Quarterly, 1st & 4th: argent, a chevron between three garbs gules; (Hatton) 2nd & 3rd, argent, a chevron between three griffins, passant, wings endorsed sable (Finch)
Finch: Nil conscire sibi ("Conscious of no evil") Hatton: Virtus tutissima cassis ("Virtue is the safest helmet")
Earl of Winchilsea is a title in the Peerage of England. It has been held by the Finch-Hatton family of Kent, and united with the title of Earl of Nottingham under a single holder since 1729.[1]
The Finch family is believed to be descended from Henry FitzHerbert, Lord Chamberlain to Henry I (r. 1100–1135). The name change to Finch came in the 1350s after marriage to an heiress of the Finch family.[2] The Herbert family of Wales, Earls of Aylesford, Earls of Pembroke, share common ancestry[3] but bear differenced arms.[4]
A later member of the family, Sir William Finch, was knighted in 1513. His son Sir Thomas Finch (died 1563), was also knighted for his share in suppressing Sir Thomas Wyatt's insurrection against Queen Mary I, and was the son-in-law of Sir Thomas Moyle, some of whose lands Finch's wife inherited. Thomas's eldest son Moyle Finch represented Weymouth, Kent and Winchelsea in the House of Commons. In 1611 he was created a baronet, of Eastwell in the County of Kent.[5]
In 1660 the 3rd Earl of Winchilsea was created Baron FitzHerbert of Eastwell, Kent, in recompense for his efficient aid in the Restoration of the Monarchy.[6]
Sir Moyle Finch was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son Theophilus, the 2nd Baronet (1573–1619). He sat as Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth but died childless circa 1619. He was succeeded by his younger brother Thomas, the 3rd Baronet. He represented Winchelsea and Kent in the House of Commons. In 1634, he also succeeded his mother as the second Earl of Winchilsea.
The third Earl, son of the second, supported the Restoration in 1660 and was thanked for his efforts the same year when he was created Baron FitzHerbert of Eastwell, in the County of Kent, in the Peerage of England.
The 8th Earl was childless and was succeeded by his nephew, the 9th Earl, son of the Hon. William Finch, second son of the 2nd Earl of Nottingham. The 9th Earl was Lord Lieutenant of Rutland for many years and was also an influential figure in the history of cricket.
His son the 11th Earl had represented Northamptonshire North in Parliament as a Tory. He died without surviving male issue and was succeeded by his half-brother, the 12th Earl, who had sat briefly as Conservative Member of Parliament for Lincolnshire South and for Spalding. He was succeeded by his younger brother, the 13th Earl. As of 2017[update], the titles are held by his great-great-grandson, the 17th Earl of Winchilsea and 12th Earl of Nottingham (the title having descended from father to son), who succeeded in 1999.
Other members
The Hon. Sir Heneage Finch was the third and youngest son of Sir Moyle Finch, 1st Baronet and the Countess of Winchilsea. He served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1625 to 1628. His son was Heneage Finch, later 1st Earl of Nottingham, was a prominent lawyer and politician and served as Lord Chancellor of England from 1675 to 1682. He was created a baronet, of Raunston in the County of Buckingham, in the Baronetage of England in 1660 and in 1673 he was raised to the Peerage of England as Baron Finch of Daventry in the County of Northampton. In 1681, he was further honoured when he was made Earl of Nottingham, also in the Peerage of England. He was succeeded by his son, Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, who in 1729 succeeded his second cousin as the 7th Earl of Winchilsea. See above for further history of the titles.
Several other members of the Finch family have also gained distinction. John Finch, 1st Baron Finch of Fordwich, was the son of Sir Henry Finch, younger brother of Sir Moyle Finch, 1st Baronet of Eastwell. Later the Hon. Heneage Finch, younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Nottingham, was made the 1st Earl of Aylesford in 1714.
The Hon. Denys Finch Hatton, brother of the 14th Earl and nephew to Harold Heneage, moved to East Africa and became a noted pilot and hunter, and a close friend of writer Karen Blixen. In the award winning film "Out of Africa" he was famously portrayed by Robert Redford opposite Meryl Streep.
The ancestral family seat of Earls of Winchilsea was at Eastwell Park old manor house, until the last 6th Earl of Winchilsea died in 1729, then the title and estate was inherited by his second cousin, Daniel Finch, the 2nd Earl of Nottingham who also become 7th Earl of Winchilsea.
The 7th Earl of Winchilsea and 2nd Earl of Nottingham had previously built the magnificent Burley on the Hill house during the 1690s, the new palatial residence was built as the seat of the Earls of Nottingham. The Earl chose Burley's location to be nearer to his wife's family (the Hattons) at Kirby Hall. Burley would served as the family seat until the unmarried 9th Earl of Winchilsea sought and obtained an act of Parliament to break the entail of the estate, and left Burley house to his illegitimate son, George Finch, rather than to his first cousin and his son the future 10th Earl.
Haverholme Priory was an estate in Lincolnshire, inherited by the 10th Earl from his childless aunt and uncle in law, Sir Jenison Gordon. After the Eastwell estate was let go, Haverholme Priory became the family seat for the 12th Earl and 13th Earl of Winchilsea until it was eventually sold and demolished in 1920s.
Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, 7th Earl of Winchilsea PC was an English Tory politician and peer who supported the Hanoverian Succession in 1714. Known as Lord Nottingham until 1729, then as Lord Winchilsea.
Earl of Aylesford, in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. The junior branch of the Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham. It was created in 1714 for the lawyer and politician Heneage Finch, 1st Baron Guernsey. He had already been created Baron Guernsey in the Peerage of England in 1703.
Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, PC, Lord Chancellor of England, was descended from the old family of Finch, many of whose members had attained high legal eminence, and was the eldest son of Sir Heneage Finch, Recorder of London, by his first wife Frances Bell, daughter of Sir Edmond Bell of Beaupre Hall, Norfolk.
Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea was an English peer and diplomat who served as the English ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1660 to 1669.
Daniel Finch, 8th Earl of Winchilsea and 3rd Earl of Nottingham, , of Burley House near Oakham in Rutland and of Eastwell Park near Ashford in Kent, was a British peer and politician.
Eastwell Park is a large area of parkland and a country estate in the civil parish of Eastwell, adjoining Ashford, Kent, in England. It was owned by the Earls of Winchilsea for more than three centuries. Over time, successive buildings have served as homes to Sir Thomas Moyle, the Earls of Winchilsea and Nottingham, and others. It was used as a royal residence from 1874 to 1893 for Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.
Christopher Guy Heneage Finch-Hatton was the 15th Earl of Winchilsea and 10th Earl of Nottingham. He acceded to the titles in 1939 on the death of his father, Guy Finch-Hatton, 14th Earl of Winchilsea. His mother was Margaretta Armstrong Drexel, the daughter of banker Anthony Joseph Drexel of Philadelphia.
Guy Montagu George Finch-Hatton, 14th Earl of Winchilsea and 9th Earl of Nottingham was an English peer and banker. He was the elder brother of renowned big-game hunter Denys Finch-Hatton. His daughter married Whitney Straight of the American Whitney family and his son married a member of the Vanderbilt family.
Elizabeth Finch, née Heneage, 1st Countess of Winchilsea was an English peeress.
Viscount Hatton, of Grendon, was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1683 for Christopher Hatton, 2nd Baron Hatton. He was the son of the prominent Royalist Christopher Hatton, who was created Baron Hatton, of Kirby, in the Peerage of England in 1643. He was a relation and heir of Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor under Queen Elizabeth I. The first Viscount was succeeded by his eldest son, the second Viscount. On his death the titles passed to his younger brother, the third Viscount. When he died in 1762 the titles became extinct.
George William Finch-Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea, 5th Earl of Nottingham was an English peer and politician known for participating in the Wellington–Winchilsea duel with the then Prime Minister, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington in 1829.
Murray Edward Gordon Finch-Hatton, 12th Earl of Winchilsea and 7th Earl of Nottingham, styled the Hon. Murray Finch-Hatton until 1887, was a British Conservative politician and agriculturalist. His country residence was at Haverholme Priory, Lincolnshire.
Edward Finch-Hatton of Kirby Hall, near Rockingham, Northamptonshire, was a British diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons for 41 years from 1727 to 1768. The youngest son of the 7th Earl of Winchilsea
George James Finch-Hatton, 11th Earl of Winchilsea and 6th Earl of Nottingham, styled Viscount Maidstone between 1826 and 1857, was a British peer and Tory politician.
Thomas Finch, 2nd Earl of Winchilsea was an English peer and Member of Parliament.
Henry Stormont Finch-Hatton, 13th Earl of Winchilsea and 8th Earl of Nottingham was an English peer.
George Finch-Hatton Esq FRS was an English aristocrat and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1772 to 1784.
Sir Moyle Finch, 1st Baronet JP was an English politician, knight, sheriff, and MP.
Constance Henrietta Finch-Hatton, Countess of Winchilsea and Nottingham was the first wife of George Finch-Hatton, 11th Earl of Winchilsea.
Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea and Nottingham, formerly Anne Hatton, was daughter of 1st Viscount Hatton and the second wife of Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, and the mother of Daniel Finch, 8th Earl of Winchilsea. Lady Nottingham was appointed the Lady of the Bedchamber to Mary II of England in 1691, and served in that position until the Queen's death in 1694.
↑ According to Burke's Peerage, 1934 (re:Finch, Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham), quoting Sir William Dugdale, "the Finch family is probably descended from Henry FitzHerbert, Chamberlain of King Henry I and ancestor of the Herbert Earls of Pembroke. They are thought to have changed their name to Finch after marriage to an heiress daughter of an earlier Finch family." Thus the Herbert family of Wales, Earls of Pembroke, bear a differenced version of arms of FitzHerbert/Finch, as borne by FitzHerbert Baronets.
↑ Burke's Peerage, 1934 (re:Finch, Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham)
↑ Herbert: Per pale azure and gules, three lions rampant argent, FitzHerbert: Gules, three lions rampant or, as quartered by Finch, and as borne by the FitzHerbert Baronets of Tissington
Italics: This title is held by a peer who holds another earldom of higher precedence.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
