Finch family of Burley-on-the-Hill

Sir Moyle Finch, first Baronet, of Eastwell (Kent), married in 1572 Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Heneage, of Copt Hall (Essex). She was created Countess of Winchilsea in 1628, and the descendants of their eldest son held the earldom of Winchilsea and the Eastwell estate until 1729. Their third son, Sir Heneage Finch (1580-1631) of Kensington (Middlesex), Speaker of the House of Commons, was father of Sir Heneage Finch, Lord Chancellor 1675-82, who inherited estates at Ravenstone (Buckinghamshire) and Daventry (Northamptonshire) from his grandmother, and was created Earl of Nottingham in 1681. A further Buckinghamshire property, Milton Keynes, was purchased in 1677.

The 2nd Earl of Nottingham (1647-1730), Secretary of State 1689-93 and 1702-4, purchased an estate in Rutland from the 2nd Duke of Buckingham in 1694 and built Burley-on-the-Hill between 1694 and 1708. Through his first wife, Lady Essex Rich, the Essex estates of the Rich family, Earls of Warwick, came to the Finch family. His second wife was Anne, only daughter of Viscount Hatton (see Finch-Hatton, Earls of Winchilsea and Nottingham). The Hatton estates, however, were never held with the Burley estates, but passed to a younger son of the 2nd Earl in 1764.

On the death of his second cousin, the 6th Earl of Winchilsea in 1729, the 2nd Earl of Nottingham inherited the earldom of Winchilsea and the Kent estates. The Kent estates, however, passed on the death of the 8th Earl in 1769 to his brother Edward Finch-Hatton, and the earldoms of Winchilsea and Nottingham passed on the death of the 9th Earl in 1826 to George Finch-Hatton, grandson of Edward. The Rutland, Buckinghamshire and Essex estates, however, passed in 1826 to a natural son of the 9th Earl, George Finch, and on the death of W.H.M. Finch in 1939 to his great-nephew, J.R. Hanbury.

Estates in 1883: 9,183 acres in Rutland; 4,318 acres in Essex; 3,657 acres in Buckinghamshire and 174 acres in Northamptonshire; worth a total of £28,443 a year.