Thomas Fincke's name appears with a variety of different
spellings, the commonest is the one we have adopted but Finke,
Finck, or Fink are sometimes used in addition to the Latin
versions of Finchius and Finckius. His parents, Raadmand Jacob
Fincke and Anna thor Smede (or Thorsmede), came from the most
respected families in Flensburg. Anna was from a rich middle-
class Danish family but, sadly, she died six days after her son
Thomas was born. Thomas's father was described as a "learned
merchant" who had been a student of Martin Luther and Philipp
Melanchthon, the Professor of Greek in Wittenberg and one of
Luther's first supporters. Thomas, the subject of this
biography, had been named after his grandfather, also named
Thomas Fincke, who had been mayor of Flensburg. When Thomas, the
subject of this biography, was only nine years old, his father
died and from that time he lived with his uncle Reinhold thor
Smede (1532-1584), a wealthy well-educated local councillor.
Thomas attended a newly founded Lutheran Lati