Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea
(1661–1720)

Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, was among the first published women in England. With witty commentary and a perceptive eye, her poetry ignores the social conventions of her time and satirizes societal roles and restrictions. Born Anne Kingsmill, her father died when she was only five months old, but he left instructions—and a significant inheritance—that his daughters should receive as good an education as his sons. In 1684, Anne married Heneage Finch and the two had what was to be a lasting and happy marriage. One year later, she wrote "A Letter to Dafnis: April 2nd 1685" and other love poems to her husband, who encouraged and supported her writing.

Although she had friendships with the foremost literary figures of her day, including Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, she herself never became part of the London literary circle. Her most celebrated poem, "The Spleen," first appeared in 1701. Her only major collection of work to appear during her lifetime was Miscellany Poems, on Several Occasions: Written by a Lady (1713).

On August 4, 1712, when Earl of Winchilsea Charles Finch died unexpectedly,
his uncle Heneage Finch assumed the title of Earl, making Anne Finch the Countess of Winchilsea. Anne Finch died in London on August 5, 1720. In an eloquent obituary her husband said of her, "The Court of England never bred a more accomplished Lady."

Another collection, The Poems of Anne, Countess of Winchilsea, was edited and published in 1903. The 1988 publication of The Wellesley Manuscript Poems of Anne, Countess of Winchilsea consists of 53 previously unpublished poems, many of which she had written in the last two decades of her life.

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