Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/18

  :: The Voyage of the Right Honourable Heneage Finch from Smyrna to Constantinople. His Arrival there, and the manner of his Entertainment and Audience with the Grand Vizier and Grand Seignieur,' London, 1661.
 * 1) 'A true and exact Relation of the late prodigious Earthquake and Eruption of Mount Etna, or Mount Gibello, as it came in a Letter written to his Majesty from Naples. By the Right Honourable the Earl of Winchelsea, his Majesty's late Ambassador at Constantinople, who on his return from thence, visiting Catania, in the Island of Sicily, was an eye-witness of that dreadful spectacle. Together with a more particular Narrative of the same, as it is collected out of several relations sent from Catania. With a View of the Mountain and Conflagration,' London, 1669, fol.



FINCH, HENEAGE, first (1647?–1719), second son of, first earl of Nottingham [q. v.], was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He left the university without a degree, and entering the legal profession was admitted a barrister of the Inner Temple. His name soon became known as the author of various reports of celebrated trials and other legal tracts; he was appointed king's counsel 10 July 1677, and solicitor-general in 1679, entering parliament as member for the university of Oxford in the same year. In 1686 he was deprived of the solicitor-generalship by James II, and two years later pleaded as leading counsel on the side of the seven bishops. He sat for Guildford in the parliament of 1685, again representing the university of Oxford in the Convention parliament of 1689-90, and all subsequent ones (except that elected in 1698), till his promotion to the peerage in 1703 (Members of Parliament Blue Book, pt. i. see Index). Burnet relates that in the debate on the Act of Settlement of 1701 Finch attempted to alter the clause for abjuring the Prince of Wales into an obligation not to assist him, and pressed his point 'with unusual vehemence in a debate that he resumed seventeen times in one session against all rules' (, History of his own Time, ed. 1823, iv. 537-8 and note). In August 1702 he was chosen by the university to present a complimentary address to Queen Anne on her visit to Oxford, and in 1703 was created, 'in consideration of his great merit and abilities,' Baron Guernsey, and sworn of the privy council. Burnet remarks that there were great reflections on the promotion of Finch and others, to make, it was said, a majority for the Stuarts in the House of Lords. In 1711 he also became master of the jewel house. On the accession of George I he was raised to the peerage, taking the title of Earl of Aylesford, an estate having been left to him there, with a large fortune, by his wife's father. Besides this new dignity he was again sworn of the privy council, and created chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, which office he resigned in 1716. He died 22 July 1719, and was buried at Aylesford, Kent. He married Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of Sir John Banks of Aylesford, by whom he had nine children.

His portrait appears in the print engraved by White in 1689 of the counsel of the seven bishops.



FINCH, HENRY (d. 1625), serjeant-at-law, was the second son of Sir  [q. v.] of Eastwell, Kent, by Catherine, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas Moyle. His elder brother, Sir Moyle Finch, was the father of Sir [q. v.], speaker of the House of Commons in the reign of Charles I, whose son [q. v.], first earl of Nottingham, was lord chancellor to Charles II. Sir Henry Finch was educated, according to Wood, 'for a time' at Oriel College, Oxford, where, however, he seems to have taken no degree, and was admitted of Gray's Inn in 1577, and called to the bar there in 1585 (, Gray's Inn, p. 62). He seems to be identical with a certain Henry Finch of Canterbury, who held from the archbishop a lease of Salmstone rectory, except the timber and the advowson, between 1583 and 1600. In February 1592-3 he was returned to parliament for Canterbury, and he retained the seat at the election of 1597. He became an 'ancient' of his inn in 1593, and the same year was appointed counsel to the Cinque ports. He was reader at his inn in the autumn of 1604. In 1613 he was appointed recorder of Sandwich, on 11 June 1616 he was called to the degree of serjeant- at-law, and nine days later he received the honour of knighthood at Whitehall (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1598-1601 p. 533, 1611-1618 p. 373; Official Return of Lists of Members of Parliament;, Chron. Ser.  103; , Progr. James I, iii. 173; , Collections for a History of Sandwich, pp. 423, 779). At this time he was en-