He unsuccessfully contested Newark in 1880 but entered Parliament for Lincolnshire South in an 1884 by-election, a seat he held until the following year when the constituency was abolished.

[1] His succession led to a network of legal difficulties engaging at different times, it is stated, no fewer than 22 different firms of lawyers.

[2] In 1884 Finch-Hatton, with 135 other members of Parliament, voted that a clause of the Representation of the People Act 1884 enfranchising women be read a second time.

[1] Obliged by the agricultural depression and huge inherited debt from his half brother the 11th Earl of Winchilsea, Murray was forced to sell the ancestral family seat Eastwell Park for £250,000 (equivalent to £26 million) to 2nd Baron Gerard of Garswood Hall in 1894.

In 1893 with his wife, the Countess, he founded the Children's Order of Chivalry in memory of their only son,[4] George Edward Henry, Viscount Maidstone ("Maidy"), who had died the previous year at the age of nine.

His estate was proved at £106,403 (equivalent to modern day £12 million)[7][8] Lord Winchilsea bought a pet lion while he was touring Egypt.

Among Lord Winchilsea's outdoor recreations were bricklaying, glazing and the digging of dykes "in which accomplishment it is said he was not surpassed by any workman in the county".