In person Nottingham was tall, thin, and dark-complexioned. His manner was so solemn and the expression of his countenance was, generally speaking, so lugubrious, that he acquired the nicknames of Don Diego and Don Dismal, he and his brother, Heneage, first earl of Aylesford [q. v.], being known as the Dismals. He figures as Don Diego in the 'History of John Bull' and in the 'Tatler' (1709), and Swift in his correspondence is always making fun of him. He is the subject of a famous ballad, 'An Orator Dismal of Nottinghamshire,' by the same eminent hand. When he joined the whigs in 1711 the 'Post Boy' (6 Dec.) offered a reward of ten shillings to any one who should restore him to his friends, promising that all should be forgiven. Reference is there made to his 'long pockets.'
[Macaulay's Hist. of England; Stanhope's Hist. of England and Queen Anne; Burnet's Hist. of his own Time; Somerville's Hist. of Queen Anne and Political Transactions; Somers Tracts; Swift's Diary and Correspondence; Coxe's Life of Marlborough; Walpole's Letters; Cunningham's Hist. of the Revolution; Wyon's Reign of Queen Anne; Stoughton's Religion in England; Doyle's Baronage; Welch's Alumni Westmonast. p. 570; Wood's Athenæ Oxon (Bliss), iv. 651.]
FINCH, EDWARD (fl. 1630–1641), royalist divine, is said by Walker and others to have been brother of John, lord Finch of Fordwich [q. v.], and thus younger son of Sir Henry Finch [q. v.], by Ursula, daughter of John Thwaites of Kent. The genealogists state that John was Sir Henry's only son, but there is little doubt that they are wrong. On 9 Dec. 1630 Edward was admitted to the vicarage of Christ Church, Newgate. Walker celebrates him as the first of the parochial clergy actually dispossessed by the committee for scandalous ministers. A resolution of parliament, 8 May 1641, declared him unfit to hold any benefice. The articles against him allege that he had set up the communion-table altarwise, and preached in a surplice; they also detail a list of charges more or less affecting his character. Walker, who had not seen the pamphlet containing the articles and evidence in the case, makes the best of Finch's printed defence, but on Finch's own showing there was ground for scandal. Finch died soon after his sequestration; his successor, William Jenkyn, was admitted on 1 Feb. 1642, 'per mort. Finch.' There is a doubt as to whether he was married. It was said that he had lived seven years, apart from his wife, but he denied that he had a wife.
Finch published 'An Answer to the Articles,' &c., London, 1641, 4to. This was in reply to 'The Petition and Articles . . . exhibited in Parliament against Edward Finch, Vicar of Christ's Church, London, and brother to Sir J. Finch, late Lord Keeper,' &c., 1641, 4to. This pamphlet has a woodcut of Finch, and a cut representing his journey to Hammersmith with a party of alleged loose characters. The main point of Finch's defence on this charge was that one of the party was his sister.
[Walker's Sufferings, 1714, i. 69 sq., ii. 170; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, i. 17, 18; pamphlets above cited.]
FINCH, EDWARD (1664–1738), composer, born in 1664, was the fifth son of Heneage, first earl of Nottingham [q. v.] He proceeded M.A . in 1079, and became fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. He represented the university of Cambridge in the parliament of 1689-90. He was ordained deacon at York in 1700, became rector of Wigan, was appointed prebendary of York 26 April 1704, and resided in the north end of the treasurer's house in the Close, taking an active interest in musical matters, as appears from the family correspondence. Finch was installed prebendary of Canterbury 8 Feb. 1710. He died 14 Feb. 1737-8, aged 75, at York, where a monument erected by him in the minster to his wife and brother (Henry, dean of York) bears a bust and inscription to his memory.
Finch's 'Te Deum' and anthem, 'Grant, we beseech Thee,' both written in five parts, are to be found in Dr. Tudway's 'Collection of Services' (Harleian MSS. 7337-42); 'A Grammar of Thorough Bass,' with examples, a manuscript of sixty-six pages, is in the Euing Library at Glasgow. Of Finch's manuscript letters, that addressed to his brother Daniel, second Earl of Nottingham [q. v.], and dated Winwick, 12 July 1702, is of interest; he there enunciates his views of a sinecure and discusses other questions of preferment.
[Collins's Peerage, iii. 290; Graduati Cantabrigienses, 1823, p. 168; Le Neve's Fasti, iii. 650; Dict. of Musicians, 1827, i. 247; Willis's Survey of Cathedrals, 1742, i. 176; Drake's Eboracum, 1736, pp. 513, 559, 570; Addit. MSS. 28569 f. 130, 29588 f. 88, 32496 f. 48 b; Hasted's Hist. of Canterbury, 1801, ii. 63; Harleian MSS. 2264 f. 267, 7342 p. 306; Gent. Mag. viii. 109; Brown's Biog. Dict. of Musicians, p. 246.]
FINCH, EDWARD (1756–1843), general, fourth son of Heneage, third earl of Aylesford, by Lady Charlotte Seymour, daughter of Charles, sixth duke of Somerset, was born on 26 April 1756. He went to Westminster School as a queen's scholar in 1768, and was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1773, proceeding B.A. in 1777. He entered
