FINLAY, Francis Dalzell (son of John Finlay, tenant farmer). b. Newtownards, co. Down 12 July 1794; apprentice to a printer at Belfast; master printer 1820; founded Northern Whig 1824; often prosecuted for press offences; imprisoned 3 months in 1826 and his newspaper suspended Aug. 1826 to May 1827; imprisoned 3 months in 1832 and fined £50; a friend of D. O’Connell but not an advocate of repeal. d. Glenarm, co. Antrim 10 Sep. 1857. Freeman’s Journal 12 Sept. 1857 p. 4.
FINLAY, George (son of John Finlay, captain R.E., F.R.S., who d. 1802). b. Faversham, Kent 21 Dec. 1799; studied law in Glasgow, at univ. of Göttingen 1821; went to Greece in 1823 where he was very intimate with Byron; joined Odysseus in an expedition into the Morea 1824, fought in the war of 1824–27; purchased an estate in Attica 1828 in which he lost his money; studied the history of Greece for many years; author of Greece under the Romans 1844; The history of Greece to its conquest by the Turks 1851; The history of Greece under the Ottoman and Venetian domination 1856; History of the Greek Revolution 1861, all republished collectively as A History of Greece, ed. H. F. Tozer 7 vols. 1877. d. Athens 26 Jany. 1875.
FINLAY, Sir Thomas (youngest son of David Finlay). b. 1803; high sheriff of co. Cavan 1837; knighted 1837. d. 19 Adelaide road north, Hampstead 22 Oct. 1869.
FINLAYSON, John. b. Scotland 1770; a writer at Cupar-Fife and then in Edinburgh; a house agent in London 1798; became a believer in Richard Brothers 1797; obtained Brothers’s release from Fisher house asylum Islington 14 April 1806, Brothers resided in Finlayson’s house Upper Baker st. Marylebone 1815 to his decease 25 Jany. 1824; claimed from the government £5710 for Brothers’s maintenance, but all he received was £270 Brothers’s naval half pay 4 Mch. 1830; reduced to poverty and lived on a parish allowance; author of An admonition to the people of all countries [in support of Richard Brothers], Edin. 1797; An essay [on the First Resurrection] 1798; The last trumpet and the flying angel, the true system as given by God to R. Brothers and myself 1849 and other works; engraved 9 sheets of the ground plan of the New Jerusalem and 12 sheets of views of its public buildings for Brothers’ publications; found dead 14 Paradise st. Marylebone 20 Sept. 1854. bur. in Brothers’ grave at St. John’s Wood.
FINLAYSON, Rev. Thomas (2 son of Thomas Finlayson of Coldock, Blair Drummond, Perthshire, farmer). b. Coldock 22 Dec. 1809; licensed by presbytery of Stirling and Falkirk as a preacher of the gospel April 1835; min. of Union st. congregation Greenock, Nov. 1835 to Sep. 1847; min. of Rose st. church, Edinburgh, Sep. 1847 to death; moderator of supreme court of his church 1867; D.D. Univ. of Edin. 1867 or 1868; edited Beattie’s Poems 1864; Goldsmith’s Poems 1871. d. of heart disease at Campbeltown 17 Oct. 1872. bur. Grange cemetery, Edinburgh 22 Oct. Memorials of Rev. Thomas Finlayson, D.D. Edinburgh 1873; John Smith’s Our Scottish clergy 2 series (1849) 295–301.
FINNELLY, William. Barrister M.T. 26 Jany. 1827; author with Charles Clark of Reports of cases in the House of Lords on appeals and writs of error 1831–1846, 12 vols. 1835–47, and of House of Lords cases on appeals and writs of error, claims of peerage and divorces 1847–1850, 2 vols. 1849–51; found dead on the floor of his sitting room at 20 Old sq. Lincoln’s Inn 23 Nov. 1851 aged 52. Law Times 29 Nov. 1851 p. 103.
FINNIS, Thomas Quested (son of Robert Finnis of Hythe, Kent). b. Hythe, Jany. 1801; partner in firm of Finnis and Fisher 79 Great Tower st. London, provision merchants; the first pioneer of commerce to port of Bussorah; alderman of Lower Ward 18 Jany. 1848; sheriff of London 1848–49, lord mayor 1856–57. d. Park Gate, Wanstead, Essex 29 Nov. 1883. J. E. Ritchie’s Famous city men (1884) 96–105; Illust. news of the world ii, 333 (1858), portrait; I.L.N. xxix, 479 (1856), portrait, lxxxiii, 581 (1883), portrait.
Note.—His brother John Finnis, lieut. col. 11 Bengal N.I. was the first English officer killed in the Sepoy mutiny, at Meerut 10 May 1857 in 54 year, memorial tablet in church of St. Dunstan in the East, London.
FIRBANK, Joseph. b. Bishop Auckland 1819; worked in a colliery 1826; executed works for North Western railway 1848; contractor for maintenance of Monmouthshire railway 1854–61; railway contractor in South Wales 30 years; contractor for widening of London and North Western railway near London 1859–66, for Midland Company’s Bedford and London extension 1864–68 and their Settle and Carlisle extension 1870; built St. Pancras goods depot for Midland 1884; promoted the interest of his workmen; J.P. and D.L. for co. Monmouth. d. St. Julian’s, Newport 29 June 1886. Mc. Dermott’s Life of J. Firbank (1887).
FIRTH, Joseph Firth Bottomley- (eld. son of Joseph Bottomley of Matlock). b. near Huddersfield 21 Feb. 1842; barrister M.T. 6 June 1866; pres. of Municipal reform league; assumed additional surname of Firth by r.l. Feb. 1873; LL.B. Univ. of London 1875; member of London school board (Chelsea division) 1876–79; M.P. for Chelsea 1880–85, for Dundee 1888 to death; contested North Kensington 1885, received invitations from 13 of the London boroughs to stand for parliament at general election 1886; member of London county council 17 Jany. 1889, deputy chairman 12 Feb. 1889 to death; author of Gas supply of London 1874; Municipal London 1876. d. whilst ascending the Flégère mountain near Chamounix 3 Sep. 1889. Graphic xxv, 153 (1882), 2 portraits; I.L.N. 14 Sep. 1889 pp. 325, 326, portrait.