Sir Moyle Finch, 1st Baronet

Sir Moyle Finch, 1st Baronet JP (c. 1550 – 18 December 1614) was an English politician, knight, sheriff, and MP.

Sir Moyle Finch, close up of grave (now in V & A)

Sir Moyle Finch, Bt
Arms of Finch: Argent, a chevron between three griffins passant sable
Member of Parliament for Winchelsea
In office
1601–1601
Serving with Hugh Beeston
Preceded byRalph Ewens
Thomas Colepeper
Succeeded byAdam White
Thomas Unton
Member of Parliament for Kent
In office
1593–1593
Serving with Sir Edward Hoby
Preceded byHenry Brooke
Sir Henry Brooke
Succeeded bySir Robert Sidney
Sir William Brooke
Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis
In office
1576–1584
Preceded byLaurence Thompson
John Wolley
Richard Bedell
Thomas Hanham
Succeeded byLaurence Thompson
Francis Bacon
George Grenville
Edward Penruddock
Personal details
Bornc. 1550
Died18 December 1614(1614-12-18) (aged 63–64)
Spouse
(m. 1573)
Children
Parent(s)Sir Thomas Finch
Catherine Moyle
Sir Moyle Finch's tomb, by Nicholas Stone the Elder, now in Victoria and Albert Museum

Early life

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Finch was the second, but eldest surviving son, of Sir Thomas Finch of Eastwell, Kent, and the former Catherine Moyle. Among his siblings was brother Henry Finch (MP for Canterbury and St Albans), and sister Jane Finch (who married George Wyatt of Allington Castle).[1]

His paternal grandparents were Sir William Finch, who was knighted for his services at the siege of Therouanne, and, his first wife, Elizabeth (née Cromer) Lovelace (a daughter of Sir James Cromer of Tunstall, Kent, and widow of Sir Richard Lovelace). His maternal grandparents were Sir Thomas Moyle and the former Katherine Jordeyne (a daughters of Edward Jordeyne, a leading goldsmith at Cheapside with a manor at Raynham).[2]

Finch was admitted of Gray's Inn in 1568.[citation needed]

Career

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Finch first entered Parliament at a by-election for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, through the influence of the 2nd Earl of Bedford, who had campaigned with his father at St. Quentin in 1557 (during the Italian War), sitting between 1576 and 1584. He later represented Kent in 1593 (the same year he was elected knight of the shire for Kent) and for Winchelsea in 1601. He served as High Sheriff of Kent in 1596 and 1605.[3]

He was knighted in 1585 and he was created a Baronet, of Eastwell in the County of Kent, in 1611.[4]

Personal life

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In 1573, Finch married Elizabeth Heneage, daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Heneage. They had a daughter Anne who was a writer: she married Sir William Twysden, 1st Baronet.[5]

He died in December 1614 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Theophilus. Lady Finch was elevated to the peerage in her own right as Viscountess Winchilsea in 1623 and was further honoured when she was made Countess of Winchilsea in 1628. She died in 1634 and was succeeded by her third son, Thomas, who had already succeeded his elder brother in the baronetcy. Their fourth son Sir Heneage Finch became Speaker of the House of Commons and was the father of Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham.[6]

References

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  1. ^ Hasler, P. W. "FINCH, Moyle (c.1550-1614), of Eastwell, Kent". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  2. ^ Hyde, Patricia (2004). "Moyle, Sir Thomas (b. before 1500, d. 1560)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19472. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ Richard Kilburne (1659). "A Topographie or Survey of the County of Kent" (PDF). London. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  4. ^ George E. Cokayne Complete Baronetage, Vol 1 (1900)
  5. ^ Marie-Louise Coolahan, 'Twysden, Anne, Lady Twysden (1574–1638)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 14 Jan 2017
  6. ^ a b c d e f Courthope, William (1839). Debrett's Complete Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: With Additions to the Present Time and a New Set of Coats of Arms from Drawings by Harvey. J. G. & F. Rivington. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  7. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Finch, Heneage" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 824.
  8. ^ Peck, Linda Levy (2018). Women of Fortune: Money, Marriage, and Murder in Early Modern England. Cambridge University Press. pp. 92, 300. ISBN 978-1-107-03402-0. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  9. ^ Todd, Janet (2018). The Works of Aphra Behn: v. 1: Poetry. Routledge. p. 582. ISBN 978-1-351-25946-0. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
Baronetage of England
New creation Baronet
(of Eastwell)
1611–1614
Succeeded by