John Ginn - Citizen & Grocer of London d.1660

 Son of Arthur Ginn in my post of  29th July,  John here was a very frustrating chap for this researcher as pieces of information  turned up regularly over the years but his fate was not discovered until 2009 and further pieces of information have arrived ever since.

John  inherited  a field of 8  acres called Churchfield from his father in 1637 when he was about 10.  I knew he lived (because of Quarter Sessions records) but in 2009 was astonished to find in that in 1644 he was apprenticed for eight years to a Henry Hickman of the Grocer’s Company in the City of London.  The entry reads translated from the Latin “John Gen son of Arthur Gen Yeoman deceased of Fyfield Essex” (MS 11593/1- Guildhall Library).  Henry Hickman was a Gentleman and weathy grocer who held Bushey Hall nr Watford in Herts, though it seems almost certain that John Ginn both lived and worked in London.  There is some suggestion in the records that Henry Hickman held premises in Queenhithe, down by the docks and likely so that he had first pick of the groceries being brought ashore.

Grocers in the City were not exactly what we think of – jars of chutney and baked beans.  They had a monopoly on the Spice Trade at this time and bought their commodities “in gross” from the ships ie wholesale (hence “grocer”).  There were general grocers, but the vast majority were specialists in tobacco, spices, tea, coffee, sugar, confectionary and drugs (although the apothecaries as such had split from the Grocers Company in the 1620s).  They supplied the wealthy on a retail basis, but equally served the whole of the kingdom, shopkeepers from as far as York coming to London for annually purchased supplies

I am very fortunate that I even know that John went to the City at all.  In 1666, the Great Fire of London destroyed Grocers Hall and all of the Company property in the City. Only a brick summer house in the grounds survived, and in that were stored the records that I have read at the Guildhall Library – sometimes we actually get to touch history

John Ginn was due to finish his apprenticeship in 1652.  During that time, many major events occurred of course (this was the period of the Civil War and Commonwealth) and it seems likely that like the 13 year old Samuel Pepys, John took time out to witness the beheading of Charles 1^st in 1649.

                                Execution of Charles the 1st

I think that we have to assume that John duly finished his apprenticeship in 1652 but for some reason delayed taking his opportunities further.  This may be because his brother Tom could not give him a financial start (Tom was complaining to the Essex Quarter Sessions in that year because of his obligations to siblings) or it could be that the state of the nation at the time had left the market for luxuries depressed.  We will likely never know.  It is true that many men either left their apprenticed trade, or left the City or declined to pay the necessary monies required to be given the “freedom” of their Company allowing them to official trade within the City walls.  It is equally true that many men entered the trade but engaged in it outside of the City proper (by this time only one sixth of the full extent of London).  By 1686, the minutes of the Wardens of the Grocers Company that I have read were lamenting “for divers years and …and particularly since the great fire” they had lost power and the massive decline in the control they had in monitoring their trade, both within the City and in London generally. 

What I know is that John was back in Essex, or at least was thought to be back in Essex in 1655, as he is in Quarter Sessions note concerning his brothers that year.  He was then about 27 and was described as a Yeoman  of  Fyfield, but the description of him (jointly with his brothers) might be a description of his class rather than his occupation, and the parish reference might be to his origins rather than his home – I frankly have no idea.

What I do know, is that in 1657 “John Gyn” was granted Freedom of the Grocers Company and Citizenship of London.  The entry is in MS 11592A/2 at the Guildhall and notes that he was formerly apprenticed to Henry Hickman.

So, here is John, about 30 taking up his rights – the freedom to own property, to trade within London and vote (only Citizens could exercise these freedoms).

In that same year, 1657 John decided to marry.  My suspicion is that he may have been with his future bride for some time before he actually married.  His bride was born Grace Herold or likely Herault and was probably in my view of French or Dutch extraction.  She had married an Andrew Edwards of St Anne Blackfriars at St James Garlickhythe (which as the name suggests is near to Queenhithe docks) in early 1654 but Andrew had died just some three months after the marriage and they had no children. 

She stayed on in St Ann's and may well have been living in the house that she and John took over.

As I say, my suspicion is that John and Grace were a couple for a while before they actually married.  Under the laws under Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate directly after the end of the English Civil War, couples had to marry before a Justice of the Peace and we find that banns were read for the couple in Newgate Market and that they married both before Tobias Little J.P in March 1657, having previously married before God at St Peter le Poer in February of that same year.

It seems reasonable to assume that John either set himself up as a journeyman grocer or worked on his own account, but as yet I cannot confirm this either. He did not pay the Brotherhood money to the guild which would confirm his trade. What is known, is that by  he and Grace were living in Broad Place in the parish of St Ann, Blackfriars.  We know sadly little of London and its streets before the Great Fire of 1666, but this seems to have been very close to the actual church of St Ann.

It is obvious that John was constantly (like Saml. Pepys) moving backwards and forwards from London keeping in touch with his family.  It is, indeed,  only because of that fact that I have been able to identify him as the John Ginn from Blackfriars, as two sisters had connections with Hutton in Essex and in May 1660 he (and likely the pregnant Grace) were visiting his sister’s family in tiny Hutton.  He took ill suddenly and "John Gynne of Blackfriars in London" was buried on the 6^th of May.  He would have been about 32.

Grace returned to Blackfriars and continued to live in Broad Place and never remarried. 

The Great Plague arrived in London in May 1665 and spread rapidly in the warmer summer months reaching its peak in September and not reducing significantly until the winter.  It is estimated that 100,000 people died, a fifth to a quarter of London's population.

 

In St Ann's it is shown by the Bills of Mortality to have been responsible for some eighty per cent of the deaths for this period, whole families died.  Unfortunately both Grace and her daughter contracted it and died very quickly in early October, being buried within days of each other.  What remained of the children were now orphans.

In 1666 the Great Fire of London complete destroyed this area and the church, the church never having been rebuilt and the churchyard today a park, where unsuspecting office workers eat their lunchtime sandwiches and never know of the dramas that unfolded there in 1665/6.

John and Grace had four children:

Arthur -  brought up by his Aunt in Essex and married Elizabeth Turnage at Shenfield in Essex in 1680 - see later post

Mary - died in infancy

John - untraced 

Grace - died of the plague in 1665