Newcombe Ginn, Police Constable of London d. 1890

Newcombe Ginn was illegitimate, son of Sarah Ginn of Hertford (see post of 17th March 2013) and brought up by his mother and step father, Thomas Clark.  They lived in Cheshunt High Street, Clark being a butcher.  Indeed, when Newcombe married, he gave his father's name as Thomas Ginn, a butcher.

In 1851 Newcombe was staying at the "Haunch of Venison" pub on Cheshunt High Street (below).  Tom Clark's butchers was nearby. This pub was rebuilt in the late 19th century but was completely demolished in the late 1990s.  I knew it well as a child.

In the early 1850s Newcombe went to London, marrying Elizabeth Baker at Islington (living Bryant Place, Caledonian Rd) in 1854 when he described himself as a baker.  Soon afterwards he joined the Metropolitan Police.

There do not seem to be any surviving recruitment/service records for men who joined up at this precise time (a few years are missing) but I know that Newcombe is the only Ginn mentioned in the card index of early Met pensioners in the main search room at the National Archives.  This could throw some light on his career.

                               Met. Police Constable in the 1850s

I have a note in my records that in 1861 the family were at Derby Buildings, St Pancras - this being close to Britannia Street.  In 1871 they were at 87 Stanley Buildings, Old St Pancras Road.

Newcombe retired from the Met during the 1870s, taking his pension and going to work as a railway porter at Kings Cross/St Pancras Station.

He died in 1890.  It is unclear what happened to Elizabeth.  It may well be her who died in Edmonton in 1914.

Newcombe and Elizabeth had five children

James Newcombe - see later post

Elizabeth Sarah - not sure what happened

Amy - married at Islington in 1881

Florence - married at Islington in 1890

William Albert - died infancy