Richard Ginn of Enfield d. 1750

The son of Richard in my post of  20th January 2013, it has taken years to track down Richard’s marriage, but in 2009 it was found he married Elizabeth Grassom or Glasson of Enfield at the Fleet in  February 1737. (RG7 687)  It was common for  people in the Home Counties to “make a day of it” when marrying, and rather than marry in their parish church go up to London and be married by one of the Anglican clergy currently in prison for debt at the Fleet Prison.

                       Marriages at the Fleet in the early 1700s

What was quite surprising was his choice of minister to perform the marriage.  They were married by Walter Wyatt, a notorious Fleet parson, the same man who had married Dick’s cousin Jacob less than three months earlier and, even more surprising given that Wyatt performed marriages everyday at sundry locations, the couple even married in the same rooms in Fleet Street  (“Wheeler’s”) that Jacob had married.  The Enfield and Edmonton Ginn families were obviously quite close.

Though described as a Husbandman when he married, Richard was pretty obviously a labourer.  Like the other Enfield Ginns he lived in the general area that is called Chase Side, appearing in the rate books with land worth £7 per annum (implying a decent cottage and plot of land).  In 1747 he was the tenant of a “new built cottage” in Baker Street (where the Civic Centre is now).  This land included three roods of garden and an orchard (see the deed in the Enfield Local Studies Library at Palmers Green and below).

Enfield was clearly a terrible place to live, so many of its population dying young.  This was the period of the virulent small pox and typhus epidemics (they died down in the latter part of the 18th cent.) and Richard died in 1750; he was  47 years of age.

I have no certain idea what happened to Elizabeth, there being a number of burials in the register

Richard and Elizabeth had six children:

Sarah - untraced

Philip - a lifelong bachelor, lived in Enfield and died in Enfield Poorhouse in 1819 as a Labourer with a   quoted age of 77, which was correct.  

William  - a lifelong bachelor like his brother Phil, he lived in Enfield and died in Enfield Poorhouse in 1814 as a Labourer with a quoted age  of 74 which was correct.  

Elizabeth - in 1767 she had an illegitimate daughter Sarah .  This Sarah married Joseph Deller at Enfield in 1803.  A witness was Mary Ginn (nee Cockett wife of  Richard jnr of Tottenham).  Joseph and Sarah had one child at Enfield and seem to have moved away.  An online resource concerning a study of the Deller/Dellow family claims they moved to Shadwell and had a fair sized family but this needs to be checked out.  Elizabeth herself is untraced.

Martha - married Matthew Gray.  

Richard - see next post