Heneage Finch

Heneage Finch and his wife Eliza left Gravesend on the Grenada on 2 October 1824. After 113 days at sea, the ship arrived on 23 January 1825 with the Sydney Gazette recording their anchoring off Pinchgut Island on 27 January. The Australian newpaper had a short notice on behalf of official passengers who included Lt Ogilvie, wife and four children and Mr Heneage Finch and Mrs Eliza Finch and family. Their marriage date is not known so there may have been a child or children with them. '''There were ten children eventually'''. Apart from the ship and newspaper records, there is only one other mention of Eliza much later as the joint owner of the Laguna farm of which more mention will be made in "Finch in NSW". 

================================================== Heneage Finch

Heneage Finch appears on the Great North Road scene quite early in its history as an Assistant Surveyor. He is thus a person about whom we should have some background in the study of the operations which went with that considerable operation. It was mentioned that he was a rather arrogant, rather insufferable man who was a grandson of the Earl of Winchelsea and was 22 years old when he left England for Australia. Thanks to Michael Hodgetts, also a Chartered Surveyor and whose mother was a Finch, we have more background about this man. [Heneage Finch: the second son, Michael Hodgetts, CTP Forum Papers "Exploring the Great North Road"]

The Finch Family History

The Earls of Winchelsea had been a major political family in England over several hundred years. Sir William Finch had been an attendant knight of Henry VIII. Sir Moyle Finch had married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Heneage, former Vice Chamberlain of Queen Elizabeth I. She was widowed early, became Viscountess Maidstone, then Countess of Wichelsea and that title passed to her male heirs. Her third son was Sir Heneage Finch, Speaker of the House of Commons and his son, Heneage, became Solicitor General and first Earl of Nottingham. He had twin sons, Daniel and Heneage. Daniel succeeded as Earl of Nottingham and seventh Winchelsea and twin brother Heneage went through Christ Church Oxford and into the House of Commons, being made a peer in 1705 as the first Earl of Aylesford. Down to the third Earl of Aylesford whose second son was Admiral William Clement Finch who had two sons, William and Heneage. If you have taken in this family history, it was this second son Heneage, who was our Australian pioneer. His father died in 1794 so Heneage could not have been born in 1802 (22 on arrival in Australia in 1824!). He was actually 31 when he arrived in Sydney. Furthermore, although he made have said he was a member of the Winchilsea family and a grandson of the Earl of Winchilsea but of a collateral family, the Aylesfords.

Heneage Finch had graduated from Christ Church at Oxford in 1815 with a High Distinction in Mathematics. According to the University records, he had become a Deacon in the Church of England but he seems to have opted out of that life because he undertook a course in Surveying. He was introduced to Lord Bathurst, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who recommended him for the Surveyor Heneral's Department in Sydney. Heneage Finch and his wife Eliza left Gravesend on the Grenada on 2 October 1824. After 113 days at sea, the ship arrived on 23 January 1825 with the Sydney Gazette recording their anchoring off Pinchgut Island on 27 January. The Australian newpaper had a short notice on behalf of official passengers who included Lt Ogilvie, wife and four children and Mr Heneage Finch and Mrs Eliza Finch and family. Their marriage date is not known so there may have been a child or children with them. There were ten children eventually. Apart from the ship and newspaper records, there is only one other mention of Eliza much later as the joint owner of the Laguna farm of which more mention will be made in "Finch in NSW".

Heneage Finch in NSW

It is not immediately apparent how much of Heneage Finch's family background was known. The name Winchilsea was a well known and rather feared name and it seemed possible that not many would have known of the name Aylesford. One who would have known of it was Governor Darling. As a young man, he served as Military Secretary in America and the West Indies when three brothers Captain William Finch, Captain Seymour Finch and their soldier brother Edward Finch had all been in those theatres of war. It seems possible that he might have suffered some slights at the hands of these perhaps lofty and arrogant Finch brothers. Darling would certainly have known who Mr Finch was as well as his father and uncles. This Mr Finch would be rival to his brother-in-law William Dumaresq for the post of Deputy Surveyor General (DSG).

In September 1826, Governor Darling wrote to Under-Secretary Hay asking for the promotion of Captain Dumaresq to DSG and reminded Mr Hay that Finch and Rodd in the Surveyor General's Department were only Assistants. The office needed an officer of more importance. In March 1827, the person who had suggested that Mr Finch should go to NSW was the Lord Bathurst and he rejected Captain Dumaresq - another officer had been selected as DSG, Major Thomas Mitchell, late of the Peninsula War. Major Mitchell as DSG would stand next to Mr Oxley, "whom he will ultimately succeed".

When Major Mitchell arrived in NSW, he took a very poor view of the men under his command. He wrote scathingly to the new Secretary of State, Sir George Murray, his former commanding officer. That was something of a blow to Governor Darling. The one person Mitchell had not met was Heneage Finch and, when he did, he corrected his earlier letter: "Mr Heneage Finch AB has lately emerged from the Woods where he has been employed as an Assistant Surveyor for nearly three years. He is an able mathematician and I find him very useful in the Department, he being nearly the senior assistant in it."

Major Mitchell went to the country, leaving Mr Finch in charge of the Office as Acting DSG. The task was something Finch thought he could do easily and perhaps after all he might succeed to the position of Surveyor General. He had not reckoned with Governor Darling who notified England on 28 May 1828 of the death of Mr Oxley. Mitchell was now Surveyor General, in accordance with orders. Darling replaced Finch with Mr Hoddle, asserting he was the more senior officer although on a smaller salary than Finch. Mitchell returned and was in a rage about the meddling in his Survey Department. When Darling proposed Hoddle as DSG, Mitchell vetoed him. If Mitchell proposed Finch, Darling would veto him.The result was that just a list of men was sent to London. Downing Street did what was convenient and sent out Captain William Perry, an Instructor at Woolwich and a contemporary of Dumaresq in the Army. Perry was DSG for over 20 years but Mitchell would never trust him.

Finch was sent back to Laguna to work on the Great North Road. By August 1828, the road was advanced with the expectattion that carriages would be able to drive to Wallis Plains in another year. However, a further exchange between Darling and Mitchell over Finch resulted in Finch being recalled to Sydney, replaced by an Assistant Surveyor on the Great North Road project. Finch sold Laguna to his friend Richard Wiseman. The vitriolic despatches from Darling on Finch in his Laguna farm arrived in London after Viscount Goderich had replaced Sir George Murray as Secretary of State. The change might have been a blow to Mitchell but the despatch from London written on 15 March 1829 did not reach Sydney until October - it relieved Darling of his appointment.

Major Mitchell wrote of Finch in September 1832: "Finch was actuated by the best principles and intentions, but was rather unfortunate. He quarrelled with me in official correspondence regarding his duties. His conduct even General Darling condemned. He spoke of resigning more than once. He was employed at his earnest entreaty on my journey to the interior. I should have known that his peculiar eccentricity was unfavourable where the maintenance of order and obedience among prisoners was most essential. He lost all his stores, cattle, and two of his men, and nearly his own life since which I have felt no great kindness towards him. But he has been a serious loser in property as the cattle were chiefly his own and the Governor refused to remunerate him. His reports are fraught with complaints of his men, of the cattle, of broken instruments, but I consider much allowance due to a man of honour and a scholar."

Meanwhile, Finch had resigned in 1837 but he was reappointed at Perry's wish. In 1839, Finch was again warned of severe punishment because he had lost two men killed by natives. He had been found insubordinate when he continued writing to Perry complaining of a lack of support to surveyors. In 1839 he resigned again. It looked as if he might win a commission in New England but Governor Gipps blackballed him: "On four separate occasions Finch was informed I would not again employ him in any matter. He is one of the most insubordinate of a department by no means remarkable for its regularity."

On 19 September 1850, the unfortunate Mr Finch died at Hoxton Park on the horns of a bull. As Michael Hodgetts wrote in his Forum paper, "Somehow it seems a controversial and dramatic way for this extraordinary man to die. The plaque on the wall in the Liverpool church says Ardensis major par secundus - it is always harder for the second son.

source http://www.convicttrail.org/history.php?id=a4b4c4%f%0

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Intestate records State records NSW

http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/searchhits.aspx?table=Index to Intestate Estate Case Papers&id=53&frm=1&query=Surname:finch

FINCH Hineage - 0961 1850 Horton Park - [6/3517] 

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New South Wales, Australia, Registers of Coroners' Inquests, 1796-1942
about Heneage Finch

Name: Heneage Finch

Inquest Date: 20 Sep 1850

Inquest Location: Liverpool

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Australia Death Index, 1787-1985
about Henrage Finch

Name: Henrage Finch

Death Date: 1850

Death Place: New South Wales

Registration Year: 1850

Registration Place: Liverpool, New South Wales

Volume Number: V185081 36A

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New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1825
about Heneage Finch

Name: Heneage Finch

Event Date: 5 Nov 1825

Event Description: Requesting a grant of a reserve of land

Series: (NRS 899) Memorials to the Governor, 1810-1825

Item: 4/1841B

Number: 273

Page: 749-50

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New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1825
about Heneage Finch

Name: Heneage Finch

Event Date: 5 Nov 1825

Event Description: Requesting a grant of a reserve of land

Series: (NRS 899) Memorials to the Governor, 1810-1825

Item: 4/1841B

Number: 273

Page: 752

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New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1825
about Heneage Finch

Name: Heneage Finch

Event Date: 17 Nov 1825

Event Description: On list of persons who have received orders for reserves of land since 1 Jan 1825

Series: (NRS 898) Special bundles, 1794-1825

Item: 9/2652

Page: 107

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New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1825
about Heneage Finch

Name: Heneage Finch

Event Date: 19 Nov 1825

Event Description: on list of lands granted & reserved by Sir Thomas Brisbane

Series: (NRS 898) Special bundles, 1794-1825

Item: 9/2740

Page: 12

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New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1825
about Heneage Finch

Name: Heneage Finch

Event Date: 7 Feb 1825

Event Description: Bathurst's dispatch of 21 Aug 1824 notifying Finch's appointment returned to Governor Brisbane

Series: (NRS 937) Copies of letters sent within the Colony, 1814-1825

Item: 4/3513

Page: 375

Search

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New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1825
about Heneage Finch

Name: Heneage Finch

Event Date: 27 Jan 1825

Event Description: Government passenger landed from the "Grenada"; with his wife

Series: (NRS 937) Copies of letters sent within the Colony, 1814-1825

Item: 4/3513

Page: 435

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New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1825
about Heneage Finch

Name: Heneage Finch

Event Date: 6 Jul 1825

Event Description: Warrant on the Colonial Treasurer for purchase of horse

Series: (NRS 898) Special bundles, 1794-1825

Item: 4/6037

Page: 33

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Book 7 2002 Heneage Finch of Laguna

Who was Heneage Finch? Was he really grandson of the Earl of Winchilsea? No, there are three earls in this 'eccentric' family as well as countless knights and barons. This book researches an extraordinary family and misused colonial surveyor.

1. Heneage Finch

Many have heard of the Convict Trail Project* and the trials and tribulations that early settlers and convicts endured in the construction of the Great North Road.

A key player was an enigmatic surveyor called Heneage Finch (HF). NSW records state Finch was a grandson of the Earl of Winchilsea who was personally recommended for service in the Survey Department by Lord Bathurst, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. WS Parkes in his book on Cessnock proposes that Finch was 23 in 1825 when he was instructed to find a line of road for wheeled traffic to connect Hunter’s River with Sydney. In the Survey Office Finch reported to Surveyor-General John Oxley.

2. The Finch Family and Winchilsea or Winchelsea

Some historical errors continue to be regenerated. Firstly the ancient name for the English sea side town of Winchelsea was actually Winchilsea.

Sir Thomas Heneage was a long time retainer of Queen Elizabeth. His daughter Elizabeth married Sir Moyle Finch of Eastwell Manor in Kent at 16. Thomas Heneage left his daughter his vast estate of Copped Hall in Essex, which she sold with its extensive lands to the King in return for a peerage for her husband. Sadly widowed, Elizabeth became the first Viscountess Maidstone then Countess Winchilsea. Her heirs in the male line would be Earls of Winchilsea and her second son Theo was the second ‘Winchilsea’ in 1633.

Elizabeth’s third son, the first to combine the names Heneage and Finch, was Speaker of the House of Commons. Some editors correct the spelling when the connection of HF to the Earl of Winchilsea is discussed because the rustic medieval town associated with Rye in the importation of wine from France legally or by smuggling, is still Winchelsea.

3. Surveyor Finch, Education and Family Connections

Heneage Finch was one of two Assistants to the Surveyor-General ‘whose education and rank in life will not only add to the respectability of the department but tend to place it upon a (better) footing’. He surveyed land near the Williams, Paterson and Hunter Rivers and the Wollombi Brook. He had completed ‘a very high degree in Mathematics’ from Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1815 at the age of 22. Lord Bathurst wrote to Governor Brisbane ‘for some time he studied under an eminent surveyor who gave the most satisfactory assurances of his competency to the business in all its branches’.

The records correctly advise that Heneage Finch was the second son of Vice Admiral Hon William Clement Finch MP, born in 1753 and died in 1794. But Admiral Finch was the second son of the 3rd Earl of Aylesford.

The family boasted the three earldoms of Winchilsea, Nottingham and Aylesford.

4. The Commemoration of the Life of Heneage Finch

In St Luke’s Church, Liverpool, is a tablet commemorating the death of Heneage Finch of Hoxton Park in this parish … He died on 19th September 1850 in the 57th year of his age. Finch was therefore born in 1793 and was 32 in 1825.

HF and his wife Eliza left Gravesend on 2 October 1924 on the Grenada and they arrived in Sydney on 23 January 1824. Finch started in the Survey Office on 2 February 1825. He had an elder brother William, named for Father, older sister, Mary and younger sister Charlotte Louisa. HF was named after Heneage Finch, the 3rd Earl of Aylesford.

This is a very well connected family. So why did HF come to New South Wales? The answer probably lies in two important influences.

From the time of the Countess, the family was noted for its consistent prominence in English Royal Circles and political affairs. They knew everybody. But the eldest son inherited title, land, manors, and money. With a pedigree going back to Sir Thomas Heneage and Lady Winchilsea, the wealthiest woman in England after her husband died, sons and grandsons made their way in a strongly competitive world. Many became Members of Parliament. The historical line is embroidered with titles and honours. Westminster School and Christ Church College are constant influences; and the favourite name of Heneage Finch reoccurs everywhere.

But it is often the Second Son that establishes his own line of fame.

Heneage, the Speaker of the House of Commons died in 1631. His son was Baron Finch and then First Earl of Nottingham. In 1682 Daniel became Second Earl of Nottingham and in 1727 Seventh Earl of Winchilsea when that family line died out. His twin brother Heneage, saw Daniel with two titles and a glittering career in the Commons and then the House of Lords. He matched his brother in all personal achievement through School and University and into politics. He married the daughter of Sir John Banks of Aylesford in Kent and became the First Earl of Aylesford. For a time the brothers were a uniquely positioned influential combination, one in the Commons, his brother in the Lords

Tragedy struck the Finch family several times in succession. William Clement Finch had taken a seat in Parliament as one of two members representing Surrey which he held from 1790 to 1794. He died after a long illness on 30 September 1794.

Mrs Finch (nee Brouncker) was left with a large estate at Albury Park, useful family connections and three small children and a baby girl. The house at Albury was said to be left to elder brother William. Heneage would have been a year old. But it is reported that in his will Admiral Finch had an agreement with Samuel Thornton, Governor of the Bank of England that the house would be sold to him. The house did not transfer until six years later in 1800. Perhaps the Governor had been prevailed upon by Mrs Finch to defer the sale of the house for a while until she could sort things out.
Heneage was now seven, old enough to know the Albury estate well, including its 12 acres of vineyard and long canal, later partly recreated in Laguna in the Wollombi Valley.

In 1800 the family moved. In 1803 Mrs Finch decided to remarry William Strode who lived in Hertfordshire at Northaw. It is most likely the three youngest went down to the Friars at Aylesford to live with Grandmother, the Countess. But she died in 1805.

Grandfather Brouncker was a wealthy resident of St Kitts in the West Indies. Uncle Edward, the General, presumably Finch’s guardian, would live on until 1843.

- After you have your degree at Oxford you can visit your grandfather in the West Indies. But you are going to have to do something to support yourself. You are good at Mathematics and you could be a surveyor and make a new life in New South Wales. I will arrange an interview with Lord Bathurst for you. The die was cast.

5. A Colonial career that did not live up to expectations

Finch and his colleague Rodd were by salary next in line to the Surveyor-General, Mr Oxley. Rodd was upset by the horrific conditions in the Colony and left. Finch missed his first chance of promotion to Deputy Surveyor-General when Major Thomas Mitchell was selected in January 1827 in preference to the Governor’s brother-in-law William Dumaresq and it was clearly stated in London that Major Mitchell would succeed Oxley.

Major Mitchell did shortly afterwards replace the sick John Oxley first in an acting capacity and then when Oxley died. Mitchell had just appointed Finch as temporary Acting Deputy in May 1828 while he went out to see the country. Darling intervened in the matter, deposed Finch and proposed Robert Hoddle. Downing Street then appointed Captain Perry as permanent Deputy Surveyor-General. There would be no promotion for Mr Finch but Robert Hoddle some years later transferred to the new state of Victoria.

6. The Deviousness of the Civil Service & Mitchell’s Avoidance of Responsibility

The scandalous manipulation of job classifications of the four senior surveyors and the proposed claw back of salaries allegedly overpaid by the Auditor-General to placate a venomous Governor Darling is chilling for those who have served in the Public Service.

Mr Finch was the granite natured Mitchell’s whipping boy for the fiasco which resulted from Mitchell’s irresponsible and disastrous summer rush to the bush immediately Governor Darling was recalled**

The inadequacy and callousness of subsequent authorities, and Mr Finch’s eventual death on the horns of a bull, witness an incredible life and an epic portrayal of conditions and cruelty in the emerging Colony. The stern lot of a colonial surveyor was unbearable enough without the sinister degradation of a proud professional man.

I hope, retrospectively, for some Justice for Mr Finch. His memorial in St Luke’s Church, Hoxton Park reads ‘Ardensis Major Par Secundis’ - it is always harder for the Second Son, and a fitting tribute for the extensive Finch Family.

• Convict Trail Project

NB Publications which include reference to or are about Heneage Finch

Mines Wines and People - A History of Greater Cessnock

1979

Sir Thomas Livingston Mitchell by William C Foster

1985

The Search for the Real Heneage Finch

1995

Exploring the Great North Road – Forum Papers

1998

Heneage Finch of Laguna

2002

© Copyright Michael Hodgetts. All rights reserved. Website by JHP Projects.

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Government and General Order.
Colonial Secretarv's Office, 2d February, 1825. THE Right Honourable Earl Bathuust, hav ing been pleased to appoint Mr Heneage Finch, an Assistant to the Surveyor General, he will report himself to John Oxley, Esq. as ready to enter upon the Duties of his Office. By His Excellency's Command, F. Goulburn, Colonial Secretary

Government and General Order. COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE, 2d FEBRUARY, 1825. The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842) Thursday 3 February 1825 p 1 Article

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On Thursday, 19th September, 1850, at his residence, Hoxton Park, near Liverpool, New South Wales, in consequence of injuries received from a fierce bull, HENEAGE FINCH, Esq., formerly of Christ Church, Oxford, second son of the Hon E. Finch, Vice-Admiral, R.N. Mr. Finch survived the attack of the infuriated animal only a few hours, which were necessarily those of extreme suffering, in the midst of which, however, he preserved his serenity of mind, and with his characteristic benevolence exerted his best efforts in endeavouring to compose the feelings of his surrounding domestics.

Family NoticesThe Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 - 1859) Wednesday 16 October 1850 p 2 Family Notices

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memorial ST. lUKFS RECTORY. . 30/1/1905. Heneage Finch, of Hoxton] Park, died 19/9/1850. in hts 57th year. |

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