Lady Finch was the first wife of Sir Heneage Finch. The monument was intended by Sir Heneage to commemorate both himself and his wife, and the inscription, in Latin, was accordingly left incomplete so that the date of Sir Heneage’s death could be added. However, Sir Heneage remarried in 1629, and is separately commemorated in a monument which is displayed nearby. The Latin inscription, translated, reads: ‘To his most beloved wife Frances Daughter of Sir Edmund Bell of Beaupré Hall The best of wives, mothers and the best of womanhood, not unsuited to this century whose principles she sustained and brought with her in her own true life, those of ancient times. Moreover she left the fruits of her exceptional example for posterity. Brief in mourning, Sir Heneage Finch serving as a lawyer and recorder to the City of London after having 11 children, seven sons and four daughters, and more than 14 years marriage whence three sons and one daughter survive with God’s protection. He erected this sepulchre of his family and to himself as she herself devised and ordained. She died on the 11 April 1627
He himself …’

Nicholas Stone was the foremost British sculptor of his day, and was trained in the Netherlands, which is probably where he learned the art of carving marble. With the onset of the Civil War in 1642 he evidently ceased working, and the sculptural tradition in Britain generally was not revived again until the late 17th century. Other monuments to members of the Finch family once in St Mary's Church, Eastwell, Kent, are now housed in the V&A. The church sadly fell into disrepair and collapsed in the 1960s, but the monuments were rescued and brought to the Museum at that date. In addition two busts of great-grandsons of Sir Moyle and Lady Finch, Daniel Finch and his brother, Canon Edward Finch, are also displayed in the V&A.