Robert Ginn was the eldest surviving son of his father and the heir to "Passmers". He was born in about 1500 and married (she seems to have been his only wife) Agnes in about 1525. I do not know Agnes' maiden name, the marriage predating parish registers, but there is a chance, just a chance, that her maiden name was Moss, as the Moss family of Clavering are known to have played some part in Robert's early married life.
Robert was a prosperous Yeoman farmer, the gold and silver items mentioned in his will marking him out among the branches of the Ginn family.
Robert Ginn was a busy man.
He was heavily involved in parish and county affairs. I am sure that he was often one of the
Churchwardens for Anstey, though records have not survived. He was certainly frequently chosen to sit on
the juries at the Quarter Sessions, and often the Grand Jury at the
Assizes. This required him to travel
about Eastern Hertfordshire, and he came into
contact with many other Yeoman families.
This seems to have acted as a source of spouses for his children as did
his probable frequent journeys to market, both in Herts and Essex.
King Henry the 8th died in 1547. His heir, Edward the 6th , was a dedicated Protestant, while Henry's eldest daughter Mary was a Catholic and wanted England to return to that faith.
Many catholic priests of the time had had unofficial mistresses, and when King Edward allowed them to marry many did so, including the Vicar of Therfield, a few miles from Anstey. Unfortunately Edward built a legacy of hate among catholics, having many of them burned at the stake and when he died in 1553 there was a backlash. The new Queen Mary, "Bloody Mary" as she was known earned that name by having many protestants tortured and put to death .
Mary also had the marriages of the priests declared invalid and sought to the have the said priests discharged from their livings. In 1555 there was a local revolt against the Vicar of Therfield and various local farmers were brought to the Court of Star Chamber where local yeomen and gentlemen, including Robert Ginn were put to jury service. He lived through turbulent times.
Robert built on the lands owned by his father and in particular purchased freehold land, this leading him in Cussan's Survey of 1562 to be noted as one of the two "Principal Freeholders" of Anstey.
Robert Ginn died in 1587 leaving a will ( Essex Record Office with his original signature above), the year before the abortive attack of the Spanish Armada - he must have been well into his 80s. Agnes lived on, helping to equip the local militia at the time of the Spanish Armada with the very halberd that Henry Ginn had supplied in 1539, such family weapons often being treasured among yeomen.
Agnes died in 1589, aged nearly 90 on my calculation. She has my undying gratitude as the provider of a huge amount of information on the Ginn family. Her will (Essex Record Office) suggests that she was a formidable woman!
Robert and Agnes had a huge family of which:
Henry - was the heir and will be dealt with in a later post
Robert - moved to Huntingdonshire and founded the Ginn/Genn family of Ely. See post of 7th July 2012
Katherine - married her cousin John Ginn of Aston. See post of 29th July 2012
Ellen - married James King in 1554. They have a significant role in the Ginn story and my early research.
I traced this couple to Great Chishall in Essex, the Kings were major yeomen farmers of the Essex/Hertfordshire borders and I know a lot about them. James King snr died in the summer of 1576 (he was abiout 50) and left a will. His son James jnr was to go to Cambridge University and the father left money for his keep.
James was also worried about his wife for Ellen was pregnant. He left the unborn child money and appointed his brother in laws Henry and Robert Ginn Overseers of the will.
The situation got worse, because in December 1576 Ellen was to have the child, and she obviously knew it was likely she would die and made a will. She wanted a daughter (she had many sons) and left gowns and petticoats to the unborn child which sadly turned out to be another son, Simeon- the child survived, the mother died. Ellen would have been in her early 40s. Of her younger children she made Arthur Ginn her brother the guardian of her son Arthur, her father Robert guardian of her daughter Alice and her brother Robert of the unborn child, namely Simeon. The whole thing was tragic.
The Ginns did indeed honour the wish and put James King jnr into Cambridge (he is recorded in Cambridge University records as James Ginn!) but it got more tragic in the later years of Queen Elizabeth' s reign because James King jnr sued the Anstey Ginns and Robert Ginn who was by this time in Huntingdonshire. In fact this court case from 1588 (C3/226/67) which went on over several years (we do not know the result) alleged that the Ginns had misappropriated some of the King money and provided me with fascinating research clues.
For the record and King researchers (the Great Chishall records do not survive for before 1583) James King jnr was later a yeoman of Great Chishall in Essex and left a will, Ginn wills show that Arthur King was in Barkway in Herts in 1630 and that his brother Thomas was in Langey in Essex that same year. Simeon supposedly went to Huntingdonshire and Alice is untraced.
Dorothy - first married a John Cannon at Ware in 1566. He barely lived a couple of months, dying that same year. She then wore "widow's weeds" for a great many years having returned home. In 1585, she married the cleric Francis Lindsell at Anstey. Lindsell had entered Cambridge University in 1568 and obtained his degree in 1572 and his Masters in 1575. He was made Deacon of Peterborough Cathedral and then almost immediately made the Rector of Strethall in Essex, some 7 miles from Anstey in late 1575. He was clearly a widower when he married Dorothy. Tiny Strethall has a lovely Saxon Church.
In 1585 it was Lindsell who drew up his father in law Robert Ginn's will (he signs as "Francis Lindsell the writer" (below)
Lindsell certainly had a son Thomas (also a cleric) but it seems doubtful that it could have been by Dorothy. Francis was a bit of a rebel as he appears in church disciplinary records and he would not have had an easy time of it in Protestant Elizabethan England, as the Lord of the Manor of Strethall was from a well known Catholic family. Francis did not take immorality lightly, as there is a record that in early 1607 he sacked his servant Robert Parker who had begat a child with another servant of his (likely the maid) Agnes Ewens. To avoid the child being chargeable to the parish under the Poor laws, he took Robert's father John to the Quarter Sessions to get him to pay for the child.
Lindsell was the Rector of Strethall for an amazing 63 years, dying as the incumbant in 1638 which on my guess would have put him in his late 80s. The Strethall Registers have not suvived for this period, so I do not know what happened to Dorothy
Margaret - died a maid in 1580, In his will of 1587 her father left one of his grand daughters "the greatest hutch [clothes chest] that her aunt Margaret had whilst she lived".
Elizabeth - married Jeremy Harding of Hartford, Huntingdonshire in 1563. She had a number of children by him including a Sarah who is mentioned in Ginn wills. Jeremy died in 1568 and by 1570 or so she was the wife of Richard Cannon by whom she had a gigantic family, many of whom lived to marry. She died at Hartford in 1613 aged about 70 odd I would say. She clearly had a crucial role in the decision of her brother Robert to move to Huntingdonshire.
Frances - married ______ Fordham. I have not traceed her
Arthur - married Mary Pakeman and founded "Arthur Ginn's Charity" which still exists ! See post of 21st May 2014
Sarah - married Robert Collin of Beauchamp Roding in Essex at Anstey in 1576. His was a major yeomen family and he had some gentry cousins with a coat of arms. They had a number of children, Arthur, Thomas, Robert, Sarah and Joan. None of the baptism records survive, so this is important for Collin researchers.
Robert Collin's ancestry in the Rodings in Essex was very old, his father was Stephen, his grandfather John. They were cousins of the Ayletts of Leaden Roding and it was clearly Sarah who introduced her nephew Henry Ginn to Judith Aylett of Leaden Roding - see post of 20th July 2012.
Robert Collin died in 1590, likely in his early 40s and Sarah remarried someone with the surname Mead or Wright
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