Cornelius Ginn of Stocking Pelham d. 1813

Cornelius Ginn has no descendants.  The man did however have a great heart, he helped people, and left a fund of goodwill behind him at his death that led to his cousins naming a string of sons Cornelius, so there were those called Cornelius Ginn well into the 20th century.

Cornelius was born in Orsett in Essex in late 1723.  Amazingly, he was named not after his father but his mother's first husband.  The only likely reason being that his grandfather clearly disliked Henry Ginn but favoured his mother's first husband, the name likely being a desperate and unsuccessful attempt by Carolina to get Cornelius into favour with William Wolfe.

He was obviously trained by his father as a wheelwright at Sandon, it was a highly skilled occupation and he had likely only just about finished his training when his father died in 1746.  That same year, ie 1746, he appears in the Stocking Pelham Land Tax records (HRO) as the owner of two cottages and a wheelwrighting business, so obviously bought them with what money was left by Henry and what, if any, money had trickled down to him from the Wolfe family.

                                                 The wheelwright at work

He stayed in Stockling Pelham for the rest of his long life, being in the Hertfordshire Militia returns for the village (HRO) from 1758 (the first record) until 1769 when being older than 45 he was no only eligible.

In 1759, Cornelius Ginn "of Stocking Pelham" married an Elizabeth Smith at Layston, ie Buntingford.  Cornelius was 36 and Betsy likely the same and the couple did not have any children.

One of the many people who saw Cornelius as a "good and worthy friend" was an Augustine Brooks, a Blacksmith at Little Hadham.  When he died in 1769 (will Essex Record Office) he made Cornelius guardian of his niece Mary Draycott.  And good old Augustine told me where Cornelius was living - it was at "White Willow" in Stocking Pelham.

"White Willow" is a lane.  Stocking Pelham being so tiny hardly anybody lived in this lane and in the Victorian period it became known as "the Willow".  There was a wheelwrighting business there until the 1870s.  Today this lane is known as "Ginns Road" and I think we know why - Cornelius ran his business from there for over 60 years and his great nephew James (Parish Clerk for Stocking Pelham) probably had some influence on the change.

I even think I know exactly where he lived, for a two cottages and a massive barn (listed buildings for historical reasons - they date from the 1600s) still stand there and are known as "Willow Farm Cottage and Barn".  They are the perfect place to have run his business from and, as I say,  Thomas Collis was running it there in the 1870s.  I am investigating further.

Cornelius took a string of apprentices over the years, one of whom was his only nephew Anthony Mayhew whom he clearly trained in the trade and likely partly brought up as well.  Anthony was obviously fond of his and shared his religious preferences (see below) being a strong supporter of, and leaving significant funds to, the Congregational Meeting House at Coggleshall.

  For Cornelius was, at least in later life, a Congregationalist, he attended the "Old Meeting House" in Hazel End between Stansted Mountfitchet and Farnham, near his cousins in the latter village.  He left money to the church and pastor in his will.

Cornlius was also something of a speculator in land, the surviving manorial records (HRO) showing him constantly busy buying and selling small pieces of land.  He was also a money lender, taking securities here and there.  Ultimately, when he got too old to work he seems to have fallen in to debt, perhaps trusting and lending unwisely.

Elizabeth died in 1789, and it is in this period, when he was alone, that he seems to have begun to be very friendly with his Ginn relations at Braughing and Farnham.  Two Farnham cousins came to live at tiny Stocking Pelham, one of whom stayed, and I have debated whether they came to help Cornelius out in his workshop, as he was getting on.  In 1798 his first cousin William Ginn of Farnham married an Ann King at Stocking Pelham.  It is clear that Ann's parents were James and Ann, and shortly afterwards James King became the tenant of one of Cornelius Ginn's cottages (Land Tax - HRO).  William and Ann were later to christen a son with the name Cornelius in his memory.

Cornelius was obviously lonely, because in 1807 (at the great age of 83) he remarried, a Mary Lambert.  They married at Newport in Essex.  In 2009 I found an absolutely delightful entry in the Essex section of the "Ipswich Journal" viz:

 " a few days since was married Mr Ginn of Newport [sic] in this county and Mrs Lambert of the same place, whose combined ages make 161 years, the bride being 80 and the bridegroom 81"

Cornelius Ginn died in 1813 in his 90th year.  He left a will (ERO) in which among bequests to the "Old Meeting House" at Farnham and "Elizabeth Ginn the spinster daughter of my cousin Thomas Ginn of Braughing, the Carpenter"  he left the bulk of the estate sadly to an obvious creditor. 

Cornelius and Mary lie together in the burial ground of the "Old Meeting House" at Hazel End at Farnham - it is still there as an orchard.  He has my undying thanks in providing the information that linked the Farnham and Braughing Ginn families together.