Thomas Finch (1686-1755).
My 7th great-grand uncle.
Thomas got off to a rough start in life but married into a prosperous Sussex family, at least for a while…
He was born in the village of Slinfold to carpenter John Finch and his wife Sarah Richardson. But he was clearly very ill as a baby because a note in the baptism records at St Peter’s Church for 12 October 1686 states: “Private baptism as soon as borne (being in great danger of death), was afterwards on the sixth day of November brought to Church and had the rest of the Churches rights performed according to the direction of the Rubrick.” The Sussex Family History Society records seem to interpret this as meaning he died but there is no reference to a funeral and another family researcher suggests that he survived and thrived, and I agree.
On 12 October 1714 he married spinster Elizabeth Greenfield of West Chiltington in Sussex by licence, and the ceremony took place on the coast at St Peter’s Church in Selsey. The licence refers to him as a carpenter of Slinfold. There’s something about this story that suggests they married in secret, perhaps because family were unhappy with the union? Or perhaps he was travelling for work. One thing is clear is that Elizabeth came from a notable West Chiltington family, with the Greenfields owning property and often describing themselves as yeomen in their wills. Richard Greenfield left a will dated 20 June 2014 in which he refers to his daughter Elizabeth (who would receive 20 shillings) among his many other children. He owned a farm with 25 acres called Flushers in the village, which he left to his son Richard Jnr. A separate conveyance document linked to the Greenfields from 1728 refers to Elizabeth as the late wife of Thomas Finch, carpenter of Slinfold.
However, I’ve yet to locate a baptism record for Elizabeth with Richard as her father. The only Elizabeth Greenfield baptised in West Chiltington that I’ve found was a girl baptised to Thomas Greenfield on 22 January 1695/96. The records need to be inspected to get a definitive answer.
Either way, Elizabeth and Thomas Finch had a child, also Thomas, who was baptised back at St Peter’s in Slinfold on 17 August 1715. However, he died the following year and was buried in the village on 8 June 1716. Elizabeth didn’t survive to see the boy baptised as she was buried on 11 August 1715, suggesting that she died in or shortly after giving birth.
It appears that Thomas married again a couple of years later, with a marriage recorded on 15 October 1717 at Itchingfield in Sussex between Thomas Finch and Mary Hobs of Slinfold. Itchingfield is just a few miles from Slinfold. The couple had a daughter there, Mary Finch (baptised 13 January 1719/20). Mary Snr died in 1754 and was buried in Slinfold on 26 September. Thomas died the following year and was buried on 27 May 1755.
Sources: BMD and other records held at Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk, West Sussex Records Office and Sussex Family History Group records. Richard Greenfield’s will Archdeaconry Court of Chichester – STCI/31 f 454. West Sussex Record Office documents Lytton Mss 349, 350 and Lytton Mss 346-348.