Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea

Who was Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea?

Sir Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea of Eastwell, Kent, was the 3rd Earl of Winchilsea.

Finch was the son of Thomas Finch, 2nd Earl of Winchilsea, and the grandson of Elizabeth Finch, 1st Countess of Winchilsea. His first cousin was Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham. He married four times and was the father of at least 16 children. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge. He married his first wife Diana, daughter of Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham and Elizabeth Cecil, on 21 May 1645. His married his second wife Mary Seymour the daughter of William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset and Lady Frances Devereux, about 1650. He married third, Catherine Norcliffe, daughter of Sir Thomas Norcliffe, on 10 April 1673. He married his fourth wife Elizabeth Ayres on 29 October 1681. She was the mother of John Finch, 6th Earl of Winchilsea, who died unmarried and without issue.

William Finch was his first son and heir by Mary and born before 1654, he bore the courtesy title of the Lord Maidstone, and later died in battle at sea. The second child of this family was a daughter Frances, and in 1657 the third was a son named Heneage, born 11 January 1657.