Daniel Finch (1647-1730), educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford; entered the Commons in 1679 and was appointed to the Privy Council in 1680 and succeeded to the Earldom in 1682. A Tory leader, he was alienated by the extreme policy of James II but refused to join the invitation to William of Orange to whom he was completely faithful after he had become King. He was Secretary of State from 1688 to 1693 when he fell as a result of naval errors. He held this office again from 1702-1704 but left the ministry as the Whigs began to come in. He was opposed to the Tory Ministry of 1710 and led a group of Tories pledged to the Hanoverian Succession (known as the Whimsicals); he was given a post in the first ministry of King George I.
He married Lady Essex Rich, 3rd daughter and co-heir of Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick and secondly in 1685, Anne (died 1743), only daughter of Christopher, Viscount Hatton.