George Finch

George Somerset Finch ( 1794 – 29 June 1870), of Burley-on-the-Hill, Rutland, was a British landowner and politician.

Background Finch was the illegitimate son of George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea, and Mrs Phoebe Thompson, and was educated at Harrow School (1805–11) and Trinity College, Cambridge (1811). In 1808 he was granted a licence to use the Finch arms. On his father's death in 1826, the title went to his father's first cousin, the 10th Earl of Winchilsea, but the large Finch estate was not entailed, thus the estate that might have been expected to go with the title instead was able to be left to him despite his illegitimacy, and so he inherited substantial estates including the seat of the Earls of Winchilsea, Burley House near Oakham, Rutland, and a large fortune. His estate generated an income of £29,000 a year.

Political career Finch sat as Member of Parliament for Lymington between 1820 and 1821, for Stamford between 1832 and 1837 and for Rutland between 1846 and 1847.

Family Finch was twice married. He married firstly, Jane, daughter of Vice-Admiral John Richard Delap Tollemache, in 1819. After her early death in 1821 he married secondly Lady Louisa, daughter of Henry Somerset, 6th Duke of Beaufort, in 1832, with whom he had 2 sons and 2 daughters.

Finch died in June 1870. Lady Louisa survived him by over twenty years and died in August 1892. Burley House passed to his son George, who was also a politician.