FINCH (afterwards FINCH HATTON), Hon. Edward (?1697-1771), of Kirby Hall, nr. Rockingham, Northants.

At the general election of 1754 Finch was reelected unopposed for Cambridge University, while unsuccessfully contesting Rutland. In Dupplin’s list he is classed as an Administration supporter, and on 12 Dec. 1755, in debate on the subsidy treaties he spoke on the Government side.Add. 32861, f. 290. On the formation of the Devonshire-Pitt Administration he went out of office with Newcastle, but on his return to power the following year obtained another place. Finch was classed as an Administration supporter in Bute’s list of December 1761 and by Jenkinson in the autumn of 1763. In the division on general warrants of 18 Feb. 1764 he was listed by Jenkinson as an ‘absent friend’. Rockingham in his list of July 1765 classed him as ‘pro’, but in that of November 1766 as ‘Swiss’ (prepared to follow any Administration). In Townshend’s list of January 1767 and in Newcastle’s of 2 Mar. 1767 he was counted as ‘absent’, and on 22 Feb. he told Newcastle he wished to leave Parliament at the general election:Add. 32980, f. 155.

The state of my health (were I to settle again in London) would never allow me to attend the House of Commons on great business and consequently big days. My age, way of thinking, and a 25th of October [the date of George II’s death] have therefore determined my choice of retirement and quiet.

He died 16 May 1771.