John Finch, 1st Baron Finch

John Finch, 1st Baron Finch (17 September 1584 – 27 November 1660) was an English judge, and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1629. He was Speaker of the House of Commons.

The Right Honourable The Lord Finch Kt KC
Portrait by Sir Anthony Van Dyck
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
In office 1640–1641
Preceded by	The Lord Coventry
Succeeded by	Sir Edward Littleton
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
In office 1634–1640
Preceded by	Sir Robert Heath
Succeeded by	Sir Edward Littleton
Speaker of the House of Commons
In office 1628–1629
Preceded by	Sir Heneage Finch
Succeeded by	Sir John Glanville
Personal details
Born	17 September 1584
Died	27 November 1660 (aged 86)
Alma mater	Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Early life

Finch was the son of Sir Henry Finch of Eastwell, Kent. He was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1596 and admitted at Gray's Inn on 5 February 1601.[1] He was called to the bar in November 1611.[2]

Political career

Finch became recorder of Canterbury in 1619. In 1621 he was elected Member of Parliament for Canterbury.[3] In his capacity as recorder, he welcomed King Charles I when he arrived at Canterbury for his marriage in Canterbury Cathedral on 13 June 1625, and Finch was knighted by the King two days later on 15 June.[4] He became King's Counsel in 1626.[1] He was re-elected MP for Canterbury in 1626 and 1628.[3] In 1628 Finch was elected Speaker, a post which he retained until 1629 when Parliament was dissolved. He was held down in his chair by Holles and others on the occasion of Sir John Eliot's resolution on tonnage and poundage.

Judicial career

In 1634 Finch was appointed chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and distinguished himself by the active zeal with which he upheld the king's prerogative. Notable also was the brutality which characterized his conduct as chief justice, particularly in the cases of William Prynne and John Langton.

Finch presided over the trial of John Hampden, who resisted the payment of ship money, and was chiefly responsible for the decision of the judges that ship-money was constitutional. As a reward for his services he was, in 1640, appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, and was also created Baron Finch, of Fordwich. He had, however, become so unpopular that one of the first acts of the Long Parliament, which met in the same year was his impeachment. His estates were sequestrated and he took refuge in Holland. The Great Seal was passed to Edward Littleton.

When he was allowed to return to England is uncertain, but in 1660 he was one of the commissioners for the trial of the regicides, though he does not appear to have taken much part in the proceedings.

Finch who had been accused of high treason twenty years before, by a full Parliament, and who by flying from their justice had saved his life, was appointed to judge some of those who should have been his judges; ...[5]

He died on 27 November 1660 and was buried in St Martins church near Canterbury, his peerage becoming extinct.

See also

• Earl of Winchilsea
• Heneage Finch, 1st Baron Finch

Notes

1. "Finch, John (FNC596J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
2. Louis A. Knafla, ‘Finch, John, Baron Finch of Fordwich (1584–1660)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, January 2008
3. Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. 229–239.
4. Knights of England
5. The Memoirs of Edmond Ludlow, Lieutenant-General of the Horse in the Army of the Commonwealth of England, 1625-1672, Edited with appendices of letters and illustrative documents by C. H. Firth, M.A., in two volumes, Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1894, Vol. II, p. 303

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Finch of Fordwich, John Finch, Baron". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

External links

• Rigg, James McMullen (1889). "Finch, John (1584-1660)" . Dictionary of National Biography. 19.

Parliament of England
Preceded by George Newman Sir William Lovelace	Member of Parliament for Canterbury 1621–1622 With: Sir Robert Newington	Succeeded by Thomas Scott Thomas Denn
Preceded by John Fisher Sir Thomas Wilsford	Member of Parliament for Canterbury 1628–1629 With: James Palmer 1626 Thomas Scott 1628–1629	Succeeded by Parliament suspended until 1640
Political offices
Preceded by Sir Heneage Finch	Speaker of the House of Commons 1628-1629	Succeeded by Sir John Glanville
Legal offices
Preceded by Sir Robert Heath	Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 1634–1640	Succeeded by Sir Edward Littleton
Political offices
Preceded by Lord Coventry	Lord Keeper 1640–1641	Succeeded by Sir Edward Littleton
Peerage of England
New creation	Baron Finch 1640–1660	Extinct