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

William Ginn of Aston d.1774

Son of Francis in the last post, William Ginn married Sarah Wabbey at Essendon in 1708.   Sarah died without their having issue and in 1721 William remarried Ann Starkins.  He remarried at Aston.  Ann was likely  a widow  as there were so few children.

We know that William was living in Aston from 1721.  He is described as a "Miller” in Aston, from as early as 1722, and it seems clear that he initially rented a cottage there.  He does not appear in the Aston Land Tax however until 1734.

I knew all of this in the early1990s.  But while the people here are dead, my research is a living thing and just before Christmas 2021 a whole series of deeds on the Datchworth Ginns turned up - and William was in there !  The deeds not only proved my research, but people leapt out of the page and became real.  It appears that when Bill's uncle John Ginn of Datchworth died in 1723 he left a will (DE/P/T2882 Herts Archives)  which in itself was a shock to me as it was never proved.  He left  £5 to his "loving kinsman William Ginn  of Aston" .

This family never threw anything out, and when William Ginn of Walthamstow (son and executor of John) paid out the £5 he obtained a receipt which has survived the last three hundred years (below).  It reads "received the 13th day of October 1723 by me William Ginn of Aston in the within will named ...from my cousin William Ginn the son of the within named testator the sume of five pounds in full...."

As said, William was a Miller.  And he was obviously literate as we now have his signature. From 1721-37 it is clear that he merely worked at Aston Windmill.  In 1738 this changed; thereafter the Land Tax shows that "William Ginn has the Mill” presumably by Lease.

Aston Windmill was rather isolated.  It was shown on most maps (the site is today) though it no longer stands.  Anybody who wants to visit the site may do so via a footpath from New Park Lane.

The Land Tax has William as the owner of the Mill until 1752, he paid a considerable sum for the privilege.  Thereafter it became the property of a George Kent.

Ann Ginn died in 1743.  William lived on and died at Aston in 1774,  he was 89 and buried “poor”.  It is rather a nice touch that William named all three sons with family names: i.e. Francis, John and William.

William and Ann had three sons:

John - a Miller.  He married Sarah Kingsley at Ardeley in 1745.  They had three children:

                        Ann                 1747

                        Sarah              1751 md William Chakley 1777

                        William           1752 md Elizabeth Hilliard  1780

John and Sarah moved around a great deal.  Ann was born at Sandon, Sarah and William at Little Wymondley.  In 1757, John, Sarah and the three children are mentioned in a Certificate of Settlement that brought them to Broxbourne that year (HRO).  John is in the militia lists as a Miller there until 1762 when he was 40, but is not mentioned thereafter.  I could not trace  his or Sarah’s death entries and was highly suspicious that the couple left.  In 2005 –  I traced them - ironically back to Essendon – it appears John took over the newly built windmill there.  I have still not found their burial entries though

Of these children:

Ann may have died unmarried at Bennington in 1792, but that could just as easily have been (and quite likely was) her Aunt from Aston whose daughter (see below) may well have moved to Bennington and taken her widowed Mum with her. As yet then, untraced.

Sarah married William Chalkley at Bennington in 1777. There is some speculation that he was the nephew of Ann Chalkey of Aston who had married Sarah’s Uncle William Ginn (see below). She had five children by William Chalkley, stayed in Bennington and died there in 1832 with a quoted age of 80: she was 81.

William is in the Brickendon Militia List as a Miller in 1773 and married Elizabeth Hilliard (apparently from Ardley, a relatively distant parish but that of William’s Mum) at next-door Hertingfordbury in 1780. He was there in the Militia List as a Labourer and married man no children) until 1796 when he dropped out supposedly aged 45 (he was 44). He died in Hertingfordbury with a quoted age of 65 (he was 66) in 1819. He and Elizabeth had no children.  Elizabeth died in Little Berkhampstead in 1829.  Her quoted age was 67, but she was actually 65.

William - married Ann Chalkley, probably of Aston, at Aston in 1758. Earlier known as a Miller, he soon became known as a Labourer in the Militia Lists. Four children are known:

                        William            1758 d infancy

                        Ann                  1763 md  Geo. Pallett in 1793

                        William            1768 d infancy

                        John                 1770  Died in Aston in 1830

It is believed that William Ginn here (in Militia to 1773) died in 1777 when he would have been 53. There is some suggestion in the Quarter Sessions records that this guy was not afraid of a “punch up” - he certainly got involved in a fracas or two.  My feeling is that Ann his widow went to Bennington with her daughter and died there in 1792, believed to have been 62.

Francis  - see later post

Francis Ginn of Essendon d. 1698

Francis Ginn here was the eldest son of Francis of nearby Datchworth who died in 1670 (see post of 9th September 2012 ).  Whilst I knew this man was alive in 1668 (he married a Sarah in approximately that year), he does not show on the IGI and it took me a long time to work out where he was and what happened.  For some years I confused this man's son William with his first cousin of the same name, as the name Francis was common to both branches of this one tree.

 Francis Ginn died at Essendon.  I knew as I say (from the will of his father) that he was alive in 1668 and it was clear that he had already been given his inheritence but, in 1995, had only found one or two stray entries for a Francis and nothing made sense. 

In 2005, I did a search on the internet version of the IGI against multiple spellings of the Ginn surname and realised that there was a full family to this man.  The name pattern of this man’s family matched the likely pattern of the chap from Datchworth but I also checked that the other “possibles” had died in infancy; they did.  Then years later, in late 2021, a series of deeds were indexed at the Herts Archives and they confirmed my conclusions.

Francis Ginn was  a Labourer/Husbandman .  He was in Hatfield in 1670/2 but moved to adjacent Essendon by 1676 and stayed there for the rest of his life.

His brother John fretted about the fact that Frank has been largely disinherited.  One reason he worried  was whether Frank had a claim to the ownership of the three cottages that John had inherited.  So in the 1670s and early 1680s or so (John was selling one or two of the cottages) deeds were drawn up (but never executed - the drafts survive) for Francis to remove any claim by gifting the cottages to John (see for example D.E/PT 2881 at Herts Archives).

The only other entry of note that I can find, dates to 1691 when “Francis Gin of Essendon” is in the Quarter Sessions records “for leaving a dunghill on the Kings highway to the annoyance of the inhabitants”.  Although laughable in itself today, it is likely that his lack of efficient husbandry was due to the probems he was facing at home, because Sarah died that year and Francis was faced with a number of young children to look after whilst trying to earn their bread.

Polls Books were not required to be kept until an act of 1696, and the only such surviving documents I was aware of at HRO  did not commence until 1722 and were on microfilm. In 2010, I  was astonished to discover  a manuscript Poll Book at the HRO from 1697  which showed  Francis Ginn to have been a freeholder and to have had the vote.  I would assume therefore that his father had set him up with a little money when he married, hence the  passing reference in his father’s will.

Francis Ginn died in 1698, he was 58.   He left a cottage and a little money.  Letters of Administration were granted (PCC 6/75 214 National Archives) to son Francis in December 1699.  He left a number of orphans, some in their infancy and no obvious family support to come to their aid.  

                            Old map showing Hatfield and Essendon

Francis and Sarah had a good number of children

Sarah - died in 1695, aged 19

John - died in 1692

Mary and Ann - are untraced

William - see next post

Alice - died in 1704, aged 14

Francis - one died in infancy in 1670.  I had guessed that there was another but did not know this for certain until May 2020.  The second Francis was born (there is no baptism record) in circa 1675.

His father died in 1698, and in December 1699 it was this man who was given Letters of Administration of his estate.   The cottage  obviously went directly to Frank jnr's brother William, but Dad must have left some money, and this man was granted the right to deal with that.

Almost, if not as soon as Frank junior received his money he married an Ann.  The marriage could have been a declaration (which was legal) because I cannot find a church wedding which would have cost him a fee.

By 1700, he and his bride were in Epping in Essex.  For a young man with ambition, moving from tiny Essendon was a good move, moving to a town near London on a major traffic route was not.  This was a time of major smallpox epidemics, and  as I type the UK is in the grip of an epidemic, and moving to Epping put he and his family in harm's way.

I like Epping.  But probably the only thing that Frank would recognize is the "Black Lion" pub, we have both I suspect eaten and drunk there.

Ann and Francis had four children in Epping, namely 

Mary                1702  
Elizabeth          1704  d. 1712
William            1707
Ann                  1709  d. 1712

I have assumed that Francis was a Husbandman, ie a smallholding farmer, but I do not know.  What I do know is that tragedy struck this family in the summer, July/August, of 1712.  It was obviously smallpox.  Within  a few days Francis and his daughters Elizabeth and Ann were dead.  Frank would have been about 36.  Ann soldiered on but died in 1715 leaving William aged 8 and Mary aged 12 as orphans.    There were no Ginns left to take care of them, so unless Ann's parent's could, the orphans were presumably taken by the parish and are untraced.  

                                           Epping church

William Ginn, Periwig Maker of London d. 1783

Some years ago, in about 2007, I was doing some research on one member of the Ginn family in London in the Guildhall records there and in a spare moment extracted some other Ginn  London records, mainly marriage licences.  At the time, it was not thought that any of them probably related to the Hertfordshire family. Since then, astonishingly, I have found that all of them did, one of them being this fellow.  He is the subject of recent and active research. 

The only son of William Ginn of Walthamstow (see post of  24th October 2012) William Ginn here was fairly fortunate in that although his father had fallen on hard times by 1730 or so,  in 1732 William here was apprenticed in the City of London into the Company of Barber Surgeons.  

The person that William was apprenticed to for 7 years was a certain Daniel Blanker, Daniel being a Peruke or Periwig Maker in St Swithins London Stone, off of Cannon Street in the City.  William obviously went to live there as an apprentice and his apprenticeship with his signature is below.

William completed his apprenticeship in 1739, though as yet I have not found an entry of his being granted Freedom of the City and Citizenship of London, both necessary for him to set up and work on his own account.  It seems clear, in fact, that he never did, almost certainly working for Blanker until Daniel died in 1770 (Will National Archives).

At some point by no later than 1749, William formed a relationship with Sarah Edwards here who came from Whitechapel as per the couple's marriage licence.  But she was not born there, the Moravians (see below) have her born in August 1726 in Walthamstow.  She was actually born there in August 1725 to John Edwards and his wife and it seems likely she was known to William Ginn for some years prior to their marriage.

There was a flurry of frenzied activity in early January 1750, as on 6^th January their daughter Elizabeth was baptised at St Swithins, whilst the next day, on the 7^th January, William attended at the necessary offices and was furiously trying to obtain a marriage licence, which he did (see above).  It confirms him as 28 and a Periwig Maker and, like his apprenticeship document, has his original signature. 

The London Land Tax records make it possible to track William and Sarah’s movements precisely.  They set up home in St Swithins as soon as they married and lived just south of Cannon Street, going down to Upper Thames Street.

In bustling, dangerous, stinking London, where they lived was quite decent, John Strype saying of the area in 1720 -

Great Bush Lane comes out of Cannon Street and falls into Thames Street, but the Part in this Ward, goeth no farther than Scotch Yard, which is a good large open Place well inhabited. This Lane is but narrow, but well inhabited by Merchants and Persons of Repute. Out of this Lane on the said side, is Chequer Yard, which hath a Passage into Dowgate Hill, and is a pretty good open Place, in which is seated Plumbers Hall, a good handsome Building. Likewise on the South side is a Passage into Hand Yard, which is but ordinary, and falls into Thames street. And on the same side is the Cheker Inn, which hath a Gate or Passage into Dowgate Hill, an Inn of no great Account, being chiefly for Livery Stables and Horses.

In the early 1750s I knew that they had flirted with the Moravian Church which had (and still does have) a chapel in London with a burial ground with the lovely name "God's Acre".

                      Original Moravian Chapel at Fetter Lane

This had already been written up in the blog, but in 2022, pleased at having found an original deed signed by this chap's father, I explored further and contacted the Moravian Archives who were very helpful.

The Moravian Church (think broadly of the Wesleys and the Methodists with something of the Quakers) had come to England from the Continent with a view to sending preachers to the then slave colonies in the West Indies.  They were a brethren, pacifists, who were a bit of a challenge for many believers in that their followers were to be certain of God's existence, which took the word "faith" to a new level.  Doubt, and the Brethren were not for you.

 They set up a chapel in Fetter Lane in 1742, established quite a congregation of English as well as immigrant worshipers and were attended by, among others, the preacher John Gambold (1711-1771 below) who was a Church of England Minister who attended Oxford University with John Wesley, Wesley introducing Gambold to the Moravian Church. Wesley himself attended Fetter Lane in the early days, but before Bill Ginn's day the Methodists had split from the Brethren, although the latter still had some affiliation with the Anglican church. 

                                              John Gambold

William Ginn had something of an epiphany in 1750.  In my experience people do that when someone close dies.  But it may have been the birth of their first child which acted as the catalyst.  He started to attend the Moravian Chapel. The Moravian records show that Brother William Ginn was "received into the congregation" (ie baptized) in the chapel (see above) on 2nd November 1750 and immersed himself in the Brethren as he took his first Communion (ie he had been confirmed as an adult member of the Church) in October 1752.  Sarah was more reluctant, and this likely caused a rift between them. She was not baptized until June 1752 and afterwards there is a note - she "stayed away"   William persisted and it was John Gambold himself who baptized their daughter Sarah at Fetter Lane in 1753.  But the link was broken, Sarah had prevailed and afterwards William is noted as being "out of the connexion".

William and Sarah moved in 1768 and appear to have taken rooms above a stables near Joiners Hall in Upper Thames Street until 1783 when William sadly died, he was 62.

                                        St Swithins in 1831

Sarah moved to a property in Great Bush Street/Lane, near the corner with Upper Thames Street (it is still there) and was there until 1796 when she obviously could no longer afford it.  She died at St Swithins in 1799 with a quoted age of 74 – exactly correct.

William and Sarah only had three children,  none of whom died in infancy:

William Francis - untraced, although I have a theory as to what happened to him

Sarah - untraced

Elizabeth - untraced

Thomas Ginn of Croxton, Cambridgeshire d. 1779

Thomas Ginn, the third son of John of Anstey (see my post of 12th September) married Lydia Mace there in 1709.

                                            Wimpole

Tom, like both of his brothers was obviously given a little money by his Dad and both had a freehold cottage in Anstey and had the vote there as a consequence.

Lydia came from Cambridgeshire, from Papworth, and was born there in 1684 to Tom and Lydia (nee Barrett).  How Lydia met Tom Ginn I have no idea, but shortly after they married they moved to Wimpole in Cambridgeshire, Lydia may have had family connections there.

Tom was a labourer and the couple only had two known children, Tom jnr (1720) and Mary (1715).  

Tom snr died at Wimpole in 1746 aged 64, Lydia having died there in 1720, almost certainly in childbirth.

Mary is untraced, but Tom jnr, the subject of this post, went north to his mother's "neck of the woods" and settled in Croxton.

                                               Croxton

Tom jnr married Elizabeth Mitchell at Croxton in 1746, the year of his father's death.  He was also a labourer, settled at Croxton permanently and, his being mentioned in the Overseers Book a couple of times apart,  I know absolutely nothing about him.

Tom jnr died in 1779, aged 59.  Elizabeth died in 1786 aged 60.

Tom and Elizabeth had a good number of children:

  Lydia  -  married Abraham Barber at Eltisley in 1772.  They had a number of children and moved into Hunts and were at Little Paxton by the 1780s.  Lydia seemed to dictate the names of children as many were named after her brothers and sisters.  She would appear to have died at Little Paxton in 1803 aged 57.
 

  Alice - married William Cooper at Little Paxton, Hunts, in 1772. No children known.  She likely lived alongside Lydia above who named a daughter after her but I cannot trace them further.
 

 Joseph - see later post  
 

 Lucy - married William Smeeton at Gt Staughton, Hunts in 1782.  They had a good number of children over a wide area from Keysoe over into Bedfordshire and many of them were not baptised until they were grown up which is helpful.  I know that there are descendants through their son John (at Pertenhall) at least.  William died at Keysoe in 1809.  Lucy died there in 1826 with a quoted age of 80, she was actually 69.
 

 Charlotte - married William Howe of Sawtry at Wyton, Hunts in   1791. Lydia Barber was witness.  No children known and I cannot trace them further.

 
Thomas - is untraced
 
 Robert - one died in infancy, the other is untraced
 
 Benjamin- one died in infancy, the other is untraced
 
 Elizabeth - is also untraced 

NB  It is notable that the daughters have largely been traced but the fate of most of the sons is unknown.  There are many Ginn families in the Croxton area but none link to this family.

            

Charles Ginn of Anstey d. 1734

Charles Ginn was a Labourer/Husbandman and is one of the significant Ginn family men in this blog, having a good many Ginn family descendants alive today.   He owned freehold land and had the vote, so in his later years he would definitely have argued had you said he was a Labourer. 

In 1698 (when he was 31) he purchased a property in Cheapside in Anstey.  The property was described as being "near a little lane called Eastwood Lane" and passed down through the family to 1789 (as we shall see).  Its owners can subsequently be traced (without doubt) and I have established what this consisted of and exactly where it was.  As a solicitor/property lawyer I am well qualified to undertake this and I have a note showing the chain of ownership, with maps.

Charles bought this property from a chap called Robert Bennett and his wife, and paid them £23.  (See Deed HRO).  In 2008, I discovered that the property was originally owned by a Robert Rowley, the Anstey smith, who died in 1666 and appears to have been a friend and neighbour of John Ginn, Charles’ dad (see post of 12th September ).  Rowley’s widow Joan died in 1674, having made her will in John Ginn’s presence in 1671, and Joan the widow left it to her brother Edmund Allen who died in Anstey in 1677 and who in turn left it to Robert Bennett and his wife as above.  It consisted of a cottage and an adjacent smithy (which had also been converted for residential use).  There was also a barn, a stables, a large garden and an orchard.  The property was adjacent Eastwood Lane, and at the back Charles had a large long oblong shaped field.  This stretched virtually right back to East Wood, in a long strip.  In all, Charles had an acre of land.

Unfortunately, the cottage is no longer there.  There are a row of houses  there now.  But, the good news is that the field at the back is the same as it always was.  So, descendants can go and have a look if they want.

        Cottage stood where the white house can be seen -Eastwood Lane is the little lane to

                                                                 the direct right

In any event, Charles married Mary in about 1700, I cannot trace a marriage entry.  He found marriage was expensive, and in 1702 he mortgaged the property to a John Browne (Deed HRO) for £10.  This deed had many of his signatures on it (Charles took at least one further advance).

Mary Ginn died in 1709, probably in childbirth.  Charles did not remarry.

                                  
                                    The surviving paddock at the rear of the cottage

In 1723 all local householders were required to swear an oath that they accepted German George (George the First) as their King, notwithstanding the fact that he never learnt to speak English.  Charles walked over to the “George Inn” at Barkway to swear his oath (See Quarter Sessions Books HRO).

In December 1733, Charles became fatally ill and he died in early 1734; aged 67.

He made a will (ERO with original at HRO) and left his land to his son James, his second son.  Yet another example of the eldest being disinherited.  For a summary of the inheritance of the cottages by his children - see below.

Charles and Mary had a number of children, not all of whom are shown on the IGI:

James - has been dealt with first, because he inherited the property.  He paid 3s Land Tax on this, and did not marry. .He appears in various Poll Books.  He died in 1776, aged 73, and the property was inherited by his brother Charles (see 1786 Mortgage below), and Anstey Manor Court Book (HRO)

Charles - did not marry.  Upon his brother James's death, he presented himself to the Anstey Manor Court and stated that he was “the only brother and heir of James Ginn".  The other brother (Benjamin) had died in 1759.  He inherited the property, paying a fine of £3 3s to the court.  He died in 1781 (intestate) aged 80.  All this is recited in 1786 Mortgage (below).  He was the last man called Ginn to live in Anstey, after nearly 300 years of continuous occupation by the family.

Mary- clearly married George Johnson of Anstey (I can't find the marriage entry).  George died in 1772.  They had not had any children.  She inherited the cottages on her brother Charles’s death (see Mortgage) but died herself (again Intestate) in 1784, aged 80.  Letters of Administration were granted to her nephew William Ginn, of Great Hormead (eldest son and heir of her brother Benjamin) - see Letters of Admin and Bond all of which survive at the HRO.  The Bond was for £100, clearly roughly the value of the estate.  William mortgaged the property in 1786 (as we shall see) and the complicated inheritance outlined above is detailed again in that deed (HRO)

Benjamin - married Grace Graves.  See later post

Ruth - yet another one of this family to not marry.  She died a maid in 1770; aged 62 

William -two of this name died in infancy