William Ginn was
clearly his father's heir. How he met Margaret Luck, who came from quite distant Standon I have no idea, but meet
they clearly did and married at Standon in 1711. She
was likely daughter of George and Margaret but at present I cannot confirm this.
Something induced
this couple to move to Walthamstow. The Luck family do not seem to have any connections there and there
is no obvious link for the Ginn family.
They arrived in
Walthamstow by 1713, when William is first listed in the Rate Book and the
first child was born. He was a Yeoman farmer and it is likely was
given money on his marriage by Dad which
gave him his start in Walthamstow.
It is a great rarity
for me to actually know exactly where a person in this Study lived. William
is one of these rarities - the farm he held can be identified without question.
Briefly, Walthamstow
has, like most places, several
historic charities. The greatest for
Walthamstow is the Sir Henry Maynard's Charity, Sir Henry being a Walthamstow
boy who made good and passed on in
1686. His will left the parish many bequests, including no less than £900 to purchase lands for investment
(see "Walthamstow Charities" by Gibson - 2000). The parish
had some difficulty in laying their hands on all of the money, the money eventually being paid into court and, in
about 1715, the last £450
finally being laid out in the purchase of a copyhold farm in Hale End. This purchase was finally confirmed in 1720 by a Court Order in Chancery. William
Ginn was the farmer.
In 1713, William is
in the Rate Books for Hale End, a remote spot in the very northern part of Walthamstow on the borders of
Chingford and Epping Forest. It will surprise
readers today, but in 1713 Walthamstow
was basically a rural parish on the outskirts of London,
and Hale End was the furthest flung hamlet.
In the Vestry
Minutes we find the following:
1717 William Ginn (at yearly rent of £25) occupier of the copyhold farm agreed to be sold by Robert Nicholson to the vestry for £450 (the arrears of the Maynard Charity)
1728 William Ginn rents the farm at Hale End the gift of Henry Maynard for £25 per annum - rent paid to Michaelmas 1727
The farm concerned
was sometimes known as "Stretman's Farm" (after a physical feature on the land) or, more commonly
"Manor House Farm". “Stretmans Farm” had apparently existed since the
1500s but when it was acquired for the parish via the Maynard Charity a large rambling two storey
brick built house was constructed as the farmhouse and eventually this house
was known as “ the Manor House” because the Charity owned Toni Manor on which it
stood. The farm comprised a rambling house,
outbuildings (including stables and coach house), a large orchard and
apparently something in the region of thirty acres of land, eleven acres of which were
divided into Home Field, Four Acre Field and the Mead. The house was obviously not really suitable
as a farmhouse and the farmers were constantly being penalised by the
Charity/Vestry for not keeping it in repair. Astonishingly,
despite the development of the area, this farm was there until after the
Second World War (see “History of Highams Park and Hale
End” by M. Dunhill – 2005 ) and the farmhouse which got very dilapidated was
demolished after it was damaged by bombing.
The site of the farmhouse is now apparently a block of flats, but the
walk up to the house is still there
William (in the Hertfordshire Poll Book for the Datchworth cottage in 1727) was stated to be in Walthamstow. I knew this many, many years ago which helped me to trace him. But the Poll Book was old news as it happens as he sold the cottage in 1725- see below. The Overseers Records for Datchworth
(concerned with the Poor Rate) show that
he kept the cottage there for a while after his father’s death in 1723 with
tenants in occupation and a rental income.
A shock arrived in early 2022 when I discovered that deeds survived regarding the Datchworth property.
William mortgaged the Datchworth cottage (Image Croft) for £30 upon his father's death in 1723. In 1725 he sold it for £52 10s - £30 of which went to repay his mortgage (DE/P/T2886 Herts Archives). The guy was illiterate, but the deed is still in excellent condition and it with his and Margaret 's signatures are below.
The 1728 Walthamstow Vestry record above, said that whilst his current
rent was up to date, there was an old arrear of some £30 or so. It seems likely to me that he
had originally taken a lease of
the farm but year on year had trouble finding the rent and was using part of the capital from the sale of his inheritance to keep it up. Using capital and not income to fund day to day expenditure leads to ruin, and he seems to have lost the farm by 1730. Described as a Yeoman in the 1725 deed, he was described as a Labourer when he apprenticed his son in 1732, so although not
conclusive I have assumed even selling the cottage did not clear the arrears and that he lost the farm at approximately this point.
Margaret Ginn died
that same year, ie 1732, she was
probably about 50 years of age. William soldiered on and does not appear to have remarried, dying in 1744 aged
64.
William and Margaret had six children:
Mary - died in 1733 aged
18.
William - went to London and became Citizen and Barber Surgeon/Perriwig Maker - see later post
Margaret - almost certainly married John Crittendon, a fishmonger and Citizen of London in 1746 when she was 31 (see marriage licence below). Crittendon was from Edenbridge in Kent and born in 1702 or so (apprenticed in 1716), a widower, and although he certainly had 3 children from his first marriage appears to have had none by Margaret so far as I know. They lived in various places in the Fleet Street/Holborn area (Land Tax) including Magpie Alley and Hen and Chicken Court where the fictional (yes, fictional) Sweeney Todd was reputed to have his Barber's shop at this time. John Crittendon was taken into and died in St Thomas' Hospital in 1751 and thereafter Margaret disappears from my research.
Sarah - untraced
John and Elizabeth - died in infancy
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