John Finch, 1st Baron Finch

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]

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.

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.

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

• 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.

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