Finch-Hatton family, Earls of Winchilsea and Nottingham

Henry Hatton acquired the manor of Holdenby (Northamptonshire) by marriage in the early 16th century. His grandson, Sir Christopher Hatton (1540-91), Lord Chancellor, entailed his estates in Northamptonshire and elsewhere on his nephew, Sir William Newport (d. 1597) and then on his cousin, Sir Christopher Hatton (d. 1619) of Clay Hall (Essex) and later of Kirby Hall (Northamptonshire), who married Alice Fanshawe. Their son was created Baron Hatton in 1643 and their grandson Viscount Hatton in 1683. The 1st Viscount married in 1685 Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Haslewood, of Maidwell (Northamptonshire), through whom he appears to have acquired the muniments of the Haslewood family. On the death of the 3rd Viscount Hatton in 1764 the Northamptonshire estates passed to Edward Finch (later Finch-Hatton), a younger son of the 2nd Earl of Nottingham (see Finch of Burley-on-the-Hill). Edward Finch-Hatton also succeeded to the Eastwell (Kent) estate, a Finch property, on the death of the 8th Earl of Winchilsea in 1769, and his grandson, George William Finch-Hatton, became 10th Earl of Winchilsea in 1826.

Property in Nottinghamshire (Newark) and Lincolnshire (Haverholme Priory) was inherited by the 10th Earl on the death of Sir William Jenison Gordon, 2nd baronet, in 1831. The Newark property passed to the 11th Earl of Winchilsea but the Lincolnshire estate to a younger son, Murray Edward Gordon Finch-Hatton, who however succeeded his half-brother as 12th Earl in 1887. Eastwell was sold in 1892 and (Kirby having long since been abandoned), Haverholme Priory became for a time the family seat.

Estates in 1883: Earl of Winchilsea: 6,581 acres in Kent; 5,114 acres in Northamptonshire; 741 acres in Nottinghamshire; 355 acres in Leicestershire; 78 acres in Lincolnshire and 13 acres in Rutland; worth a total of £18,216 a year. The Hon. M.E.G. Finch-Hatton: 3,632 acres in Lincolnshire, worth £4,694 a year.