Robert Ginn of Therfield d. 1666 ?

Robert Ginn was the third son of Henry Ginn of Anstey (d. 1615).  In the early days of my research it took me some time to work out that like his father and brother Henry he and his family moved around and lived in more than one place.

Robert married his cousin, Lettice Benn (of Aston) in 1586: he was just 20 and Lettice 17.  The Benns and Ginns had been friends and kin since before the time of Lettice’s gt. Grandfather (Richard) who had died in 1539, but it has still taken me years of research to fully appreciate that this was yet another link between the “Anstey Ginns” and Aston.

The Benns of Aston were significant farmers, Richard having held lands in Aston, Bennington and Shephall (Will Hunts R.O).  His daughter Joan had married William Ginn of Aston and the widowed Margaret Ginn had married William Benn, Richard’s eldest son and heir and Lettice’s grandpa.  When the Anstey and Aston Ginns intermarried in 1553 the scene was set for yet another twist to the story.

In the 1560s the Benns had consolidated their lands in Aston, a 500 year lease from 1564 (which survives) giving William Benn 3 houses, 2 small farms and another tenement: 80 acres in all.  He paid only a nominal rent and so was both secure in his ownership and not badly off.  William died in early 1565 (Will Hunts. R.O), his heir being George Benn who married Christian ___ in the mid 1560s and died prematurely in 1574.  He had three children: Marion (1567); Lettice (1569) and William (1571) all infants at his demise.

George Benn’s two main tenements or farms were an ancestral smallholding at Aston End called “Whites” (44 acres) and another at Church End called “Gardeners” (32 acres).  Both had farmhouses.  Also in Aston was another smaller messuage or tenement called “Hellons” or “Hellons Greenhouse”, this was a cottage with lands adjoining.

When George died (Will Hunts R.O) his wife received the cottage for 60 years and William a certain amount of land in anticipation of his majority.  Should William die then the land was to be divided between the daughters, an incentive for any aspiring partners for the girls.

William Benn did survive, he married in about 1600.  He was still under age in the mid 1580s however, the girls being actively pursued with Lettice marrying Robert in 1586 and her sister Marion wedding Dunstan Wilshire at Stevenage in 1587.

The Benn family home was at Church End, George ordering that the family’s chattels be kept there when he died in 1574.  The teenage William was incapable of looking after all the Benn lands and it was presumably for that reason that when Robert Ginn married he moved to Aston.

It seems clear that Robert Ginn lived at “Whites”, a farm that continued to be called by that name throughout the 1700s and is now believed to be “White Farm” at Aston .  Robert and Lettice continued to live at Aston  until William came of age in the early 1590s, the couple subsequently moving back to Therfield.

Although Robert was perhaps unlucky with the Aston lands, his wife had been adequately provided for when her father died in her infancy.  Lettice had been left £20, a bullock, a cow, a featherbed “with all belonging” and 4 pairs of sheets.  To complete her dowry she had 6 platters, 6 pewter dishes, a cupboard to put them on, a brass pot and a pan and chafing dish.  No doubt the mothers gave additional “household stuff” to see to it that their offspring had a comfortable start in marriage.

Robert Ginn was clearly a very level headed and popular fellow - both his grandfather and father obviously valued him.  Indeed Robert Ginn of Anstey had apparently intended to leave him “Passmers” in his original will of 1585, this provision only having been changed on Robert’s deathbed.  In any event Henry viewed him as one of the two principal heirs of his estate.

Bob certainly helped his father out at Therfield, working the lands and proving invaluable.  It seems clear that he occupied his father’s house at Therfield from the mid-1590s onwards (Henry having moved to Layston by the 1580s and Henry Jnr having gone to Essex in about 1594).  This property would seem to have been a sizeable farmhouse called “Motts” on the Reed End side of Therfield.

The family must have lived quite comfortably, and as had his brother William before him, Robert was chosen for the Trained Band in 1602-5, the period of the continuing Spanish invasion scares.  Robert was also a Caliverman.

Henry Ginn died in 1615, his will providing that Robert was to inherit all of his lands in the manors of the Rectory of Therfield and that of West Reed, the latter otherwise known as Mardlen or Mardleybury.  Sterling work by Ivor Williams of the North Herts Villages Research Group has revealed that this was almost exactly 100 acres of land in total, 90 or so of them in West Reed.  It seems that William Ginn (Henry’s heir and Bob’s eldest brother) challenged the inheritance in at least one petition to the manorial courts in 1616, but the will prevailed and William lost out yet again.

The next two decades would appear to have been relatively uneventful.  Marriages were arranged for the children and the family prospered.  Robert was a major farmer locally, holding various offices including being the churchwarden at Therfield in 1615, a Bishop’s Transcript of that year (with his full signature) surviving.

During the 1630s and into the 1640s things changed.  Robert was now into his 60s and 70s and between 1632 and 1646 (then 80) he disposed of all of his lands in both manors.  Just as his father before him he disinherited the eldest son, half of his lands being transferred to Francis.  For reasons that are not entirely clear the rest was actually sold out of the family between 1639 and ‘46, some of this to an Edras Bland, Rector of Buckland and a charitably minded man, he later establishing a payment of monies from former Ginn lands that were to still be paid into this century.

Robert’s lands at Therfield were not all he had inherited however.  His Uncle Arthur also had a regard for him and it seems clear that his lands in Anstey, Barkway and Nuthampstead (perhaps 50 acres) went Robert’s way when Arthur died in 1630.  Robert clearly established his youngest son Robert on these when the latter married that same year, though it is still unclear how much of that land was ultimately properly transferred to Robert Jnr as most of it was held under the Manor of Hedleys whose manorial rolls for the 1640s do not survive.  Arthur’s former holdings in other manors were largely sold by Robert in the 1640s.

Why Robert sold these significant amounts of land in the 1640s is unclear - it seems very unlikely that a sensible fellow of his years would suddenly have got into debt.  It is possible that one or both of his other sons had taken up craft occupations and favoured gifts of money more than land, some cash also doubtless being put aside for the old couple’s “retirement”.  This is one mystery that is likely to remain.

Lettice “the wife of old Robert Ginn” died at Therfield in 1655; she was a splendid 86 years old.  That same year “old Robert” was 89.  Robert Ginn may have died at Therfield between 1655 and 1660 or may not have died at Therfield at all.  Francis had no wife at this time and could not look after his aged father, the old man quite possibly going to live with his son Robert at Nuthampstead.  A Robert died there in 1666 and it seems likely that it was the old man, certainly not being his son and almost certainly not his grandson.  If I am right then the old fellow just about accomplished his 100th year!!  Old Bob came from long lived stock and may well have proved the hardiest of them all.

Robert and Lettice had a good number of children:

Thomas - married Katherine Lyon (widow)  in 1622 - see later post of 4th May 2013

Francis -  Yeoman of Therfield - see later post of 12th September 2012

Robert - married Sarah Ferris at Layston (ie Buntingford) in 1630.  He was a "Yeoman of Anstey" in 1642.  See post of  18th February 2021

Ann - married William Kimpton at Anstey in 1620

Elizabeth - married Anthony Muncey at Melbourne in 1625

Joan - married William Wilcock at Anstey in 1632

Mary - died infancy, and Lettice and Sarah who are untraced