomas Mostyn, 4th Baronet of Mostyn and two other children.
• Lady Henrietta Finch (d. 14 April 1742). She married William Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Cleveland, a son of Charles Fitzroy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland and Anne Poultney. No known descendants.
• Mary Finch (1701 – 30 May 1761). Not to be confused with her elder half-sister. She was married to Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Marquess of Rockingham.
• Lady Charlotte Finch (1711 – 21 January 1773). She was married to Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset. They were parents to Lady Charlotte Seymour and Lady Frances Seymour.
• Elizabeth Finch (1723 – 10 April 1784). She married William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield. No known descendants.

Legacy

This portrait by Charles Jervas may possibly be Nottingham when older (c. 1720).

The Whig historian Lord Macaulay said of Lord Nottingham in 1848:

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.^[10]

Notes

1. ^ Henry Horwitz, Revolution Politicks. The Career of Daniel Finch, Second Earl of Nottingham, 1647-1730 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), p. 2.
2. ^ Horwitz, pp. 2-3.
3. ^ Horwitz, p. 3.
4. ^ Horwitz, p. 4.
5. ^ Horwitz, pp. 4-5.
6. ^ Horwitz, p. 6.
7. ^ Horwitz, p. 232.
8. ^ ODNB, "Daniel Finch"
9. ^ Burke's Peerage (1939), s.v. Roxburghe.
10. ^ 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.

References

• Henry Horwitz, Revolution Politicks. The Career of Daniel Finch, Second Earl of Nottingham, 1647-1730 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968).
• Henry Horwitz, ‘Finch, Daniel, second earl of Nottingham and seventh earl of Winchilsea (1647–1730)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2009, accessed 30 Jan 2011.
• Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second. Popular Edition in Two Volumes (London: Longmans, 1889).

• Burke's Peerage (1939 edition), s.v. Winchilsea

Parliament of England
Preceded by Henry Clerke John Trevor	Member of Parliament for Great Bedwyn 1673–1679 With: Henry Clerke	Succeeded by Francis Stonehouse John Deane[disambiguation needed ]
Preceded by Sir Henry Lyttelton, Bt Sir Michael Biddulph, Bt	Member of Parliament for Lichfield 1679–1682 With: Sir Michael Biddulph, Bt	Succeeded by Thomas Orme Richard Leveson
Preceded by Sir John Holmes Lemuel Kingdon	Member of Parliament for Newtown 1681–1682 With: Sir John Holmes	Succeeded by Thomas Done William Blathwayt
Political offices
Preceded by Sir Henry Capell	First Lord of the Admiralty 1681–1684	Succeeded by King Charles II (Lord High Admiral)
Preceded by The Viscount Preston	Secretary of State for the Northern Department 1689–1690	Succeeded by The Viscount Sydney of Sheppey
Preceded by The Earl of Shrewsbury	Secretary of State for the Southern Department 1690–1693	Succeeded by Sir John Trenchard
Preceded by The Viscount Sydney of Sheppey	Secretary of State for the Northern Department 1692–1693	Succeeded by Sir John Trenchard
Preceded by The Earl of Manchester	Secretary of State for the Southern Department 1702–1704	Succeeded by Sir Charles Hedges
Preceded by The Duke of Buckingham and Normanby	Lord President of the Council 1714–1716	Succeeded by The Duke of Devonshire
Peerage of England
Preceded by Heneage Finch	Earl of Nottingham 7th creation 1682–1730	Succeeded by Daniel Finch
	Baron Finch of Daventry 1682–1730
Preceded by John Finch	Earl of Winchilsea 1729–1730
	Viscount Maidstone 1729–1730
Baronetage of England
Preceded by Heneage Finch	Baronet (of Raunston, Buckinghamshire) 1682–1730	Succeeded by Daniel Finch
Preceded by John Finch	Baronet (of Eastwell, Kent) 1729–1730