Sir Heneage Finch (1628-1689) of Eastwell, Kent, was the 3rd Earl of Winchilsea.
Finch was the nephew of Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham. He married at least twice and was the father of at least 16 children. His first wife was Ann, the daughter of Sir Thomas Kingsmill, 1st Earl, and Lord Lieutenant of Kent. His second wife was Mary Seymour the daughter of William Seymour, 2nd Earl of Hertford , Duke of Somerset. She died in her bed, apparently from an excess of child rearing.
William Finch was his first son and heir by Ann and born before 1654, he was titled the Lord Maidstone, and later died in battle at sea. The second child of this family was a daughter Francis (wed Thomas Thynne, First Viscount Weymouth), and in 1657 the third was a son named Heneage, born January 11, 1657.
Before October 1660 when the Heneage family went to Turkey, a third son Thomas was born (1658).
"His contemporaries called him "amorous," and in Turkey he was reputed to have "had many women" and "built little houses for them." "
On his return from Turkey in June 1668, King Charles II remarked to Finch, "My Lord, you have not only built a town, but peopled it too".
Lord Finch was appointed by his friend earl of Arbermale (General Monk ) a Governor of Dover Castle, and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in the July of 1660, also Lord Lieutenant of Kent and afterwards ambassador the Ottoman Empire and served in this capacity from between 1660-69.
Samuel Pepys first referred to him as the Lord Winchilsea. (Note the difference in spelling from the modern place name, Winchelsea.)
King Charles II had landed at Kent on his way to London to secure the throne on the 25th of May, 1660. The King arrived in Dover with 20 ships and frigates, the Lord General and his life guard was accompanied by the Earl of Winchelsea to the cheer of the crowding locals gathered upon the beach to witness a salute fired from the guns of Dover Castle.
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