Benjamin Ginn or Ginns of Knapwell and Little Easton d.1807

Benjamin Ginn here was the second surviving son of Robert and Jane Ginn of Melbourn in my post of 20th January 2015.

He was born in about 1715, and so when his mother remarried in 1728 he, his brother James, his sister Sarah and likely his sister Elizabeth all moved to Elsworth with Jane and her new husband.  His mother died in 1730 and his brother James in 1731, and he was left alone save for siblings, John, Mary, Elizabeth and Sarah.  They were all clearly dear to him as every one of his children was later named after a sibling.

Benjamin Ginn married wife Jane (try as I might I cannot find a marriage entry) in about 1742 and had a family at Knapwell, next to Elsworth.   Knapwell was essentially a hamlet (fewer than thirty families in 1750) which was the poor relation of the more populous Elsworth (they are frequently taken together as one locally and historically the local paper from 1773 was "The Elsworth and Knapwell Chronicle" ).  The soil however was described  as poor in the 1700s and the church had largely collapsed by 1753 through neglect.

I visited the Cambridge Record Office again in December 2014 and researched the Knapwell records, but in truth there were few to research.  The original parish records simply show the  baptisms (no marriages or burials) and give no indication of Benjamin's occupation.  What they do agree on however is that he called himself Ginn.  We can only assume that he was a farmer there and left when  a better opportunity arrived.

Because by 1760 Ben had both left Knapwell and arrived in Little Easton in Essex.  A descendant, Trevor Scott, has informed me that he is first mentioned in Little Easton records (Parish Accounts) in 1760 when he was paying rates on an £80 per annum rental on a farm called “Ravens” (still there today) and a tenement called “Gunns”.  He was variously a signatory to the Parish Accounts thereafter and from 1766 to 1779 virtually continuously an Overseer to the Poor and one time Churchwarden. In 1778 he was left a mourning ring in  the will of his brother John of Wapping.  He seems to have retired in 1796 (handing over the farms to his son James) and Trevor and I think likely moved to Manuden at that time (see below).

What I also know is that the surname began to undergo a transformation from Ginn to Ginns.  The Little Easton register in Essex seems scattered with various concoctions of the spelling.  It does not seem to have become completely fixed as Ginns until the 1780s.   At one time in the 1780s Ben still had a Sun Fire Insurance Policy under the name Benjamin Ginn.  He obviously followed the example of his brother John of Wapping (see post of 20th January 2015) it is unclear why.

                        Gravestone Benjamin Ginns (Trevor Scott)

Jane Ginn (Ben's wife) died at Little Easton in 1785.  He soldiered on for years more and although living in Manuden (Battles Hall Farm - below as it is today)

with his grand-daughter and family when he died (Matty Woodley, wife of John : - Matty Greenleaf had married John Woodley at Gt Dunmow in 1798 – Boyds Marriage Index) was actually buried at Little Easton in 1807 with a quoted age of 92 !  The age given was probably about right.  He left a will (National Archives)

Benjamin and Jane's children:

James - see next post

Sarah  - died Little Easton  in 1782 - she was 32

Mary - married John Norris at Little Easton in 1765.  She is mentioned in the will of her uncle John Ginns of Wapping (1778)

 Elizabeth married George Greenleaf at Little Easton in 1771

John -died as an infant at Little Easton aged 8 in 1760