Hon. Edward Finch-Hatton (c. 1697 – 16 May 1771) 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
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Early life
Finch was born Hon. Edward Finch, 5th son of Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham and 7th Earl of Winchilsea, and of his second wife, Hon. Anne Hatton, daughter and later heiress of Christopher Hatton, 1st Viscount Hatton. He lived at Burley on the hill with his parents and 11 siblings. He was educated at a school at Isleworth and was admitted at Trinity College, Cambridge on 10 October 1713, aged 16, where he obtained an M.A. in 1718. He then went on the Grand Tour from 1720 to 1723, visiting France, Italy and Hanover.
Diplomatic and political career
In 1724, Finch began a diplomatic career, representing Great Britain as envoy-extraordinary to the imperial diet of Regensburg in the winter of 1724 to 1725, then successively as Minister to Poland, Sweden and Russia between 1725 and 1742 (His letters from Russia have been published in: Сборник Императорского русского исторического общества, том 85: Дипломатическая переписка английских посланников при русском дворе с 1740 г. по 3 марта 1741 г., С -Петербург 1893). He was returned as Member of Parliament for Cambridge University at the 1727 British general election. He spent the longest period as minister in Stockholm, from 1728 to 1739 and is recorded as only voting once in Parliament over that period although he was returned for Cambridge University again in 1734 and 1741. On his return to England in 1742, he was appointed groom of the bedchamber to the King, a post he held despite changes of government until 1756. He spoke on the Address on 16 November 1742, giving an account of all his negotiations and spoke against an opposition motion of 6 December 1743 for discontinuing the Hanoverian troops on British pay. He was returned unopposed again at the 1747 British general election.