Abraham Ginn of Enfield d.1767

John Ginn of Little Hormead (post of 26th October 2012) had eight sons, all of whom survived infancy but only six lived to marry.  Of these six sons, all of them (save one) I am sure have descendants alive today, but only in one son's case are any of these still known to call themselves Ginn/Gynn.

A number of the six sons went to western Essex, and some to northern Middlesex, but all of them left Hertfordshire.  It is known, in fact it is obvious, that the Essex and Middlesex branches were in touch with each other.

Abranham was one of the three sons who went to Enfield and adjacent Edmonton in Middlesex.  Both were on the London road south from Great Hormead and was a favoured route for likely lads of the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries seeking work.

Abraham married Elizabeth Stanford at Enfield in 1718 - he was 32. He was a Labourer / Smallholder, with a few (likely rented) acres of land.  All their married lives the couple lived in Cocker Lane, Enfield Chase Side.  Cocker Lane is now known as Phipps Hatch Lane and Browning Road - it was a long lane and is now very built up and would not be remotely familiar to Abe.

In 1743 he entered a deed (Enfield Local Studies Library) showing that he leased 3 acres of pasture land on "Saunders Corner", in Cocker Lane. In 1754, he is shown in the Rate book as having land worth £10 per annum.  In the same year an Enclosure Survey (Enfield Local Studies Library) shows him as having 22 acres on the edge of the Chase itself, as well as "Saunders Corner".  Having land on the edge of the Chase was very desirable, as adjoining landowners had part­icular rights "to the waste" on Enfield Chase; to take wood etc.

                                    The heavily wooded Chase of Abraham's day

It is very unfortunate that none of Abraham's sons lived.  Abraham died in 1767, he was 81.  He was the only one of the Ginn men of Enfield to live to old age.  Elizabeth died in 1779.

Abraham and Elizabeth had seven children, but only three survived infancy:

Abraham - died infancy

Isaac - also died infancy though for some unaccountable reason there are people on Ancestry.com who claim him as an ancestor - presumably never having looked at the register !

Aquila - died infancy

Ann - there were two, the first died in infancy. She must be the Ann who had an illegitimate daughter Sarah  in 1754.  Presumably this Sarah was named in memory of Ann's sister. Ann's burial is untraced but Sarah married Hector Fleming Goffe (a widower with a large family) at Enfield in 1803 and died in Enfield Poorhouse in 1820.  She and Hector (a labourer) lived in Baker Street.  Hector died in 1821.

Sarah - probably in my view the Sarah who was buried in 1748.  If so, she was 20. 

NB -  It is just possible that Sarah married Jeremiah Biggs  a Butcher of Barnet (5 miles away) in 1751.  There is a licence – he was over 25 and she was over 21.  They married at St Alban Wood Street in the City.  She was described as of Barnet but this means nowt. More work needs to be done on this.

Elizabeth - her marriage was finally discovered in 2009.  She married the gloriously named Chamberlain Matthews, a Husbandman also of Enfield at the Fleet in 1751.  Matthews was obviously originally from Guilden Morden in Cambridgeshire (dad, Joseph) and either he or his family moved to Enfield.  He and Elizabeth had a number of children including Chamberlain jnr and Joseph and it is apparent (from the record of Joe’s marriage and the number of descendants called Chamberlain Matthews born in Enfield ) that the couple are very likely to have descendants alive today