Thomas Finch (1686-1755), Elizabeth Greenfield (1695-1715) and Mary Hobbs.
My 7th great-grand uncle and aunts.
Thomas got off to a rough start in life but married into a prosperous Sussex family.
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 stated: “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 seemed to interpret this as meaning he died but there is no reference to a funeral so it seems that he survived and thrived.
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 referred to him as a carpenter of Slinfold. Elizabeth came from a notable West Chiltington family. The Greenfields owned property and often described themselves as yeomen in their wills.
The only Elizabeth Greenfield baptised in West Chiltington that I’ve found was a girl baptised to Thomas Greenfield on 22 January 1695/96. Was the father’s name an error? Or was Elizabeth’s baptism missed from the records? Because a conveyance document linked to the Greenfield family from 1728 referred to Elizabeth, the late wife of Thomas Finch, carpenter of Slinfold, as the daughter of Richard Greenfield. Her siblings were also named – John, Mary, Sarah, Hannah and Jane – in the record that transferred property to Charles Sergison Esq of Hart Street, London.
Elizabeth’s father Richard had been the owner of a farm called Flushers of 25 acres in West Chiltington. In his will, dated 20 June 1714, he referred to his daughter Elizabeth (who would receive 20 shillings) among his many other children and his wife Elizabeth. His son Richard inherited Flushers.
Thomas Finch and Elizabeth had a son but she didn’t survive to see him baptised as she was buried on 11 August 1715 in Slinfold, 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 Hobbs of Slinfold. Itchingfield is just a few miles from Slinfold. Mary died in 1754 and was buried in Slinfold on 26 September. Thomas died the following year and was buried there on 27 May 1755.
Thomas and Elizabeth’s child was:
- Thomas Finch (1715-1716), who was baptised 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.
Thomas and Mary’s child was:
- Mary Finch (1719-????), who was baptised at St Peter’s in Slinfold on 13 January 1719. I’ve found no further records that match.
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.