FINCH, Francis (c.1793-1874), of Great Barr, Staffordshire

Described by the Staffordshire Whig grandee Lord Hatherton as an ‘ill-conditioned Radical’, Finch’s spell in the Commons was cut short by financial embarrassment, which prompted him to flee the country to avoid his creditors.1Hatherton Journal, 25 July 1837, Staffordshire Record Office, D1178/1. Finch was a native of Cambridge, where his family had long been involved in the local iron trade.2R.R. Angerstein’s illustrated travel diary, 1753-1755: industry in England and Wales from a Swedish perspective, ed. T. and P. Berg (2001), 192. In 1818 he had married Eliza Rogers, daughter of a Worcestershire merchant and the niece of the banker and Romantic poet Samuel Rogers (1763-1855).3The assembled Commons (1838), 90; Gent. Mag. (1856), i. 383. Although his elder brother Charles remained in Cambridge as an ironmonger, iron and brass founder, and iron merchant, by 1834 Finch had moved to Staffordshire, where he set up as an ironmaster.4Robson’s commercial directory of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Norfolk and Suffolk (1839), 12; W. White, History, gazetteer and directory of Staffordshire (1834), 299.

In 1832 the Radical Finch stood as the candidate of the Independent or Blue party at Lichfield, who were opposed to the Whig Anson interest.5The Times, 11 Dec. 1832. During the campaign, he declared his -support for the ‘absolute abolition of slavery’ and opposition to the monopoly of the Bank of England.6Staffordshire Advertiser, 15 Dec. 1832. Although he was beaten by two Whigs, Finch stood again for the same constituency at the 1835 general election after announcing his ‘uncompromising opposition’ to Peel’s Conservative ministry. He also advocated reducing the burden of taxation, reforming the church, shorter parliaments and extending the franchise.7Staffordshire Advertiser, 13 Dec. 1834. After he was again defeated, the local Tory William Dyott noted that Finch was ‘much imposed upon and deceived by those who encouraged him to come forward, and was ill-used by those who partook largely of his beer and bread, and afterwards voted for Scott’.8Dyott’s diary, ed. R.W. Jeffrey (2 vols., 1907), ii. 188.

In 1835 Finch founded the Walsall and South Staffordshire Bank, a joint-stock company, with a nominal capital of £200,000.9C. Fenn, A compendium of the English and foreign funds and the principal joint-stock companies (1837), 114. Finch was the sole director and Thomas Farmer Wood was the manager.10A list of the country banks of England and Wales, private and proprietary (1838), 116. It was later suggested that the bank had partly acted as a support to local Liberals, counter-balancing the significant influence of the Conservative MP and banker Charles Smith Forster.11Anti-Corn Law Circular, 11 Feb. 1841. At the 1837 general election, Finch narrowly defeated Forster at Walsall. On the hustings, after rejecting Conservative accusations of ‘deism and infidelity’, Finch had promised support for the ballot, triennial parliaments, the extension of the franchise and the abolition of church rates.12Staffordshire Advertiser, 29 July 1837. Benefiting from the assistance of the Liberal election agent Joseph Parkes, Finch survived a petition against his return.13Joseph Parkes to Lord Hatherton, 17 Dec. 1840, Staffs. RO, D260/M/F/5/27/14.

In 1838 Finch cast votes for the ballot, the immediate cessation of slave apprenticeships, and Irish church appropriation. He defended Lord Durham’s appointment as governor-in-chief of British North America, 15 Aug. 1838, having earlier spoken against Lord Sandon’s motion blaming the Whig ministry for the Canadian rebellion, 7 Mar. 1838.14Hansard, 15 Aug. 1838, vol. 44, cc. 1308-9, 1310. Finch was among the minority of 86 who supported Thomas Slingsby Duncombe’s radical amendment to the address for further political reform, 5 Feb. 1839. He admitted that the 1819 Bank Act had unjustly redistributed wealth from debtors to creditors, but thought that currency reform, as advocated by Thomas Attwood and others, would merely create further injustice, 30 May 1839.15Hansard, 30 May 1839, vol. 47, cc. 1151-2. He later said that ‘it was impolitic to fund Exchequer bills in perpetual annuities’ as it added to the national debt.16Hansard, 19 Aug. 1839, vol. 50, c. 420. Before the session Finch had attended a dinner of the Manchester Anti-Corn Law Association, and accordingly backed Villiers’ anti-corn law motion as well as Fleetwood’s motion to equalise the English borough and county franchises, 4 June 1839.17Manchester Times, 31 July 1841. Finch cautioned against alarmism about the working classes arming themselves, 6 June 1839, and was among the minority of 46 MPs who voted for the House to consider the first Chartist petition, 12 July 1839.18Hansard, 6 June 1839, vol. 48, c. 34. Describing himself as a Dissenter, Finch offered support for the annual grant to the Catholic seminary at Maynooth in Ireland, 5 Aug. 1839.19Hansard, 5 Aug. 1839, vol. 49, c. 1271. He opposed the government’s bill to strip Birmingham’s town council of its police powers after the Bull Ring riots, 12 Aug. 1839.20Hansard, 12 Aug. 1839, vol. 50, c. 211. Finch criticised Sir John Yarde Buller’s motion of no confidence in the Whig ministry, 31 Jan. 1840, but his main contribution that session was a speech on railways, 31 July 1840, in which he lobbied for the board of trade to insist that railway companies provide a detailed breakdown of their charges.21Hansard, 31 July 1840, vol. 55, cc. 1179-80.

Finch’s Walsall Bank was increasingly beset by financial difficulties, one indication of which was the company’s call on shareholders to invest more capital in 1840.22D. Hardcastle, Banks and bankers (1842), 264-5. That July, his manager Wood was indicted for embezzling £5,000, four counts of which related to Finch’s property, although he was later acquitted because as a shareholder, ‘it was impossible to prosecute him criminally’.23Banker’s Circular, 10 July 1840; The Times, qu. in The Standard, 18 July 1840. By December the company was facing collapse and Finch fled the country. Parkes wrote, 17 Dec. 1840:

Without notice to even his wife (left penniless) he sailed for that common refuge of Rogues, the “United States”, on Sunday from Portsmouth by the ship Quebec for New York! … A pretty exit of an unprincipled & vain man.

[On] Tuesday his wife came up to me in hysterics … having received with a Portsmouth postmark 2 papers, in an envelope [in] his writing – the papers a will & power of attorney!!! The poor woman was distracted, thinking he had committed suicide. … His brother’s return from Portsmouth revealed the exit to America and on searching his papers & letters such a man in money matters I never before saw.24Parkes to Lord Hatherton, 17 Dec. 1840, Staffs. RO, D260/M/F/5/27/14.

Before setting sail, Finch had written and posted a letter applying for the Chiltern Hundreds to effect his resignation from Parliament.25Ibid. Soon afterwards, the Walsall Bank’s notes were being ‘dishonoured by their town agents’.26Blackburn Standard, 23 Dec. 1840. The company possessed capital of £35,000, but its overdrawn accounts amounted to £57,000.27Leicester Chronicle, 26 Dec. 1840. Furthermore, the company’s capital was in all likelihood merely the ‘liability of its shareholders’.28Ibid. The sorry episode prompted Parkes to write that although he knew Finch’s ‘vulgar character & irregularities; … I did not suspect him to be so utterly without principle & feeling as he has turned out’.29Parkes to Lord Hatherton, 19 Dec. 1840, Staffs. RO, D260/M/F/5/27/14. The details of Finch’s later life are obscure. He returned to England and died in Wimbledon in 1874, leaving a personal estate valued at £3,000 and was survived by his widow Eliza.30The Standard, 7 Aug. 1874; Calendar of Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration (1874), 53.