Murray Finch-Hatton, 12th Earl of Winchilsea

Murray Edward Gordon Finch-Hatton, 12th Earl of Winchilsea and 7th Earl of Nottingham (28 March 1851–7 September 1898), styled the Hon. Murray Finch-Hatton until 1887, was a British Conservative politician and agriculturalist.

Winchilsea and Nottingham was the eldest son of George Finch-Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea and 5th Earl of Nottingham, famous for his 1829 duel with the Duke of Wellington, by his third wife Fanny Margaretta, daughter of Edward Royd Rice. His country residence was at Haverholme Priory, Lincolnshire. He entered Parliament for Lincolnshire South in a 1884 by-election, a seat he held until the following year, when the constituency was abolished. He then represented Spalding from 1885 to 1887, when he succeeded his half-brother in the two earldoms and entered the House of Lords. He was particularly interested in agricultural questions, where he sought to improve the conditions of agricultural workers.^[1] He was also a great motoring enthusiast, and played a leading role at the very first London to Brighton Car Run on 14 November 1896, symbolically tearing a red flag in two to start the event, and presiding at the dinner which took place in Brighton at its conclusion.^[2]

Lord Winchilsea and Nottingham married Edith, daughter of Edward William Harcourt, in 1875. Their only son George Edward Henry Finch-Hatton, Viscount Maidstone, died in March 1892 at the age of nine. Winchilsea and Nottingham died in September 1898, aged 47. He was succeeded in his titles by his younger brother, the Hon. Henry Finch-Hatton. The Countess of Winchilsea and Nottingham died in January 1944. Their only surviving child Lady Muriel Finch-Hatton (1876-1938) married Sir Richard Arthur Surtees Paget of Cranmore Hall, 2nd Baronet (1869-1955) and left issue, including their grandsons Alexander Chancellor, the father of model Cecilia Chancellor, and John Paget Chancellor, who married the Hon. Mary Alice Jolliffe (daughter of William Jolliffe, 4th Baron Hylton), the parents of actress Anna Chancellor.

References

1. ^ Paul Readman. Conservatives and the Politics of Land: Lord Winchilsea's National Agricultural Union, 1893–1901. The English Historical Review CXXI (2006), pp. 25-69.
2. ^ Wilfrid Blunt. Lady Muriel: Lady Muriel Paget, her Husband, and her Philanthropic Work in Central and Eastern Europe. London: Methuen & Co Ltd, 1962, p. 6.

Sources

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• www.thepeerage.com

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Murray Finch-Hatton

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir William Welby-Gregory John Compton Lawrance	Member of Parliament for Lincolnshire South 1884 – 1885 With: John Compton Lawrance	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Spalding 1885 – 1887	Succeeded by Halley Stewart
Peerage of England
Preceded by George James Finch-Hatton	Earl of Winchilsea 1887–1898	Succeeded by Henry Finch-Hatton
	Earl of Nottingham 7th creation 1887–1898
	Viscount Maidstone 1887–1898
	Baron Finch of Daventry 1887–1898
Baronetage of England
Preceded by George James Finch-Hatton	Baronet (of Raunston, Buckinghamshire) 1887–1898	Succeeded by Henry Finch-Hatton
	Baronet (of Eastwell, Kent) 1887–1898

Persondata
Name	Winchilsea, Murray Finch-Hatton, 12th Earl of
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1851
Place of birth
Date of death	1898
Place of death