Finch and Baines

Finch and Baines were two devoted friends who maintained a very close relationship throughout their lives. They are buried here at Christ’s College, which is where they first met as students in the 1640s, sharing a set in the Fellows’ Building. 

John Finch was born in 1626 to an illustrious family which was greatly involved in politics. His father was Speaker of the House of Commons, while his brother, Heneage Finch, became the Lord Chancellor of England. Thomas Baines, born in 1622, came to Christ’s from a less preeminent family, attending Christ’s as Finch’s "sizar". Historically, sizars were students who acted as servants to the wealthier students in exchange for an allowance towards College expenses. 

The two lived through immense political upheaval, experiencing the English Civil War during their university years, as well as the changes that came about during both the Interregnum period of the Protectorate, and the Restoration of the Monarchy. 

Although there’s very little surviving information about what life was like for both men during the wars, an “Astrology Scheme” of Finch’s life dating from 1683 suggests that he may have fought at the Battle of Newbury while studying for his first degree at Balliol College, Oxford. There is even less information about Baines’ experience of the wars. After Oxford, Finch came to study at Christ’s, where he met and lived with Baines. The two became very close and were educated by the same tutor, Henry More. 
 

Life in Italy

In 1651, two years after the execution of Charles I, Finch and Baines left Christ’s to study medicine and anatomy at the University of Padua, ultimately remaining there for over 20 years. Finch became a pioneer in the field of anatomy and was later known as ‘a lynx with a knife’ for his dissections. Baines remained with him, both studying and composing poetry, including on the topic of dissection. In 1659, Finch was appointed Professor of Anatomy at Pisa, and over time, the pair became known as ‘the doctors’ to their friends.

The Restoration

When Oliver Cromwell died, his son Richard became Lord Protector but was soon deposed by the army, clearing the path for Charles II to take back the throne in 1660.

After the Restoration and Charles II’s accession to the throne, Finch became a diplomat and was appointed to be the King’s Resident at the Ducal Court in Florence. After staying in Florence from 1665, Finch and Baines headed off together to Constantinople, where Finch became the English Ambassador to the Ottoman Court, and Baines came along as his companion. 

Although Baines accompanied Finch on his diplomatic travels, he was very accomplished in his own right. Like Finch, he was made a Fellow Extraordinary of the Royal College of Physicians, and both were founding fellows of the Royal Society. Additionally, Baines was appointed Professor of Music at Gresham College in 1661, which was effectively the third university founded in England after Oxford and Cambridge. Both Finch and Baines were also knighted by Charles II.

Friends or Lovers? 

Attitudes towards sex and sexuality, as well as the terminology used to refer to queer relationships and identities, are highly intertwined with social context. Although to the modern eye, Finch and Baines acted in a way typical of a gay couple, it would be anachronistic to use this label to describe them. The 1600s were a radically different time from today, with completely diverse social, political, and religious attitudes towards sexuality. The lack of words to describe anything divergent from heterosexuality meant that someone’s sexual orientation was more about what they did rather than who they were. 

There is no way of knowing whether Finch and Baines would have chosen the label of being gay for themselves, but what we do know is that Finch used the word “friend” to describe Baines in his private notes and correspondence, as well as on Baines’s funerary monument in Turkey. To describe the pair even using the more general label of queer would likewise be to force them under a modern and anachronistic lens, with a term that carries its own loaded history of derision and reclamation. 

What can certainly be said is that Finch and Baines enjoyed an extremely close relationship, marked by deep devotion. This was not only private to themselves but also acknowledged by others to the point that Charles II personally intervened to ensure that Baines would always be allowed to accompany Finch on his diplomatic missions.

Death, Memorial & Legacy

The depth of the pair’s bond became even more apparent in Finch’s distress after Baines’ death. When Baines died in Constantinople from a fever in 1680, Finch buried his viscera there. On the funerary monument, Finch inscribed a long and heartfelt dedication to Baines, in which he described their relationship as ‘a sweet and unbroken marriage of souls and a fellowship undivided for thirty-six years’. Although he described their relationship as a ‘Friendship’, he specified that it was one which ‘between us without doubt became a great thing, and a true virtue, in times gone by perhaps unheard of in history, and in the future scarcely to be imitated’. He wrote that Baines’ death ‘cutt off the thread of all my worldly happinesse’, and two years after accompanying Baines’ embalmed body back to England, Finch himself died of pleurisy. He left the College £4,000 (roughly £300,000 today) in his Will to support two fellows, two scholars, and to increase the Master’s annual stipend by fifty pounds. 

The College clearly meant a lot to the two men as the place where they first met, and they were both buried in the College Chapel within the altar rails. Their funerary monument was designed by Joseph Catterns and stands between the organ chamber and the altar. It was erected in 1684 and paid for by Finch’s nephew, Daniel Finch the second Earl of Nottingham. The monument comprises two pedestals with busts of Finch and Baines, topped by a single funerary urn, and accompanied by a long inscription from their College tutor, Henry More, describing them as ‘two most devoted friends who had but one heart and one soul’. Historian Jean Wilson has equated the style of their funerary monument in Christ’s Chapel with traditional double marriage monuments, typically dedicated to husband and wife.

In addition to the funerary monument, Finch and Baines were posthumously recognised amongst the twenty-one figures represented in the stained glass of the west oriel window in the Hall, which shows them amongst founders, benefactors, and other prominent figures associated with Christ’s. They are further commemorated in portraits by Sir Peter Lely hung facing each other in the Lloyd Room.