Henry Ginn of Anstey d. 1539

Henry Ginn was logically born in about 1470, give or take a few years either side.  In about 1500 he married a lady called Katherine, I have never been able to deduce her maiden name, but as he moved to Anstey from Aston it is likely she came of a yeoman family from that village and brought land with her as a dowry when they married.  In 2020 I speculated that she was a daughter of William Mores or Morris of Biggin in Anstey (see below).  William died in 1526 and I have yet to trace the will he is supposed to have left, but Henry and two further generations of Ginns dealt with William's bequests and trust lands for the next eighty years, and it seems doubtful that they would have done that had he not been a close relation.

Henry was quite a prosperous Yeoman farmer and it is known from Feet of Fines records of 1524 that he acquired land in neighbouring Barkway in that year. In the Lay Subsidy records of that same year he was right at the top of the list of the farmers of Anstey paying the tax.

It is known (because he mentions it in his will) that Henry Ginn was a member of the Guild of St Stephen.  This was not a craft guild but a religious one.  Henry was still a Catholic (despite  the newly created Church of England) and tradesmen and farmers of his day joined religious guilds and societies (to which they paid a subscription) so that when they died the guild members and priests of the guild would say prayers for them and their soul to see them safely through Purgatory and into Heaven.  There was a Chantry Chapel at Anstey Church and a small altar (parts are still there, though mostly destroyed at the Reformation) where there would have been a small image of St Stephen and the guild members would have had a special ceremony on St Stephen's Day (26th December) each year.  In the image of Anstey Church above the chapel is that directly facing us in the middle.

It is also known that Henry was sufficiently prosperous to own weapons and "armour" and to be able to bring these to the muster of the local militia (the force used for the army at this time) because in 1535 a Muster Roll at the National Archives has Henry described as having "the harness complete of a Billman" ie the armour and weapons of a Halberdier, one of only two men at the muster capable of doing so.

                                      Tudor Militiamen

Henry would have had a metal pot helmet, a leather jack (a thick leather jerkin studded with metal for upper body protection) and a Bill or Halberd, the Billman and the Halberdier being the two men to the left on the illustration above.

As late as 2017 it was found that in early 1530/1 he and a Robert Royston of Barkway were  Executors for a certain William Morice or Morris of Biggin in Anstey, a Husbandman.  To recover a debt owed to the said William from  a Robert Cressy of Cheshunt, they sued the latter in the Court Of Common Pleas in Westminster Hall and this rather splendid document is shown below.

In 2020 it was found that the same William Morris had died in 1526 and by his will (Victoria County History) had left lands to the church of Anstey for obits in perpetuity (his being a good Catholic) and that Henry upon William's death had taken land in Barkway upon trust in regard to almshouses as a bequest in William's will.  These almshouses as mentioned above passed down to Henry Ginn, this Henry's grandson (see post of 6th July 2012).

 Henry and Katherine's home was a farm or tenement known as "Passmers" the exact location or extent of which in Anstey (manorial records not surviving for this period) I have not been able to identify.  It is known that he also bought land in Barkway and acquired  lands in Great and Little Hormead to give to his two younger sons upon their marriage.

Henry Ginn died in 1539 (will at National Archives).  He left many bequests, to the guild and family of course, but I am particularly fond of his demand of his eldest son Robert that he provide firing for his mother and lay the same "at her dore" to keep Katherine warm.  Henry was about 65 when he died.  Katherine continued to pay the Lay Subsidy in her own right and having lived a long, long life, died in 1562, undoubtedly in her 80s - a marvellous age for the time.

Henry and Katherine had four children that were alive in 1539, Robert the heir, Thomas, William and Margery.  Sadly I know nothing of what happened to Margery, but all three sons have Ginn or Gynn descendants alive today and all will be the subject of later posts.