John Finch (MP for Winchelsea)

For contemporaneous Speaker of the House of Commons, see John Finch, 1st Baron Finch.

John Finch (died 1642) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1642.

Finch was probably the son of Thomas Finch, 2nd Earl of Winchilsea and his wife Cecile Wentworth.[1]

In 1624, Finch was elected Member of Parliament for Winchelsea.[2] Sir Alexander Temple tried to take the seat from the control of the Finch family and succeeded in having Finch's return invalidated. However Temple was defeated in the subsequent by-election.[3] In April 1640, Finch was elected MP for Winchelsea for the Short Parliament. In November 1640 he was re-elected MP for Winchelsea in the Long Parliament and sat until his death in 1642.[2]

Finch died before February 1643 when a writ was issued for his replacement. He had been elected as John Finch Esq, but was referred to in the writ as Sir John Finch.[4]

  1. ^ History of Burley, Rutland - Pedigree of the Finch family The chart shows Thomas had a son John, with no further information. Thomas was MP for Winchelsea immediately before this John Finch.
  2. ^ a b 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. Some sources attribute the 1624 Winchelsea seat to John Finch recorder of Canterbury and later Speaker
  3. ^ Robert E. Ruigh The Parliament of 1624: politics and foreign policy
  4. ^ 'House of Commons Journal Volume 2: 11 February 1643', Journal of the House of Commons: volume 2: 1640-1643 (1802), pp. 961-963. Date accessed: 13 May 2011