Anne Finch entry: Overview screen.
Anne Kingsmill (later AF) was born at Sydmonton
, the youngest of three children.
From about 1682
While she was still a maid of honour to Mary of Modena
, Anne Kingsmill (later AF) began circulating her poems in manuscript: some political and religious pieces appeared in miscellanies in this decade and the next.
AF's pindaric ode "The Spleen" (together with some other poems by her) was published anonymously in Charles Gildon
's New Miscellany of Original Poems, on Several Occasions
13 January 1720
AF composed the latest dated poem in her Wellesley Manuscript, "To His Excellency the Lord Cartret
5 August 1720
AF died at her house in Cleveland Row
. The precise cause of her death is unknown.
AF's "The Spleen" was reprinted to preface Dr William Stukeley
's medical treatise, Of the Spleen, Its Description and History, Uses and Diseases, Particularly the Vapors, with Their Remedy