Finch, Heneage, Sir (1580 -1631)

Sir Heneage Finch, was the fourth, but third surviving son of Sir Moyle Finch, 1st Baronet, of Eastwell in Kent, and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Heneage of Copt Hall in Essex. He was a Fellow Commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge about 1592, he took his B.A. in 1596, and was admitted to the Inner Temple in November 1597. He was called to the bar in 1606, and elected to Parliament for Rye at a byelection in 1607 1611, and sat for West Looe in 1616 1622. Recorder of the City of London in 1621, he represented the City in Parliament 1623 1626, was knighted 22 June 1623 at Wanstead, and called to the degree of a Serjeant at law 25 June 1623. On 8 July 1623, his mother was created Viscountess Maidstone with remainder to her heirs male. She was afterwards, 12 July 1628, created Countess of Winchilsea, with the same remainder, and when she died in 1633, his elder brother, Thomas, became Earl of Winchilsea. On 6 February 1626, Sir Heneage was elected Speaker of the House of Commons. He married, firstly, Frances, daughter of Sir Edmund Bell, of Beaupré Hall, Norfolk, and they had seven sons and four daughters. She died 11 April 1627, and he married, secondly, 16 April 1629, Elizabeth, daughter of William Cradock, of Staffordshire, and widow of Richard Bennet, Mercer and Alderman of London. They had two daughters. His eldest son by his first wife, Heneage Finch, Lord Chancellor, was created Earl of Nottingham 12 May 1681.