Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/20

 Warrington and Manchester he attended the ordinary services in the established church, preaching only occasionally on Sunday evenings in his own dwelling to such restricted gatherings as the law allowed. On the indulgence of 1672 he took out a license as a 'general presbyterian minister,' and officiated in the licensed 'private oratory' (Birch Chapel), which was in the hands of Thomas Birch of Birch Hall, Lancashire, though the legal owners were the warden and fellows of the collegiate church of Manchester. On 29 Oct. 1672 he took part in the first ordination conducted by the ejected nonconformists, in the house of Robert Eaton at Deansgate, Manchester. On the outbreak of the Monmouth rebellion (1685) Finch was imprisoned at Chester; this was probably the occasion when, as Calamy relates, 'they thrust a conformist into his place' at Birch Chapel, but 'that project dropt,' and Finch was allowed to resume his ministry.

The Toleration Act (1689) was the means of calling attention to the insecurity of his position. Birch Chapel, being a consecrated place, could not be licensed as a dissenting meeting-house. Finch, however, stayed on until the death of Thomas Birch the younger in 1697, when the chapel was ceded by his son, George Birch, to the legal owners. Finch then preached at licensed houses in Platt and Birch, till his friends built a meeting-house at Platt (1700), Finch himself contributing 20l. towards the erection, which cost 95l. in all. The opening discourse was preached by Finch's son-in-law, James Grimshaw of Lancaster, author of 'Rest from Rebels,' 1716.

Finch was a member of the provincial meeting of united ministers (presbyterian and congregational) formed in Lancashire in 1693 on the basis of the London 'agreement' of 1691, involving a doctrinal subscription. He preached before this meeting on two occasions, 4 Aug. 1696, and 13 Aug. 1700, both at Manchester. Calamy acknowledges the value of Finch's corrections to his account of the silenced ministers. It is interesting to note that, though a strong supporter of the revolution of 1688, Finch was 'a charitable contributor while he liv'd' to the distressed nonjurors. Finch died on 13 Nov. 1704, and was succeeded by Robert Hesketh, early in whose ministry the chapel was conveyed (25-6 Oct. 1706) in trust for the maintenance of an 'orthodox' ministry.

(1661-1754), presbyterian minister, son of the above, was born on 6 Oct. 1661. On 3 May 1678 he entered the non-conformist academy of [q.v.] at Natland, Westmoreland. He soon removed to the university of Edinburgh, where he graduated M.A. on 16 July 1680. His first employment was as chaplain in the family of William Ashurst, afterwards knighted [see ]. In 1691 he was invited to become colleague at Norwich to [q.v.]; his first entry in the presbyterian register of baptisms is dated 1 June 1692. He remained at his post for over sixty-two years, and survived [q.v.] and Thomas Dixon the younger [see under ], both of whom had been designated as his successor. Himself a strict Calvinist, he contributed much, by his love of peace, to preserve concord when doctrinal differences threatened to divide his flock. From 1733 John Taylor, the Hebraist, was his colleague. He died on his ninety-third birthday, 6 Oct. 1754, and was buried in the church of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich. A small portrait of him hangs in the vestry of the Octagon Chapel. His great-grandson, Peter, was mayor of Norwich in 1827.

 FINCH, JOHN,  (1584–1660), speaker of the House of Commons and lord keeper, son of Sir  [q. v.], by Ursula, daughter of John Thwaites, was born on 17 Sept. 1584, admitted a member of Gray's Inn in February 1600, and called to the bar on 8 Nov. 1611. Clarendon states that he 'led a free life on a restrained fortune,' and that he 'set up upon the stock of a good wit and natural parts, without the superstructure of much knowledge in the profession by which he was to grow' (Rebellion, Oxford ed. i. 130), and Finch himself, on the occasion of his instalment as lord chief justice, publicly confessed that the first six years of his pupilage were mainly devoted to other pursuits than the study of the law (, Hist. Coll. ii. 256). In 1614 he was returned to parliament for Canterbury. In 1617 he was elected a bencher of his inn, where, in the autumn of the following year, he discharged the duties of reader (, Gray's Inn, p. 66). Foss says, without giving his authority, that in 1617 he was elected recorder of Canterbury. He was certainly recorder of the city in March 1618-19 (