George Finch
(1794-1870)

Volume 1, page 121, sitting number 687. 

Identified as 'Mr Finch' in his nephew's album, this is George Henry Finch, the husband of Augustus Gough-Calthorpe’s maternal aunt, Lady Louisa Finch, who, like Augustus's mother, was a daughter of the 6th Duke of Beaufort.

Born the illegitimate son of George Finch, 4th Earl of Nottingham and 9th Earl of Winchilsea, by a Mrs Thompson, he was granted the use of the Finch arms in 1809. He married twice. His first wife, Jane, daughter of Vice-Admiral John Richard Delap Tollemache, died in 1821 only two years after they were married. He married secondly, on 22 October 1832, Lady Louisa Elizabeth Somerset, daughter of the 6th Duke of Beaufort.

George Finch appears on the 1851 census, visiting his mother-in-law, the Dowager Duchess of Beaufort, at 41 Grosvenor Street, London. He gave his profession as 'Country gentleman' and 'Magistrate,' and his place of birth as Hammersmith, London.

At the time of the 1861 census he was living at Burley-on-the-Hill, a large Palladian house near Oakham in Rutland. He gave his profession as 'Magistrate.' Also present on the night of the census were his wife, his son, George Henry Finch (1835-1907), his daughter-in-law, his two daughters, Emily and Charlotte, his nephew, Augustus Gough-Calthorpe, his niece, Blanche H. Stewart, and the Marquis and Marchioness of Cholmondeley. [The Marchioness of Cholmondeley was born Lady Susan Caroline Somerset and was another of the sisters of Augustus Gough-Calthorpe’s mother.] The census also shows forty indoor servants sleeping in the house on the night of the census, and many more outdoor servants living in various buildings on the estate.

George Henry Finch died on 29 June 1870 at 41 South Street in Mayfair. News of his death appeared the following day in the Pall Mall Gazette. 'The death is announced of Mr George Finch, of Burley-on-the-Hill, Oakham, which took place yesterday morning. The late Mr Finch, who was father of Mr G. H. Finch, M.P. of Rutlandshire, was a son of George eight Earl of Winchilsea, K.G. Mr Finch represented Stamford in the House of Commons from 1832, and was again elected at the general election in 1835, in the Conservative interest. He was a strong Protestant of the National Club type.'

His estate was valued at £60,000. 

[From an album compiled by the sitter's nephew, the Honourable Augustus Gough-Calthorpe, later 6th Baron Calthorpe.]