Nottingham, Daniel Finch

Nottingham, Daniel Finch, 2d

earl of, 1647–1730, English politician, son of Heneage Finch, the 1st earl. A staunch supporter of the Church of England, he disapproved of James II's pro–Roman Catholic policies, although he remained loyal to him as king. He accepted the Glorious Revolution, however, and became secretary of state (1689–93) under William III. Holding that religious penalties for dissenters detracted from the integrity of the Anglican church, he pressed for the Toleration Act (1689). On the other hand, he favored civil disabilities for dissenters and long advocated a bill against occasional conformity (i.e., the practice of many dissenters of qualifying for office by merely occasionally receiving communion in the Church of England). In 1711, Nottingham made a bargain with the Whig leaders to oppose Tory proposals for peace in the War of the Spanish Succession in return for their support of his bill against occasional conformity. President of the council on the accession (1714) of George I, he retired in 1716 because he opposed the severe treatment meted out to some of the Jacobite rebels of 1715. In 1729 he inherited the earldom of Winchilsea, which title then became united with that of Nottingham.

Bibliography

See H. Horwitz, Revolution Politicks (1968).