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.