John Ginn of Farnham d.1788

John Ginn just appears in the Farnham register in 1761, then 34.  He married Susannah Thorne there that year. There is some suggestion online that he originally married Elizabeth Littlechild at Farnham in 1751 (largely because the entry has been mistranscribed in the Boys Marriage Index) but if you look carefully at the entry and compare the writing elsewhere in the pages that entry related to a "John Green" who is of no relevance here.  We have no surviving Farnham records (militia lists etc.) to work on, so I have no idea of where he had been between his birth and his arrival there, although believe that he may well be the John shown in the Hertfordshire Militia records in Bishops Stortford in 1760, gone the next year.

My view is that John did not intend to move to Farnham.  I am a great believer in visiting a place, to see it in context so to speak.  Farnham does not feature in the main work on Essex villages; I could never understand that.  Now that I have visited it, I can see why.  Don't blink if you drive through - you'll miss it; it is a tiny place.  Effectively, a couple of hamlets.

In my opinion Bishops Stortford has something to do with this move.  I suspect that John went to the Hiring Fair, was taken on by a Farnham based employer, and could never move away (having obtained settlement).  This family did not so much choose to stay in Farnham, they got stuck there.

I know very little about John.  All indeed we know for certain is that he has his origins in Braughing and the Braughing branch of the family, but his father could have been Edward or William, most likely the latter (see post of 10th February 2013)  He was a Labourer, and with a large family it must have been quite a struggle to survive. 

                   Farnham Church - photo of mine from the 1990s

Susannah Ginn died in about 1780, possibly in childbirth.  There is no burial entry.  John Ginn "widower" remarried Jane Dellow (of a local family, Dellows are still there) in 1781.  They proceeded to have many more children, Jane being considerably younger than John.

John Ginn died ("a pauper") in 1788, he was 61.  His widow remarried John Tedder the same year.

It seems certain that as soon as John died, his widow "washed her hands" of her step-children, certainly those in their teens.  There was certainly contact with Cornelius Ginn of Stocking Pelham, because by the late 1790s (probably earlier) there is evidence that two sons (William and James) were helping out in the Pelhams.  It could be that Cornelius used them to help him, or possibly acted as a contact to obtain local work.  

John and his two wives had no less than 15 children:

Ann - it was known that Ann married, but until October 2022 the correct candidate was unclear as there were two possibilities.  Then DNA evidence established that she went to Thorley with her brother John and married James Surrage there in 1790.  They had a few children, their chief descendants being through daughter Mary who was born there that year and married James Madle there in 1811, he the village Blacksmith. Ann must have been a useful local auntie for the Thorley Ginn children. 

John - went to Thorley with his sister Ann- see later post

William - see later post

James - see later post

Sarah - married William Brad in 1798

Hannah - is untraced

Simon - research is currently active.  This name is so incredibly rare in Ginn history, and no other candidate known, that this man must surely be the Simon Ginn who turned up in Leyton in Essex in approximately 1803, having married Jane Swithin in Islington that same year.  There he and wife Jane had the following children, neither of whom are yet traced.  The family clearly left Leyton and do not feature in the surviving 1821 and 1831 census returns.

Simon James Frimond 1804

John                             1808 

If anybody come across them after 1808 please let me know as I cannot trace them. 

Elizabeth - all that was known before 2007 was that she married Noah Hammond.  Noah came from Manuden and was a good deal younger than Elizabeth.

In 2007, it was discovered that Elizabeth had had an illegitimate child at Manuden in 1817 – Daniel Ginn.

Elizabeth married Noah in 1823, but she died in 1827 without issue. They likely lived in Manuden. Noah, who appears to have preferred older women, remarried a Lydia Allen in approximately that year and they were in Farnham in 1841 and ’51.

Daniel Ginn appears to have had an unhappy life and likely never really thought himself to belong anywhere.  He belongs here however.

At thirteen his mother died, and Noah likely abandoned him.  For the purpose of the Poor Law, Daniel’s settlement was in Manuden and he stayed there.  He was in lodgings there in 1841 as “Jin” and married Rebecca Bayford there in 1843.  He was an agricultural labourer.

They were missing from the 1851 census, but Rebecca was clearly dead by 1861, as Daniel is in lodgings at Manuden in that year as a widower.  He died there in 1864

Millicent ("Milly") and Jane - these girls, twins, were quite a couple.  The Overseers Book for Farnham survives from 1808, and the pair are mentioned many times

By 1808 they had both set up in their own cottages, as the Overseer was constantly having to pay their rents.

In 1808 Jane became pregnant.  The father's name is unclear, although Jane called the daughter "Grace Tubbs"  which probably tells us.  The Overseer had to pay over a pound to take Jane "over to Walden" (Saffron Walden) probably for a magistrates hearing as to the father of the child.  Grace married Daniel Whybrow at Farnham in 1833.

Milly married James Judd at nearby Stanstead Mountfitchet in 1815, while Jane married Peter Gray (who attended "The Old Meeting House" at Hazel End - the same as that of Jane's great uncle Cornelius Ginn) in 1811 (at Farnham).  Jane and Peter lived at Birchanger.

Isaac - died in infancy

Susannah, Edward and Mary - are untraced