Rev James Finley

James Finley (February 4, 1725 - January 6, 1795) was an American Presbyterian minister and politician who was a pioneer resident of western Pennsylvania. Either he or his wife owned the house in which Thomas Jefferson began his first attempt to draft the United States Declaration of Independence.

James Finley was born on February 4, 1725 in County Armagh, Ireland, the son of Michael Finley and Anne daughter of Samuel O'Neill. He immigrated to America at the age of nine, and studied under Samuel Blair at Faggs Manor Academy, in what is now Londonderry Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.

In 1752, Finley married Hannah Evans (1715-April 1, 1795), daughter of Robert Evans. The couple had seven sons and two daughters. Eight of their children lived to adulthood. A son, James (1769–1772), died aged three.

James was brother of Andrew Finley and brother and student of Samuel Finley, (fifth president of the College of New Jersey, later known as Princeton University, from 1761 until 1766). James graduated from Princeton, though actually, he attended and graduated from the predecessor institution then known as William Tennant's Log College, in Neshaminy, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a cousin of the Finleys, and moved into the Samuel Finley home at the age of six upon the death of his father. Through his brother Samuel, James was likely acquainted with another signer of the Declaration of Independence, , as well as Oliver Ellsworth, who became the third Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and Ebenezer Hazard, who became Postmaster General.

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