Elizabeth Finch, 1st Countess of Winchilsea
Elizabeth Heneage (9 July 1556 – 23 March 1634) was an English noblewoman who became the 1st Countess of Winchilsea. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Heneage and Anne Poyntz. Her father held important royal offices, and after her mother died in 1593, his wife Mary Browne joined the family in 1594.
At age 16 she married Moyle Finch (c. 1550–1614) on 14 November 1572. Moyle was a politician who served as Member of Parliament for Weymouth, Kent, and Winchelsea, and he was High Sheriff of Kent. He was knighted in 1584 and made a baronet in 1611. Elizabeth and Moyle had eleven children.
After Moyle’s death in 1614, Elizabeth and her sons worked to raise the Finch family’s status. James I made her Viscountess Maidstone (a title to be inherited by her male heirs). In 1628, Charles I raised her to the title of Countess of Winchilsea.
Elizabeth died in 1634 at the age of 77. The titles passed to her eldest surviving son, Thomas Finch, who had already inherited his brother’s baronetcy in 1619.
A monument showing Elizabeth and Moyle by Nicolas Stone (c. 1630) was placed for the Finch family and is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; it was originally in St Mary, Eastwell, Kent.
Through her children, she left many descendants, including Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:54 (CET).