Richard Ginn of Little Hormead d. 1624

Richard Ginn was the eldest son and heir of  Henry Ginn of Great and Little Hormead d. 1586, mentioned in my post of  11th July.       

Save for his birth, the first entry for Richard in the records is in 1595, when he is mentioned regarding his marriage to Mary Felsted of Much Hadham who was daughter of Robert Felsted, a yeoman farmer there.  Robert died in 1600 and his will is at the ERO.

It was a tragically short marriage.  In 1597 the couple had a son, Richard Jnr, who died.  In 1599, Mary died during labour giving birth to their daughter, baptised Mary in her memory.  As was common at the time, Richard remarried within months, to a widow Alice Page. Various correspondents had written to me to say that they thought she was the widow of William Page of Ardeley who had died in January of that year.  This was not proven until 2024 when I turned up the wills.  Alice was born Alice Bardolf in early 1576, daughter of James Bardolf who Gene Forbes-Hood indicated to me in 2019 had to be a Yeoman or minor Gentleman because he is mentioned in the Tudor Militia lists as providing arms and horses for the Muster during the Spanish Armada scare.  James was in fact a yeoman, his wife Helen.  Alice married William Page of Luffenhall in Ardeley in May 1598.  Tragedy struck in January 1599 because William died, he could not have been more than 30.  His will (below) is the original and it makes sad reading because William was hoping Alice was pregnant, in fact he leaves money to the baby should it reach 10 and then 21.  There was no baby of course.  William Page, son of Robert (likely of Stevenage) was a Yeoman. How Alice came to know of Richard Ginn in distant Little Hormead is unknown, but it was likely Richard's mother that sought a wife for him.

                                Will of William Page (HRO)

 James Bardolf died in 1606 (Will:HRO) and he mentions Alice and leaves money to her and "one ewe sheep" to each of his grandchildren.  Helen died in 1610 - also leaving a will (HRO)

The Bardolfs go back a long way in Ardeley, because in 1414 a Bardolf reputedly held Lites Manor there.  There is some suggestion they connect to a gentry family of Norfolk.  Scope for research here.

I know a fair amount about Richard.  He was a  a Yeoman farmer, although the exact extent of his lands is unclear.

His father had died in 1586, and the family farm “Margery Smiths" had been inherited by his mother for life.  Margery Smiths was later known as Mutton Hall Farm.

Richard was granted a lease of Margery Smiths and its thirty acres by his mother which we know was for the term of her life  (see his will).  In 1614 his mother made a will leaving the copyhold of the farm to Richard's eldest son Aquila,  and tried to circumvent the judgement of the manorial court which precluded the farm being inherited by Henry Ginn's male heirs.  She does not seem to have succeeded when she died in 1625.

Even after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, England was still in fear of invasion.  Consequently the men were still mustered.  In 1596 Richard is mentioned in the Muster Book (HRO) as being allocated a Caliver (a lightweight primitive musket).

The fact that Richard is mentioned in the Lay Subsidy of the 1590s (being taxed on lands) confirms that he had some substance and we know from his will, that independent of the leasehold lands, he clearly had acquired  free and copyhold lands in his own name all around the house known as "Margery Smiths"-  in Jeffrey's Field, Randall’s Grove, Highfield and so on.  I suspect that he held some 40-50 or so acres including the leasehold lands, enough for his family to live on and have something in excess.

In October 1624, Richard Ginn became fatally ill, he was 52.  His lands fell in two parishes, and the Vicars of both: Edward Howsden of Little Hormead and Joseph Scrubie of Gt. Hormead came to his bed-side for the writing of the will.  The original will has survived  and a page with his signature is shown below (ERO). Within two days of its completion he was dead and buried.

Richard left his "Mansion house", obviously a large farmhouse, to his wife for life (under the terms of the lease which would have fallen away in 1625) and provided she looked after his mother with food and firing etc.  Alice Ginn his widow lived on, dying in 1651 aged 75.

Richard and his two wives had a number of children:

Mary - was from the first marriage.  I have always felt a certain affection for her because her mother died when she was born and she grew up with a step mum who went on to have children of her own. It cannot have been easy. She was clearly adored by her father though, he left her with a decent dowry when he died in 1624 - she was then 25.  

I have speculated for years, decades, that she married George Pettitt at Hertford, St Andrew in 1626. But that could have been a Ginn from Stevenage.  The Pettitts were prosperous tanners in Hertford who played a significant role in civic life there.  George died in 1663 (will PCC) accounted a Gentleman and leaving a wife Mary and four children (born from 1641) thus it is clear that this Mary was his second wife and the children from her.  So, if Mary here did marry George, she died in her late thirties without issue.

Ellen - married Robert Danes/Dines at Great Hormead in 1619 and John Poulter there in 1634. The lady had eight children by her two husbands and like her brothers lived a long life, dying when she was 80.  It is known that she was close to her brothers and her second husband had his own alehouse at Great Hormead which her brothers are known to have frequented !  It is possible that it was this Poulter connection that led to her Ginn nephews going into brewing and innkeeping from the 1660s.

Sarah - married Leonard  Daniel in 1642

Aquila - married Grace Milton at Newport Essex in 1629 - see next post

Edward - married Judith Perry at Great Hormead in 1633

 Martha and Priscilla are untraced, and James and Richard died in infancy