Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/26

Finch buried at Eastwell in 1633. Her eldest son, Thomas, succeeded her as Earl of Winchilsea. Her fourth son, Sir Heneage [q. v.], was speaker of the House of Commons, 1626-31.

 FINCH, WILLIAM (d. 1613), merchant, was a native of London. He was agent to an expedition sent by the East India Company, under Captains Hawkins and Keeling, in 1607 to treat with the Great Mogul. Hawkins and Finch landed at Surat on 24 Aug. 1608. They were violently opposed by the Portuguese. Finch, however, obtained permission from the governor of Cambay to dispose of the goods in their vessels. Incited by the Portuguese, who seized two of the English ships, the natives refused to have dealings with the company's representatives. During these squabbles Finch fell ill, and Hawkins, proceeding to Agra alone, obtained favourable notice from the Emperor Jehanghire. Finch recovered, and joined Hawkins at Agra on 14 April 1610. The two remained at the mogul's court for about a year and a half, Finch refusing tempting offers to attach himself permanently to the service of Jehanghire. Hawkins returned to England, but Finch delayed his departure in order to make further explorations, visiting Byana and Lahore among other places. Finch made careful observations on the commerce and natural products of the districts visited. In 1612 the mogul emperor confirmed and extended the privileges he had promised to Finch and Hawkins, and the East India Company in that year set up their first little factory at Surat. Finch died at Babylon on his way to Aleppo from drinking poisoned water in August 1613.

 FINCH, WILLIAM (1747–1810), divine, son of William Finch of Watford, Hertfordshire, was born 22 July 1747, entered Merchant Taylors' School in 1754, and was elected thence in 1764 to St. John's College, Oxford. He graduated B.C.L. in 1770 and D.C.L. in 1775. In 1797 he accepted the college living of Tackley, Oxfordshire, and in the same year was appointed Bampton lecturer. He took as his subject 'The Objections of Infidel Historians and other writers against Christianity.' The lectures were published in 1797, together with a sermon preached before the university on 18 Oct. 1795. Finch, who does not appear to have published anything else except a sermon preached before the Oxford Loyal Volunteers (Oxford, 1798), died 8 June 1810, and was buried at Tackley.

 FINCH-HATTON, EDWARD (d. 1771), diplomatist, was fifth son of Daniel Finch [q. v.], sixth earl of Winchilsea and second earl of Nottingham. He proceeded M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridlge, in 1718, was elected M.P. for his university to every parliament that met between 1727 and 1764, and instituted with his fellow-member, Thomas Townshend, the Members' Prizes in the university for essays in Latin prose. He held a long succession of diplomatic posts. He was envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Sweden; in the same capacity was present at the diet of Ratisbon, 1723, and went to the States-General in 1724. On 8 Feb. 1724–5 he was appointed to the court of Poland, and on 11 Jan. 1739 to that of Russia. On returning home he became groom of the royal bedchamber (1742), master of the robes (June 1757), and surveyor of the king's private woods in November 1760. He assumed in 1764 the additional name of Hatton, under the will of his aunt, Elizabeth (5 Oct. 1764), daughter of Christopher, viscount Hatton. He died 16 May 1771. In 1746 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Palmer of Wingham, Kent, by whom he had two sons, George (b. 30 June 1747) and John Emilius Daniel Edward (b. 19 May 1756), besides three daughters. George William [q. v.], the eldest son of Edward Finch-Hatton's heir, George, succeeded as tenth earl of Winchilsea and sixth earl of Nottingham on the death of his cousin in 1826.

 FINCH-HATTON, GEORGE WILLIAM, (1791–1858), politician, born at Kirby, Northamptonshire, on 19 May 1791, was grandson of Edward Finch-Hatton [q. v.], and son of George Finch-Hatton (1747–1823) of Eastwell Park, near Ashford, Kent, M.P. for Rochester 1772–84, by his wife whom he married in 1785, Elizabeth Mary, eldest daughter of David Murray, second earl of Mansfield. She died 1 June 1825. George William, the elder son, was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. in 1812. On 13 Oct. 1809 he became a captain in the Ashford regiment of Kentish local militia, on 14 Dec. 1819 commenced acting as a lieutenant of the Northamptonshire regiment of yeomanry, and on 7 Sept. 1820 was named