Arthur Ginn of Steeple Bumpstead d. 1693

Arthur was left various bequests in his father's will of 1637.  Like many Ginns, and not a few Arthurs, he never married but was a very good uncle to his nephews and nieces and well deserves a mention here.

In 1655, when Arthur was 31, he and his brothers Thomas and John and his brother in law George Brockwell were supposedly involved in the theft of deer from Writtle Park.   This was the period after the English Civil War but before the Restoration when the gentry were not exactly in favour and Writtle Park was obviously open to exploitation.

Arthur was the trickiest of all three brothers, and evaded capture by the Constable of Chipping Ongar until 1662. He was captured briefly and then absconded again.

Arthur had an important role in the history of this family.  I do not know for sure that he never married and had issue but doubt it, but he certainly became the guardian of his nephew’s children until his death.  From the 1680s at least and until his death he was Estate Manager to the Bendish family (baronets) who held Bower Hall at Steeple Bumpstead in northern Essex on the Suffolk border. They were descendants of the Pepys family of the famous diarist Samuel and whether Arthur ever met Sam Pepys (who kept in with many of his wealthier family) who was Arthur's contemporary is a moot point. 

  

Samuel Pepys

Amazingly, Arthur’s accounts papers in his own hand and with his sgnature survive and are at the Essex Record Office for the years 1687-8.  He obviously lived in lodgings at the Hall and was paid £12 a year with all found.  A page is shown below and note the reference to Richard Pepys, known to Samuel.

Bower Hall  (which no longer stands) was quite a magnificent estate and engravings of 1710 and later photographs show the house to have not changed over the centuries.

 

Bower Hall

 

Arthur Ginn became guardian to his gt nephews and nieces after the death of his nephew Thomas (see later) and obviously played an important part in bringing them up. As guardian, sometimes referred to as a Yeoman and sometimes a Gentleman, he was involved in a case in Chancery in 1691(Noake v Ginn ref C6/298/83 at the National Archives) which will be discussed in more detail later. 

His great nephew Thomas informed me in a later court case of 1702 that good old Arthur here died in 1693 - I have never found a burial entry - he may well have been buried in a seperate chapel at the Hall.  He was 69.

Arthur Ginn of Fyfield d. 1637

Early in my research, in the early 1990s, my instinct was that the name Arthur, at least before 1700, was unique to the Hertfordshire family and that all those named Arthur Ginn were connected to it.  Time has proved that with one exception that instinct was entirely correct.

Arthur here (heir of Henry of Fyfield d. 1615 - see post of  20th July) was a Yeoman and clearly prospered, though whether unfairly to the loss of his siblings is unclear.

Research in 2007 revealed his landholdings at Fyfield in some detail.  He inherited "Clarks" and "Gibbs" from his father and set about acquiring more land, adding various fields and tenements as he went along.  By his death he had about 80 acres of free and copyhold in Fyfield.  He was therefore of yeoman status but not particularly that well off.

I know from his will that he married Agnes Howe.  No marriage survives.  I know this because he mentions Thomas Howe his “wellbeloved brother in law” and he had no surviving  sisters to whom this might otherwise refer.  At present I have no idea as to who Agnes Howe was or where she came from.

It seems clear that some of the children were not baptised at Fyfield.  A Lay Subsidy Certificate of Residence (National Archives Ref.  E 115/175/39) says that in 1628 the family were in Birds Green Hamlet and that “Arthur Gynne and his familie have resided here for the past yere”.  The hamlet was and is in the south east corner of Beauchamp Roding, bordering on Willingale Doe and forming part of that parish also.  Certificates of Residence were only required where a man had two houses, the tax only being chargeable on his main one.  It seems clear that for much of the time he was having children Arthur and his wife technically lived in Beauchamp Roding, whose registers sadly do not survive for the period.

If, as alleged by his brother Humphrey, Arthur did cheat his siblings then he paid a terrible price, because he died at Fyfield in the Essex plague epidemic of  1637 - he was 48.  He left a will (ERO) a page of which with his signature is reproduced below. Arthur left his wife an interest in his lands for 8 years, to allow his children to grow up; then it was split between the sons with Thomas, the eldest, getting the most.

There does not seem to be a record of the death of Agnes.  The manorial records mention Arthur’s death and deal with the various inheritances, but are silent as to the fate of Agnes.  See D/DCW M109 (ERO).  My suspicion is that she remarried, because by the English Civil War the various children, though obviously remaining close to each other emotionally, were scattered geographically.

Arthur and Agnes had a good number of children.  Some I am still researching:

Thomas - the heir - see later post

Agnes/Anna/Hannah - a kindly soul left £70 by her father and who  married the Yeoman,George Brockwell in 1642 at Berners Roding (by licence which does not survive).  They had one child at Fyfield and then moved to little Hutton in Essex where they had further children.  She was popular with her siblings, particularly with brother John who died whilst visiting her in Hutton in 1660. George Brockwell was implicated with his three Ginn brothers in law of he theft of deer from the Petre family during the Commonwealth.  I have a strong suspicion that George and Anna brought up her orphaned cousin Arthur Ginn (later of nearby Shenfield)  who is the subject of a later post

                                                 Hutton

Arthur - see next post

Sarah - was left £70 by her Dad in 1637 and was living with her sister Anna at Hutton in 1644.  This research took years.  In 1644 she married the Yeoman farmer Robert Gill (said to be of Little Burstead in 1644 but who had land in Hutton and was  of East Horndon in Essex at his death ) at St Botolph Without Aldgate in London.  They had four known children (Robert, John, Elizabeth and Sarah) who were mentioned by Robert Gill in his will drawn up in 1656 at which point he was seriously ill.  He did not actually die however until 1662  when he was likely about 40 (which suggests tuberculosis) and the intervening years must have been very difficult for all, with young children and him ill.  His will is at ERO.  John Gill "son of widow" died in 1662 and so three children were left.  Sarah was left reasonably off and an eligible widow in her 30s.  The Gills seem to have left East Horndon, but no remarriage has yet been traced.

Henry - died away from home, during and possibly as a result of  the English Civil War.  I know this because he inherited land from his father which was inherited by his brother Thomas from him in 1647. May well have fought with Cromwell and thus

John - became a Grocer and Citizen of London - see later post

John Ginn of Aston d. 1592

John was the heir (being eldest son of John and Margaret in my post of  24th June) to "Garetts" or "Jaretts" and its (by his time) 240 acres.  The Aston and Anstey Ginns had obviously kept in touch, because in 1553 John married Katherine Ginn of Anstey, Robert Ginn's eldest daughter.  So we have a union between the heir to the main Aston property, and the eldest daughter of the wealthiest of the Anstey/Great Hormead clan.  It was a good match, and was doubtless arranged so that the Anstey Ginns would continue to have an interest in "Garetts".  The Stevenage Ginns did something similar.

In 1561 something of a financial disaster occurred to this family.  Briefly, large landowners (ie the gentry) could and did take action in this period to overturn the traditional copyhold/manorial  landholdings of families in order to consolidate (ie bring together in one holding) the lands owned by the gentry and, at the same time, obviously make the gentry a lot richer at the expense of the middle classes and the peasants.  The non-gentry could of course take the matter to court, but legal action was expensive and in the vast majority of cases the gentry were successful, whether they had acted illegally or not.

In short, the Boteler family of Watton, Knights of the Shire and with considerable wealth, used their position as Lords of the Manor of Aston and confiscated all the deeds of the copyholders of Aston by calling for an audit of landholdings and asking the farmers to deposit their deeds (proof of ownership) at the Manor House under the pretext that the deeds needed to be checked.  As you can guess, the deeds were never returned.  We know what happened because in 1662 (far, far too late) John Ginn's great grandson George took the Boteler family and the then owners of "Garrets" to court.

In substitute, the Boteler family offered the copyhold owners of Aston long leases of, in most cases, smaller holdings and less fertile land than the farmers had held by copyhold.  Most Aston families conceded their manorial holdings to the Botelers, but the Ginns held out and refused to take a long lease.  This was obviously because as by far the largest copyhold owners in  Aston (having about four times the land of any other) they had the most to lose.

But, obviously, John was scared that should he die having given up the deeds his sons would have nothing at all to inherit so at some point he knew he would have to do something about it. More problems ensued in 1571.

It was discovered in 2020 that in 1571 John was sued in the Court of Common Pleas in London (CP40 1298)  He was sued for debt.   A George Matthew (a "loder" or carter) had died and an Alexander Smytheman, a Maltman of Hoddesdon in Herts (near Ware where the main maltings were) was sole executor.  I think it likely that John had employed George to carry his barley to the maltings and George died before John paid up.  

                                      The court case

Taking out an action for debt in the Court of Common Pleas which sat  in Westminster Hall in London was a costly and time consuming business, so lawyers had evolved a "legal fiction" to enable proceedings to quicken.  A litigant could bring an action for trespass in the Court of Kings  Bench which court could have people arrested, but as this only had jurisdiction in Middlesex( ie London) litigants had to pretend that the trespass was committed there and issue what was called a "Bill of Middlesex"..  So John Ginn "of London or of Aston in Hertfordshire, yeoman" (as the writ says) was pursued for the debt, likely arrested and dragged before the Court of Common Pleas in Westminster Hall (below) the action for trespass quietly dropped and the writ for the debt (above) issued.

                           The Court of Common Pleas and
                       Westminster Hall were intimidating
        

Obviously, none of this helped John's precarious financial situation and so, in 1573  some nine years after the other tenants gave up, he reluctantly agreed to take a 500 year lease of "Garrets" and some forty inferior acres.  Amazingly, the counterpart of the lease (ie the Boteler's part) survives.  It is huge and a part of my photocopy of same is shown below.

Katherine Ginn (who had had a gigantic family) died in 1585.  If she was 43 when she had her last child (the average) then she was about 58 when she died.  John lived on for a few more years, and then in 1592 “John Gynne - a householder" is entered in the register.  At least the Botelers had let him keep his house !!   He must have been about 60.  I cannot trace a will.

John and Katherine had a gigantic family and many lived to adulthood, but I have only traced a few:

Robert - was alive in 1587 and 1589 but clearly dead by 1592 as he was not the heir

Henry - the heir and ancestor of all known Ginns from this line today- see later post

Dorothy - married William Kent

Margaret, Mary, Arthur and Frances - all alive in 1589 and unmarried - untraced

John - alive in 1587 and either dead or married by 1589. Likely married in Aston to Mary

Katherine and another John died in infancy

Benjamin Ginn of the 17th Lancers d. 1891

Benjamin Ginn here was not traced until 2007. He was born in 1846 to Benjamin and Eliza Ginn, Ben snr coming from Royston in Hertfordshire and being a direct descendant of Robert Ginn of Anstey (d.1587 for whom see earlier). I frankly could not find Ben jnr in any census return, and there being no evidence that he died young I had assumed that he joined the army - I was correct.

It turned out that Benjamin joined the “Death or Glory Boys” ie the 17^th Lancers, famous for their role in the Charge of the Light Brigade.  Their name derives from their original insignia, the “Death’s Head” a skull and crossed bones with the words “or glory” underneath.  It is still in use for their successor regiment (Queens Royal Lancers) today.

                                        Group of 17th Lancers of Crimean War
                                                  (Imperial War Museum)

The Lancers had suffered very heavily in the Charge of the Light Brigade (they were in the front rank) and spent some years in India thereafter where they played a major part in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny and there lost another nearly four hundred men to wounds and disease.

The regiment returned to the UK in 1865 and not surprisingly went on a major recruitment spree.  In 1866 they were in Aldershot, a recruiting party going out to London, recruiting Ben Ginn there on 27^th October of that year - reference WO12 1351 at National Archives.  He was 20.

The Lancers spent some years at home, being in Ireland for some years this being the reason that Ben does not appear in the 1871 census.  They were used once or twice to put down civil unrest.

By the late 1870s they were back in England, in 1878 being at Hampton Court and Hounslow.  They were soon to see action

In 1878/9 The British had engineered a war with the Zulu Nation in South Africa – for mostly political reasons- the British wished to annexe the area.

A great warrior nation, the Zulus did not easily give in, and at the Battle of Isandlwhana in January 1879 (subject of the film "Zulu Dawn") wiped out a British column of some 1500 men.  A small detachment of the 24^th Foot was to later heroically defend the post at nearby Rorkes Drift (subject of the film "Zulu") but the British had suffered one of their worst disasters, news of which reached London on 11^th February.  There was uproar.

                                            24th Foot-1879

An expeditionary force of a number of infantry battalions and two cavalry regiments (the 17^th Lancers and Kings Dragoon Guards) was hurriedly put together and at the end of February the Lancers embarked from Southampton and Victoria Docks for Natal in South Africa.  They were in the Rorkes Drift area by May 1879 according to their regimental history.

On 21^st May the Lancers went out to Isandlwhana to bury the mutilated British corpses left untouched since 22^nd January.  Not a pleasant task.  Having brought back the abandoned wagons from the battlefield to Rorkes Drift, an embittered regiment set out with the Second Division of the British forces to exact vengeance.

Crossing the Blood River, the troops crossed into Zululand on 1^st June 1879 and had their first encounter on 5^th June where an officer of the regiment was shot dead.  By this time the Zulus had accumulated some 1500 British rifles.

                                                                 Zulu warrior

After a short delay of some weeks whilst the regiment was split into two, it merged once more and with the 2^nd Division pressed on in to Zululand to capture Ulundi, the Zulu capital and home of the King.  There were several infantry battalions, including some Scots, and the column was preceded by Scottish pipers whilst the three squadrons of the 17^th formed the rearguard.

The column comprised some five thousand men, not all British regulars, and on 4^th July they came under attack from an estimated twenty thousand Zulus.

The British formed a massive square, the infantry (supported by two erratically firing gatling guns) on the outside, forming a perimeter of bullets and bayonets, whilst on the inside stood the 17^th Lancers, all five hundred of them, standing patiently by their horses waiting for the order to mount up.

                                                 Ulundi

For forty five minutes the Zulus attacked the square against a withering fire.  Finally they broke.  The 17^th were told to mount up, the square opened and the whole regiment formed itself into two lines and charged the Zulus.  It is a famous charge and is depicted on many paintings.

                                    Depiction of the Charge

                                                     

At first using the lance, the Lancers rapidly turned to the sword and cut the Zulus right and left.  Undaunted, many Zulus fought bravely until they fell, stabbing at the British horses, trying to get the riders down.  It was all to no avail, and heavily pursued the Zulus scattered.  It was to be the last and biggest battle of the Zulu War.

Ben was subsequently promoted to Lance Corporal and, as such, is in the South Africa Medal Roll with the clasp “1879” to show that he took active service in Zululand.

Subseequently, some of the 17^th came home, but six troops including Ben were ordered to India, landing at Bombay.  They spent the following ten uneventful years at Mhow and Lucknow, at some point Ben being promoted to Corporal.

On 9^th October 1890 the regiment embarked on the “Serapis” (above) for home, arriving at Portsmouth on 3^rd November and taking camp at Shorncliffe.  Fortescue, the regimental historian writing in 1895, tells us that of the 500 NCOs and men that went out to South Africa in 1879, only 30 returned.  The rest had died in action, of disease or had left the service.  Ben was one of an exclusive club.

Too exclusive perhaps, because Ben was told that he was going to be pensioned off himself.  The man obviously knew no life but the army and grew depressed about it.  It also looks like there were few veterans of his ilk to discuss things with, adding to his isolation.

We are told that Ben took leave immediately upon his return, coming back to Shorncliffe at the end of February 1891 ^. He witnessed the marriage of his sister Eliza on 21^st February of that year in Bloomsbury.  We are also told that he was fretting about an old injury, perhaps a wound from Ulundi, perhaps wondering whether he was fit for manual labour.  Very shortly after his sister’s marriage this was to have tragic consequences.

He was apparently accustomed to sleeping in the storerooms in camp, as others were, these housing the cavalry carbines (rifles) but no ammunition.  On the night of Sunday 1st March 1891 he obviously smuggled some bullets into the storeroom, as over that night (having been locked in) he shot himself in the head and died instantly. He was 45.  It was a tragic end to the sort of life that built and maintained Victorian Britain and it's Empire. 

For more details on the Regiment read A History of the 17th Lancers by Fortescue (1895) and the 17th/21st Lancers by ffrench-Blake (1968).     Benjamin's suicide and the background to it is recorded in the Folkestone Chronicle, Folkestone Express and Folkestone Herald (all of March 7th 1891)

  

Robert Ginn of Therfield d. 1666 ?

Robert Ginn was the third son of Henry Ginn of Anstey (d. 1615).  In the early days of my research it took me some time to work out that like his father and brother Henry he and his family moved around and lived in more than one place.

Robert married his cousin, Lettice Benn (of Aston) in 1586: he was just 20 and Lettice 17.  The Benns and Ginns had been friends and kin since before the time of Lettice’s gt. Grandfather (Richard) who had died in 1539, but it has still taken me years of research to fully appreciate that this was yet another link between the “Anstey Ginns” and Aston.

The Benns of Aston were significant farmers, Richard having held lands in Aston, Bennington and Shephall (Will Hunts R.O).  His daughter Joan had married William Ginn of Aston and the widowed Margaret Ginn had married William Benn, Richard’s eldest son and heir and Lettice’s grandpa.  When the Anstey and Aston Ginns intermarried in 1553 the scene was set for yet another twist to the story.

In the 1560s the Benns had consolidated their lands in Aston, a 500 year lease from 1564 (which survives) giving William Benn 3 houses, 2 small farms and another tenement: 80 acres in all.  He paid only a nominal rent and so was both secure in his ownership and not badly off.  William died in early 1565 (Will Hunts. R.O), his heir being George Benn who married Christian ___ in the mid 1560s and died prematurely in 1574.  He had three children: Marion (1567); Lettice (1569) and William (1571) all infants at his demise.

George Benn’s two main tenements or farms were an ancestral smallholding at Aston End called “Whites” (44 acres) and another at Church End called “Gardeners” (32 acres).  Both had farmhouses.  Also in Aston was another smaller messuage or tenement called “Hellons” or “Hellons Greenhouse”, this was a cottage with lands adjoining.

When George died (Will Hunts R.O) his wife received the cottage for 60 years and William a certain amount of land in anticipation of his majority.  Should William die then the land was to be divided between the daughters, an incentive for any aspiring partners for the girls.

William Benn did survive, he married in about 1600.  He was still under age in the mid 1580s however, the girls being actively pursued with Lettice marrying Robert in 1586 and her sister Marion wedding Dunstan Wilshire at Stevenage in 1587.

The Benn family home was at Church End, George ordering that the family’s chattels be kept there when he died in 1574.  The teenage William was incapable of looking after all the Benn lands and it was presumably for that reason that when Robert Ginn married he moved to Aston.

It seems clear that Robert Ginn lived at “Whites”, a farm that continued to be called by that name throughout the 1700s and is now believed to be “White Farm” at Aston .  Robert and Lettice continued to live at Aston  until William came of age in the early 1590s, the couple subsequently moving back to Therfield.

Although Robert was perhaps unlucky with the Aston lands, his wife had been adequately provided for when her father died in her infancy.  Lettice had been left £20, a bullock, a cow, a featherbed “with all belonging” and 4 pairs of sheets.  To complete her dowry she had 6 platters, 6 pewter dishes, a cupboard to put them on, a brass pot and a pan and chafing dish.  No doubt the mothers gave additional “household stuff” to see to it that their offspring had a comfortable start in marriage.

Robert Ginn was clearly a very level headed and popular fellow - both his grandfather and father obviously valued him.  Indeed Robert Ginn of Anstey had apparently intended to leave him “Passmers” in his original will of 1585, this provision only having been changed on Robert’s deathbed.  In any event Henry viewed him as one of the two principal heirs of his estate.

Bob certainly helped his father out at Therfield, working the lands and proving invaluable.  It seems clear that he occupied his father’s house at Therfield from the mid-1590s onwards (Henry having moved to Layston by the 1580s and Henry Jnr having gone to Essex in about 1594).  This property would seem to have been a sizeable farmhouse called “Motts” on the Reed End side of Therfield.

The family must have lived quite comfortably, and as had his brother William before him, Robert was chosen for the Trained Band in 1602-5, the period of the continuing Spanish invasion scares.  Robert was also a Caliverman.

Henry Ginn died in 1615, his will providing that Robert was to inherit all of his lands in the manors of the Rectory of Therfield and that of West Reed, the latter otherwise known as Mardlen or Mardleybury.  Sterling work by Ivor Williams of the North Herts Villages Research Group has revealed that this was almost exactly 100 acres of land in total, 90 or so of them in West Reed.  It seems that William Ginn (Henry’s heir and Bob’s eldest brother) challenged the inheritance in at least one petition to the manorial courts in 1616, but the will prevailed and William lost out yet again.

The next two decades would appear to have been relatively uneventful.  Marriages were arranged for the children and the family prospered.  Robert was a major farmer locally, holding various offices including being the churchwarden at Therfield in 1615, a Bishop’s Transcript of that year (with his full signature) surviving.

During the 1630s and into the 1640s things changed.  Robert was now into his 60s and 70s and between 1632 and 1646 (then 80) he disposed of all of his lands in both manors.  Just as his father before him he disinherited the eldest son, half of his lands being transferred to Francis.  For reasons that are not entirely clear the rest was actually sold out of the family between 1639 and ‘46, some of this to an Edras Bland, Rector of Buckland and a charitably minded man, he later establishing a payment of monies from former Ginn lands that were to still be paid into this century.

Robert’s lands at Therfield were not all he had inherited however.  His Uncle Arthur also had a regard for him and it seems clear that his lands in Anstey, Barkway and Nuthampstead (perhaps 50 acres) went Robert’s way when Arthur died in 1630.  Robert clearly established his youngest son Robert on these when the latter married that same year, though it is still unclear how much of that land was ultimately properly transferred to Robert Jnr as most of it was held under the Manor of Hedleys whose manorial rolls for the 1640s do not survive.  Arthur’s former holdings in other manors were largely sold by Robert in the 1640s.

Why Robert sold these significant amounts of land in the 1640s is unclear - it seems very unlikely that a sensible fellow of his years would suddenly have got into debt.  It is possible that one or both of his other sons had taken up craft occupations and favoured gifts of money more than land, some cash also doubtless being put aside for the old couple’s “retirement”.  This is one mystery that is likely to remain.

Lettice “the wife of old Robert Ginn” died at Therfield in 1655; she was a splendid 86 years old.  That same year “old Robert” was 89.  Robert Ginn may have died at Therfield between 1655 and 1660 or may not have died at Therfield at all.  Francis had no wife at this time and could not look after his aged father, the old man quite possibly going to live with his son Robert at Nuthampstead.  A Robert died there in 1666 and it seems likely that it was the old man, certainly not being his son and almost certainly not his grandson.  If I am right then the old fellow just about accomplished his 100th year!!  Old Bob came from long lived stock and may well have proved the hardiest of them all.

Robert and Lettice had a good number of children:

Thomas - married Katherine Lyon (widow)  in 1622 - see later post of 4th May 2013

Francis -  Yeoman of Therfield - see later post of 12th September 2012

Robert - married Sarah Ferris at Layston (ie Buntingford) in 1630.  He was a "Yeoman of Anstey" in 1642.  See post of  18th February 2021

Ann - married William Kimpton at Anstey in 1620

Elizabeth - married Anthony Muncey at Melbourne in 1625

Joan - married William Wilcock at Anstey in 1632

Mary - died infancy, and Lettice and Sarah who are untraced

Henry Ginn of Fyfield d. 1615

Henry Ginn (note that there are an awful lot of Williams, Henrys and Roberts in this blog !) was the second son of Henry Ginn of Anstey, and ironically he died in the same year as his father.  One of my best pieces of research, long before I found his will to prove it, was to track him down.

One of the things that recurs time and again in the early Ginn history is their marriage to family members, close and far.  These connections enabled them to found branches of the family in what were for the time quite distant  places and eventually there was a network of cousins over several counties.

Initially, in the early 1990s, I worked out that Henry Ginn of Fyfield in Essex had originated in Therfield and Anstey in Hertfordshire by dint of the discovery of a court case and the 1594 will of one Robert Aylett  of Leading Roding (ERO) the will mentioning both Henry and Judith Ginn (nee Aylett) and confirming that Robert Collin of Beauchamp Roding  (who had married Sarah Ginn, Henry's aunt) was a cousin of the Ayletts.  It was like putting together the pieces of a jigsaw.

The marriage to Judith Aylett was truly a marvellous marriage for Henry, from the financial point  of view. The Ayletts were the most prosperous non-gentry family of their area; Thomas Aylett (Judith's father) owned/leased two whole manors in the area and had a great deal of land in about 5 parishes.

So Henry and Judith married and went to live in Therfield in Hertfordshire.  They had their first few children there, moving to Leaden Roding in about 1595. I have wondered whether Judith became homesick. In Thomas Aylett's Will of 1602 (ERO) he mentions Henry as being in occupation of Aylett’s property  known as "Chalkes" at Bridge House. Bridge House is shown in old maps and a building from circa 1600 survives  and is listed.  "Chalkes" is known to have been a “capital messuage” ie a large house and the current "Chalkes Farmhouse of the late 1600s is likely on the same site, the previous building probably having burned down.  Aylett seems to have had some regard for Henry as he made him an Overseer of his Will.

The couple seem to have been quite happy in Leading Roding, having their last child, Humphrey (named after Judith's brother) there in 1599.  Sadly, Judith died the next year and Henry did not remarry.

It is clear that after the death of Thomas Aylett in 1602, the Ayletts and the Ginns, while not parting company, were less friendly than before.  With Judith dead it seems that Henry was viewed very much as an in-law and Humphrey Aylett is recorded as disposing of "Chalkes" shortly after his father’s death and Henry was no longer in occupation.

At some point then, probably about the year of the Gunpowder Plot (1605) Henry Ginn and family moved to Fyfield.  I am vitually certain that Humphrey Aylett had something to do with the move as he is often recorded in the manorial registers of Fyfield of this time.

Henry Ginn purchased two tenements, one called "Clarks" which was a house and some 30 acres and one called "Gibbs" of about 22 acres.  He also held some houses in Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire.  How he came upon those I have no idea.  The family obviously lived in some comfort and I know had a maid called Clemence.

Henry died at Fyfield aged 59 in September 1615. The church is shown above and judging from photographs has been unchanged for at least 150 years.  There is evidence that Henry was ill from at least July as he then made his will and was leaving his children the growing crop from the farm.  I was told in the court case (see below) that he left a will and could not find it at all until 2007 when it was discovered to have been proved at the Consistory Court in London (Essex and Herts) .The executor was Arthur Ginn and the overseer (no surprise here) was Humphrey Aylett.  The original will (as well as the probate copy) does apparently survive and is at the Metropolitan Archives.  I was delighted to see that it proved my research and that Henry mentioned his sister Dorothy Creed and left money to the poor of Anstey.

Henry and Judith had a number of children:

Arthur - the heir and the subject of a later post

Thomas - alive in 1615 aged 23.  His father left him £40, the crop of an acre of wheat, an acre of barley "nowe as they growe in and upon my grownds in Fyfield" a quarter of the best peas (pease pottage now pease pudding was a staple food of the time) and Henry's black gelding and the black cow "which I bred at Fyfield".

 I  never traced him - but then in 2021 something came to light that got my full attention.  It could be a stonking coincidence, but then again it may not

Tom was 23 and eligble to marry in 1615.  His brother Arthur had married an Agnes or Ann Howe in or about that year himself - I know this because Arthur later mentions "my well beloved brother in law Thomas Howe" 

I will tell you a story ...........

Much Hadham is near Bishops Stortford, I know it fairly well.  Bishops Stortford and Chelmsford would have been the market towns known to Tom, and his father owned property in the former.

Now, in the 1590s there is a Thomas Sanford and his wife Mary in Much Hadham.  Thomas Sanford came from Stanstead Mountfithet in Essex (which I also know) but in the 1590s he was pursuing his trade as a glover in Much Hadham,  His eldest son Ezekiel and various members of the Sanford family went out to the American colonies in 1630 or so and that story is quite well told online and on Ancestry.  We are told for instance that his brother Richard died in 1636 in North Weald near Chipping Ongar ie "Fyfield Ginn country".

Thomas Sanford died in 1597.  He left a number of sons and three daughters - Priscilla, Sara and Damaris.  His widow remarried.  Now we know that Priscilla married Thomas Howe at Much Hadham in 1609 - there were issue.  Her sister Sara also married a Howe.  Damaris sadly died in November 1615 - she was just over 21.  In the room in which she was dying were her mother, her sister Sarah Howe and a Thomas Ginn.  We know this because Damaris, obviouly failing quickly, did not have time to have someone write her will - she left a nuncupative will ie she made a verbal will declared in the presence of her mother, her sister and Thomas Ginn (ERO)

Now, the question that came to me - why was Thomas Ginn in the room ?  I am sadly of an age when I have been in such rooms and only those close to the deceased are there, and some of those reluctant to be.  It is not a memory you want.  So, I repeat, why was Thomas Ginn there ?  Was he betrothed to Damaris, was he a relation - was he both ?  Is the Thomas Howe in the Sanford story Arthur Ginn's "well beloved brother in law" ?  I do not know.   It could be a stonking coincidence as I say- or the question could have wings.  In any event that same Thomas Ginn later appear married and mentioned in the will of the gloriously Anglo Saxon named Etheldreda Westwood of Standon in 1639.  I will leave it with you - research awaits

Henry - it has taken much research, nearly thirty years and counting, but I have amassed a dossier of snippets on this chap. The year (2018) has seen some developments and he is currently the subject of further research.  See post of 4th November 2018

Mary - died in her 1616 when she was 21.  She was left money in here father's will and Humphrey (below) alleged in the court case below that his brother Arthur had taken all of that money.

Humphrey - named after his Aylett uncle and the only Ginn of that name known to have existed anywhere at any time. 

If "Finding Humphrey" were a film it would last for thirty two years, because it took me that long to trace him.

Humphrey was 15 when his father died.  Humphrey said in 1622 (see  - court case C2/Jas1G1/5)) that his brother Arthur (the executor) made him work for him until he was 21 when Humphrey came into his inheritance.  He also claimed that Arthur took all of Mary's (see above) inheritance for himself  instead of it being spread amongst Mary's siblings) when she died in 1616. Humphrey sued Arthur for his own money and, in turn, alleged that Arthur calculated how much it had cost Arthur to bring Humphrey up and then deducted it from the money due him from his father's  estate.  I knew all this in 1991.  Arthur denied much of it - the result of the case is not known.

Humphrey was then 22 and obviously left the locality.  I had no idea where he went but in 2015 or so found a transcript of a document that suggested that a Humphrey Ginn was in Surrey on the Sussex border.  I did not believe that the transcript was accurate - there were no Ginns in Surrey outside London and none in Sussex.  But it turned out I was wrong.  There was such a family row that Humphrey moved 60 miles away.

                                          Burial entry

In early 2022 I found that Surrey Archives in Woking had loaded up some references to him.  In the summer of 1632, he witnessed the nuncupative will (oral  will given on a death bed) of William Hitchcock of Horley in Surrey (PCC).  But Humphrey lived in Reigate some seven miles away no less - he is mentioned in a series of deeds at the Surrey Archives and lived (371.8) in a messuage (house and land) which he likely owned on the west side of Bell Street in Reigate.  This is a very old road and still there with a number of historic listed buildings.

The probability is that Humphrey was in trade - but I do not know what.  There is no evidence of a marriage or children sadly.  The Reigate (St Mary Magdalene) register is on Ancestry but not transcribed or indexed so another search was in order.  He died in 1639 in his fortieth year.  I was very pleased to have found him.