Various documents that relate to him survive,
including a Bond to the Charity in respect of £10 he borrowed from it. His signature was noted with a seal with the
sign of a fish transfixed three times with arrows. For all of this information we are indebted to
the local historian and researcher, the late Reg Holmes, below.
I have found him in both 1664 and 1674 in the Lay
Subsidy (National Archives), he had a house with three hearths - a quite comfortable lodging
and probably the house in Steeple Row near the Cathedral held by his father in 1658.
I have visited Ely several times, mostly for leisure, but in August 2019 and September 2021 (pandemic or no) devoted days purely to Genn history research. Steeple Row was that part of the High Street that had shops partly to the north and partly to the south sides. The only part of what was there in the 1600s that survives is Steeple Gate (below) which had shops either side. This is discussed in more detail on the post on Richard senior.
Ely Trinity Church was (as explained in other posts) not a church at all, but part of Ely Cathedral, since the mid 1550s the parishioners had been using the magnificent Lady Chapel (below) as the parish church. I have visited it and lit a candle in memory of every Ginn/Genn who ever stood there.
,
The information suggests in my view that Richard had his shop adjacent to but behind Steeple Gate (below),
The Haberdasher of Hats had a significant role in the 17th century high street, it was a profitable trade. Most men's hats of the time were versions of what we would see as as a simple cowboy hat, either with a low crown and a wide rim, or a high crown and a narrow rim. The cheapest hats were felt made from wool, which would cost about 10 shillings. The finest quality would be made of beaver and cost about four pounds which was a lot of money at the time. They could be adorned with simple bands, but they might have feathers of at the best bands of silk, the gauzy silk known as "sypres" were the finest (a silk that came from the Middle East via the island of Cyprus) and such a hat would have a lining of taffeta. A good hat could last a man a long time and it marked his status, they could be repaired, reshaped to suit the fashion, relined and even redied for a few shillings.
I have visited Ely several times, mostly for leisure, but in August 2019 and September 2021 (pandemic or no) devoted days purely to Genn history research. Steeple Row was that part of the High Street that had shops partly to the north and partly to the south sides. The only part of what was there in the 1600s that survives is Steeple Gate (below) which had shops either side. This is discussed in more detail on the post on Richard senior.
Ely Trinity Church was (as explained in other posts) not a church at all, but part of Ely Cathedral, since the mid 1550s the parishioners had been using the magnificent Lady Chapel (below) as the parish church. I have visited it and lit a candle in memory of every Ginn/Genn who ever stood there.
t,
The Haberdasher of Hats had a significant role in the 17th century high street, it was a profitable trade. Most men's hats of the time were versions of what we would see as as a simple cowboy hat, either with a low crown and a wide rim, or a high crown and a narrow rim. The cheapest hats were felt made from wool, which would cost about 10 shillings. The finest quality would be made of beaver and cost about four pounds which was a lot of money at the time. They could be adorned with simple bands, but they might have feathers of at the best bands of silk, the gauzy silk known as "sypres" were the finest (a silk that came from the Middle East via the island of Cyprus) and such a hat would have a lining of taffeta. A good hat could last a man a long time and it marked his status, they could be repaired, reshaped to suit the fashion, relined and even redied for a few shillings.
He was a retailer rather than a Hatter of course. He would (like his son Benjamin of whom we know a lot) source his hats in London and pushed them locally as the latest fashion.
Richard married three times. His first marriage to Joan Marshall was, until 2019 (ie for fifty years of research by various researchers) thought to have produced just a daughter who died as an infant, Joan dying in 1671.
This all changed in 2019 and research is active. Richard was only 18 when he married in 1645, it maybe that he married so young because this was during the English Civil War and times were uncertain. At the moment I cannot deduce whom Joan (possibly Jane) was, although am working on it. But if we assume that Joan was 22 in 1645, then she had a potential for 20 years of childbearing - possibly seven children - I mention it because as yet we know of four (see below). The English Civil War period and Commonwealth beyond clearly severely disrupted the keeping of the parish registers at Ely Trinity. Joan died in 1671 and now a widower with children, Richard did not delay.
He married Margaret Rippington that year, but she died in 1680, just a few years after the birth of their second child and probably in childbirth.
I have discovered* that Margaret Rippington was the widow of a Thomas Rippington gent. who died at Wentworth on the Isle of Ely in 1668 (will - National Archives). Thomas and Margaret had had three surviving children, Thomas jnr, John and Rosamund and Margaret was pregnant with another at Thomas Rippington senr's decease. Thomas Rippington appears to have been in business with one John Bird, Merchant Taylor of Cambridge (Thomas made him executor) who issued his own trade tokens just after the Commonwealth period (see http://www.cafg.net/docs/Mr_Ratfords_coins.pdfs) and it thus a possibility that Thomas himself was involved in or had some business connection to the clothing trade and may himself have thus known Richard Ginn. Margaret married Richard and brought the children with her to Ely and their story continues there. At the moment I can find nothing further on Margaret's ancestry.
Richard remarried again (Sarah Marshall) in 1681 but had no further issue.
It is evident that Richard did very well for about thirty years, from the restoration of Charles II in 1660 to 1691 when his eldest son died. The Restoration took away puritanism and austerity and introduced a period of a boom in spending on the very thing Richard made money from, personal attire. Felt hats were out, beaver, ribbons and feathers were in.
Richard married three times. His first marriage to Joan Marshall was, until 2019 (ie for fifty years of research by various researchers) thought to have produced just a daughter who died as an infant, Joan dying in 1671.
This all changed in 2019 and research is active. Richard was only 18 when he married in 1645, it maybe that he married so young because this was during the English Civil War and times were uncertain. At the moment I cannot deduce whom Joan (possibly Jane) was, although am working on it. But if we assume that Joan was 22 in 1645, then she had a potential for 20 years of childbearing - possibly seven children - I mention it because as yet we know of four (see below). The English Civil War period and Commonwealth beyond clearly severely disrupted the keeping of the parish registers at Ely Trinity. Joan died in 1671 and now a widower with children, Richard did not delay.
He married Margaret Rippington that year, but she died in 1680, just a few years after the birth of their second child and probably in childbirth.
I have discovered* that Margaret Rippington was the widow of a Thomas Rippington gent. who died at Wentworth on the Isle of Ely in 1668 (will - National Archives). Thomas and Margaret had had three surviving children, Thomas jnr, John and Rosamund and Margaret was pregnant with another at Thomas Rippington senr's decease. Thomas Rippington appears to have been in business with one John Bird, Merchant Taylor of Cambridge (Thomas made him executor) who issued his own trade tokens just after the Commonwealth period (see http://www.cafg.net/docs/Mr_Ratfords_coins.pdfs) and it thus a possibility that Thomas himself was involved in or had some business connection to the clothing trade and may himself have thus known Richard Ginn. Margaret married Richard and brought the children with her to Ely and their story continues there. At the moment I can find nothing further on Margaret's ancestry.
Richard remarried again (Sarah Marshall) in 1681 but had no further issue.
It is evident that Richard did very well for about thirty years, from the restoration of Charles II in 1660 to 1691 when his eldest son died. The Restoration took away puritanism and austerity and introduced a period of a boom in spending on the very thing Richard made money from, personal attire. Felt hats were out, beaver, ribbons and feathers were in.
Signature of Richard
At the same time Richard clearly had plans to expand the business. Ely was not the best place for the wealthier consumer. Celia Fiennes visited it in 1698 and was not at all impressed. The Isle of Ely was entered by a number of "causseys" as Celia called them (causeways) because the whole area of the fens was full of water and effectively you had to cross bridges into it and advance over the few roads that were dry ground but lined by willows. Celia was not impressed by Ely at all "the dirtiest place I ever saw", finding no decent roads, the city being "a perfect quagmire" none of the roads being pitched they being "a harbour to breed and nest vermine of which there are plenty enough, so that tho my chamber (inn bedroom)was near 20 stepps up I had frogges and slow worms and snailes in my room, though suppose it was brought up with the faggotts (firewood)" Celia did not end there, oh no, she thought Ely very unhealthy though the natives said not, thinking those from dry counties would be "destroyed like rotten sheep in consumptions and rhums" Good job that she did not get a chance to go on Tripadvisor.
Richard was obviously aware of this and by the 1670s we know that he was trying to expand his business through his elder sons into Wisbech, Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds, all of which I have visited and thought nice market towns. Bury certainly got Celia's approval "a thriving industrious town".
Unfortunately, it is clear that his eldest son Benjamin's premature death in early 1691 and the subsequent court cases involving Ben and Nathaniel effectively ruined the prosperity of the whole family, Richard having invested heavily in his two eldest sons long before his demise.
Richard Ginn died in 1697, he was 70. There was no will and little or nothing left for his youngest son Richard jnr who remained in Ely. Sarah soon
followed in 1702.
Richard and his three wives had four children (all sons) who survived infancy but as I say there were likely more unknown to us and two others dying in infancy:
Mary - two daughters of the name died in infancy, one born of Joan, one of Margaret
Benjamin - son of Richard and Joan - see post of 15th November 2019
Nathaniel - son of Richard and Joan -see post of 15th November 2019
John - discovering this guy in 2019 (as also his two older brothers) was a shock. In 1672 (www.londonroll.org and Percival Boyd "Roll of the Drapers Company of London" 1934 - I purchased a copy on ebay) "John Genn son of Richard Genn of Ely, Haberdasher of Hats" was apprenticed to a Nathaniel Smith, Draper of London. He would have been about 16 and thus the son of Richard and Joan. Nathaniel took another apprentice (David Wallis from Watlington in Oxfordshire who was 15) in 1673 - let us hope the lads got on.
Nathaniel Smith the Draper obviously sold cloth - mostly woollens and silks I would suspect. He lived in St Martins in the Fields (which was in the early days "in the fields" between the City of London and Westminster) pretty much where Trafalgar Square is now.
Nathaniel was a young man himself (likely about 25 in 1673 - he was apprenticed in 1663 and was son of a Barber and lately married with wife Elizabeth) and only took the two apprentices.
Nathaniel sadly died in September 1676 (will annexed) and the two apprentices who had signed on for 7 years should have been transferred to another master - but they were not.
It seems clear that it is this John (having returned to Ely) who married Elizabeth Green at Ely in 1676. They had a daughter Elizabeth at Ely Trinity and then vanish. I am trying to track them down.
Richard - son of Richard and Margaret - see post of 3rd February 2013
* For this information I am indebted to David Rippington who runs the Rippington One Name Study
Benjamin - son of Richard and Joan - see post of 15th November 2019
Nathaniel - son of Richard and Joan -see post of 15th November 2019
John - discovering this guy in 2019 (as also his two older brothers) was a shock. In 1672 (www.londonroll.org and Percival Boyd "Roll of the Drapers Company of London" 1934 - I purchased a copy on ebay) "John Genn son of Richard Genn of Ely, Haberdasher of Hats" was apprenticed to a Nathaniel Smith, Draper of London. He would have been about 16 and thus the son of Richard and Joan. Nathaniel took another apprentice (David Wallis from Watlington in Oxfordshire who was 15) in 1673 - let us hope the lads got on.
Nathaniel Smith the Draper obviously sold cloth - mostly woollens and silks I would suspect. He lived in St Martins in the Fields (which was in the early days "in the fields" between the City of London and Westminster) pretty much where Trafalgar Square is now.
Nathaniel was a young man himself (likely about 25 in 1673 - he was apprenticed in 1663 and was son of a Barber and lately married with wife Elizabeth) and only took the two apprentices.
Nathaniel sadly died in September 1676 (will annexed) and the two apprentices who had signed on for 7 years should have been transferred to another master - but they were not.
It seems clear that it is this John (having returned to Ely) who married Elizabeth Green at Ely in 1676. They had a daughter Elizabeth at Ely Trinity and then vanish. I am trying to track them down.
Richard - son of Richard and Margaret - see post of 3rd February 2013
* For this information I am indebted to David Rippington who runs the Rippington One Name Study
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