Biography of Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea 1628-1689

In 1609 [his father] Thomas Finch 2nd Earl Winchilsea [aged 30] and [his mother] Cecily Wentworth Countess Winchelsea [aged 15] were married. He the son of [his grandfather] Moyle Finch 1st Baronet [aged 59] and [his grandmother] Elizabeth Heneage 1st Countess Winchelsea [aged 52]. They were fifth cousins.

In 1628 Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea was born to [his father] Thomas Finch 2nd Earl Winchilsea [aged 49] and [his mother] Cecily Wentworth Countess Winchelsea [aged 34].

On 23rd March 1634 [his grandmother] Elizabeth Heneage 1st Countess Winchelsea [aged 77] died. Her son [his father] Thomas [aged 55] succeeded 2nd Earl Winchilsea, 2nd Viscount Maidstone. [his mother] Cecily Wentworth Countess Winchelsea [aged 40] by marriage Countess Winchilsea.

On 4th November 1639 [his father] Thomas Finch 2nd Earl Winchilsea [aged 61] died. His son Heneage [aged 11] succeeded 3rd Earl Winchilsea, 3rd Viscount Maidstone, 4th Baronet Finch of Eastwell in Kent.

On 1st December 1642 [his mother] Cecily Wentworth Countess Winchelsea [aged 49] died.

On 21st May 1645 Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea [aged 17] and Diana Willoughby Countess Winchelsea were married. She by marriage Countess Winchilsea. He the son of Thomas Finch 2nd Earl Winchilsea and Cecily Wentworth Countess Winchelsea. They were half fourth cousin twice removed.

Around 1650 Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea [aged 22] and Mary Seymour Countess Winchelsea [aged 13] were married. She by marriage Countess Winchilsea. She the daughter of William Seymour 2nd Duke of Somerset [aged 62] and Frances Devereux Duchess of Somerset [aged 50]. He the son of Thomas Finch 2nd Earl Winchilsea and Cecily Wentworth Countess Winchelsea. They were third cousins. She a great x 4 granddaughter of King Henry VII of England and Ireland.

In 1650 [his daughter] Frances Finch Viscountess Weymouth was born to Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea [aged 22] and [his wife] Mary Seymour Countess Winchelsea [aged 13]. She married before 1672 her sixth cousin Thomas Thynne 1st Viscount Weymouth, son of Henry Thynne 1st Baronet and Mary Coventry Lady Thynne Kempsford, and had issue.

In or before 1653 [his son] William Finch was born to Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea [aged 24] and [his wife] Mary Seymour Countess Winchelsea [aged 15].

John Evelyn's Diary. 19th September 1655. Came to see me Sir Edward Hales [aged 29], Mr. Ashmole [aged 38], Mr. Harlakenton, and Mr. Thornhill: and, the next day, I visited Sir Henry Newton at Charlton, where I met the Earl of Winchelsea [aged 27] and Baroness Beauchamp [aged 25], daughter to the Lord Capel.

In 1656 [his brother-in-law] John Seymour 4th Duke of Somerset [aged 11] and Sarah Alston Duchess Somerset [aged 14] were married. He the son of [his father-in-law] William Seymour 2nd Duke of Somerset [aged 68] and [his mother-in-law] Frances Devereux Duchess of Somerset [aged 56].

On 3rd January 1657 [his son] Heneage Finch 5th Earl Winchilsea was born to Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea [aged 29] and [his wife] Mary Seymour Countess Winchelsea [aged 20]. He was baptised on 11th January 1657. He married 15th May 1684 Anne Kingsmill Countess Winchelsea.

In 1658 [his son] Thomas Finch was born to Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea [aged 30] and [his wife] Mary Seymour Countess Winchelsea [aged 21].

On 7th May 1659 Thomas Wriothesley 4th Earl of Southampton 2nd Earl Chichester [aged 52] and [his sister-in-law] Frances Seymour Countess Southampton [aged 41] were married. She by marriage Countess of Southampton. She the daughter of [his father-in-law] William Seymour 2nd Duke of Somerset [aged 71] and [his mother-in-law] Frances Devereux Duchess of Somerset [aged 59]. He the son of Henry Wriothesley 3rd Earl of Southampton and Elizabeth Vernon Countess Southampton. They were second cousin once removed. She a great x 4 granddaughter of King Henry VII of England and Ireland.

After 15th May 1660 Henry Mildmay [aged 67] was captured by Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea [aged 32] at Rye [Map].

John Evelyn's Diary. 18th June 1660. I proposed the embassy to Constantinople aka Istanbul, Turkey for Mr. Henshaw [aged 42]; but my Lord Winchelsea [aged 32] struck in.

Samuel Pepys' Diary. 15th October 1666. After dinner away home, Mr. Brisband along with me as far as the Temple [Map], and there looked upon a new booke, set out by one Rycault, secretary to my Lord Winchelsea [aged 38], of the policy and customs of the Turks, which is, it seems, much cried up. But I could not stay, but home, where I find Balty [aged 26] come back, and with him some muster-books, which I am glad of, and hope he will do me credit in his employment.

Samuel Pepys' Diary. 18th May 1668. Thence to my tailor's, and there did find Mercer come with Mrs. Horsfield and Gayet according to my desire, and there I took them up, it being almost twelve o'clock, or a little more, and carried them to the King's playhouse, where the doors were not then open; but presently they did open; and we in, and find many people already come in, by private ways, into the pit, it being the first day of Sir Charles Sidly's [aged 29] new play, so long expected, "The Mullberry Guarden", of whom, being so reputed a wit, all the world do expect great matters. I having sat here awhile, and eat nothing to-day, did slip out, getting a boy to keep my place; and to the Rose Tavern, and there got half a breast of mutton, off of the spit, and dined all alone. And so to the play again, where the King [aged 37] and Queen [aged 29], by and by, come, and all the Court; and the house infinitely full. But the play, when it come, though there was, here and there, a pretty saying, and that not very many neither, yet the whole of the play had nothing extraordinary in it, at all, neither of language nor design; insomuch that the King I did not see laugh, nor pleased the whole play from the beginning to the end, nor the company; insomuch that I have not been less pleased at a new play in my life, I think. And which made it the worse was, that there never was worse musick played-that is, worse things composed, which made me and Captain Rolt [aged 39], who happened to sit near me, mad. So away thence, very little satisfied with the play, but pleased with my company. I carried them to Kensington, to the Grotto, and there we sang, to my great content, only vexed, in going in, to see a son of Sir Heneage Finch's [aged 40] beating of a poor little dog to death, letting it lie in so much pain that made me mad to see it, till, by and by, the servants of the house chiding of their young master, one of them come with a thong, and killed the dog outright presently.

John Evelyn's Diary. 4th August 1669. I was invited by Sir Henry Peckham [aged 54] to his reading feast in the Middle Temple, a pompous entertainment, where were the Archbishop of Canterbury [aged 71], all the great Earls and Lords, etc. I had much discourse with my Lord Winchelsea [aged 41], a prodigious talker; and the Venetian Ambassador [Signor Muccinigo].

On 12th December 1671 William Seymour 3rd Duke of Somerset [aged 17] died. His uncle [his brother-in-law] John [aged 26] succeeded 4th Duke Somerset, 3rd Marquess Hertford, 4th Earl Hertford, 4th Baron Beauchamp of Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset. Sarah Alston Duchess Somerset [aged 29] by marriage Duchess Somerset.

Before 1672 [his son-in-law] Thomas Thynne 1st Viscount Weymouth [aged 31] and Frances Finch Viscountess Weymouth [aged 21] were married. She the daughter of Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea [aged 43] and Mary Seymour Countess Winchelsea [aged 34]. They were sixth cousins. She a great x 5 granddaughter of King Henry VII of England and Ireland.

On 10th April 1673 Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea [aged 45] and Catherine Norcliffe Countess Winchelsea were married. She by marriage Countess Winchilsea. He the son of Thomas Finch 2nd Earl Winchilsea and Cecily Wentworth Countess Winchelsea.

On 10th April 1673 [his wife] Mary Seymour Countess Winchelsea [aged 36] died.

On 29th October 1681 Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea [aged 53] and Elizabeth Ayres Countess Winchelsea were married. She by marriage Countess Winchilsea. He the son of Thomas Finch 2nd Earl Winchilsea and Cecily Wentworth Countess Winchelsea.

On 24th February 1683 [his son] John Finch 6th Earl Winchilsea was born to Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea [aged 55] and [his wife] Elizabeth Ayres Countess Winchelsea. He was christened on 6th March 1683 at Eastwell, Kent.

On 15th May 1684 Heneage Finch 5th Earl Winchilsea [aged 27] and Anne Kingsmill Countess Winchelsea [aged 23] were married. She by marriage Countess Winchilsea. He the son of Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea [aged 56] and Mary Seymour Countess Winchelsea.

In 1689 Heneage Finch 3rd Earl Winchilsea [aged 61] died. His grandson Charles [aged 16] succeeded 4th Earl Winchilsea, 4th Viscount Maidstone, 5th Baronet Finch of Eastwell in Kent.

On 10th April 1745 [his former wife] Elizabeth Ayres Countess Winchelsea died.