John Finch

Sir John Finch (1626 - 1682) was ambassador of England to the Ottoman Empire. One of the Finches of Burley-on-the-Hill, John Finch was the younger brother of Lord Chancellor Sir Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham; their half-sister was the philosopher Lady Anne Conway of Ragley Hall. Anne and John Finch were pupils of Henry More. After Eton John Finch studied with More at Christ's College, Cambridge, and there met his lifelong companion Sir Th... more

Sir John Finch (1626 - 1682) was ambassador of England to the Ottoman Empire. One of the Finches of Burley-on-the-Hill, John Finch was the younger brother of Lord Chancellor Sir Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham; their half-sister was the philosopher Lady Anne Conway of Ragley Hall. Anne and John Finch were pupils of Henry More. After Eton John Finch studied with More at Christ's College, Cambridge, and there met his lifelong companion Sir Thomas Baines. Following a Grand Tour of Italy, where they graduated in medicine from the University of Padua in 1656 Finch and Baines returned to Christ's as teachers in 1660, and fellows of the Royal Society. They returned to Italy again from 1665 to 1670 when Finch was Minister to the Ducal Court at Florence. He was appointed ambassador to the Sublime Porte of the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople in 1672, succeeding his uncle Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea and his cousin Daniel Harvey. John Finch served as ambassador until 1681. Finch... less