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Anne Finch (1661-1720)

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/finch/finch-anne.html

This link connects you to The Celebration of Women Writers web site on Anne Finch that contains a biography, primary texts, and a bibliography of criticism on Finch's writing.

BIOGRAPHY

The third child born to Sir William Kingsmill and Anne Haslewood, Anne Kingsmill Finch was only five months old when her father died in 1661. Following her mother's death three years later, Anne was brought up by her grandmother, Bridget, Lady Kingsmill. After Lady Kingsmill's death in 1672, Anne was raised in the household of William Haselwood, where she studied French and Italian, Greek and Roman mythology, the Bible, and the humanities. Ten years later, Anne became a Maid of Honour to Mary of Modena the wife of James, Duke of York. In 1684, Anne married Heneage Finch who was a courtier to James. Finch retained his status at the Stuart Court after the coronation of the Duke of York as King James II. After the revolution of 1688 and the coronation of William of Orange, Heneage Finch was arrested for a short period for his continuing allegiance to James II. In the 1690s, the couple lived at the estate of Charles Finch, Earl of Winchilsea. Following the succession of James II's daughter, Queen Anne, to the throne in the early 1700s, the Finches returned to London where Anne Finch began to publish her poetry. Miscellany Poems, on Several Occasions appeared in 1713 and comprised eighty-six poems and Finch's play Aristomenes: Or, The Royal Shepherd. The previous year, her husband had become the Earl of Winchilsea. Continuing political and financial stresses, however, took their toll on Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, as reflected in her last poems written during her latter years up to her death in 1720.

SECONDARY SOURCES

Hellegers, Desiree. Handmaid to Divinity: Natural Philosophy, Poetry, and Gender in Seventeenth Century England. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.

Hinnant, Charles H. The Poetry of Anne Finch: An Essay in Interpretation. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1994.

Lewis, Jane Elizabeth. The English Fable: Aesop and Literary Culture, 1651-1740. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

McGovern, Barbara, and Charles H. Hinnant, Eds. The Anne Finch Wellesley Manuscript Poems: A Critical Edition. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998.

McGovern, Barbara. Anne Finch and Her Poetry: A Critical Biography. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992.

Messenger, Ann, Ed. Gender at Work: Four Women Writers of the Seventeenth Century. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990.

SECONDARY SOURCES BY CHAPTER