Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea
Anne Kingsmill Finch (née Anne Kingsmill), Countess of Winchilsea, 1661 - 1720, was an English poet, one of the first female English poets to be published.
She was the third child of Sir William Kingsmill and Anne Haslewood. She was born in April 1661 at Sydmonton, Hampshire and was well educated as her family believed in good education for girls as well as for boys. In 1682, Anne Kingsmill went to St. James's Palace to become a Maid of Honour to Mary of Modena (wife of James, Duke of York, who later became King James II.) There she met the courtier Heneage Finch whom she married on May 15, 1684. It was a very happy marriage and Anne wrote several love poems to her husband, most famous perhaps A letter to Dafnis. On August 4, 1712, Charles Finch, Earl of Winchilsea died childless. This made his uncle, Anne's husband, the Earl of Winchilsea, and Anne, the Countess of Winchilsea. Anne Kingsmill Finch died in London on August 5, 1720, and was buried at her home at Eastwell in Kent.
Works by Anne Kingsmill Finch
- Miscellany Poems, on Several Occasions: Written by a Lady (1713)