Thomas Ginn of Fyfield d. 1679

The heir of Arthur Ginn in my post of 29th July 2012, I knew very little on this man until 2006.  I then found  a 1691 court case referred to in the post of 29th July regarding his brother Arthur and the case of 1702 (Ginn v Stracey ref C5/241/32 and C9/460/32 at National Archives) both involving his grandson, also called Thomas.  Further information turned up in 2007.

Thomas Ginn married his wife Mary during the Civil War in about 1643.  This may explain the absence of a marriage record.  Until 2022 I had no clue who she was.

In 2007, having found out about the considerable lands the Ginn family of Fyfield acquired in several parishes around Chelmsford in this period, I assumed that Mary brought it all to the marriage, possibly as a dowry, possibly as the inheritance of a widow.  It seemed logical.  And is still is logical that it all had something to do with her and some land elsewhere came with her on the marriage., but in the summer of 2022 I found that it was far more complicated than that - I extracted a court case at the National Archives.  This court case led to other supported papers, then wills, then research online and  it was like a window opening on what was going in this family and related families for over a century.

Tom Ginn it appears was very close to a certain Thomas Harvey jnr (1606-1657) a yeoman farmer of Moulsham in Chelmsford.  That they were related seems certain, and the relationship was clearly through Tom Ginn's marriage.  Mary Ginn seems to have been a Herridge or a Harvey.

The story can not be found online, it involved the Harvey family and the Herridge family of Moulsham ( and one or two others)  and researchers of all these families will find this useful.

In 1591, an Edward Hedich (the name became Herridge) married a Christian Mead at Chelmsford.  The couple had a good number of children, several daughters and sons Edward jnr, Thomas and William.  All of them here are characters in this story.

Edward Herridge snr died in 1600.  In 1604, the year before the Gunpowder Plot,  Christian Herridge widow of Moulsham, married Thomas Harvey snr of Moulsham, a prosperous farmer.  They only had one child, Thomas jnr above.

Now Thomas Harvey snr died in 1640 (will PCC), Christian was alive then, and Tom mentions his cousin Henry Harvey of Good Easter and a John Harvey of Moulsham, likely his nephew.  If Tom Harvey jnr died without issue then these two were to get Tom Harvey's snr's land.  All of this is of great importance to the post of Tom Ginn junior, mentioned below and in a later post.

Now Tom Harvey junior was very close to Tom Ginn here as I say.  What happened inheritance wise in 1657 will be discussed in the later post, but when Tom Harvey died he left (will PCC) a "gould signet ring" to Tom Ginn snr (one of only two left in the will) a sign of great affection, being a memento mori signet ring, with Harvey' s initials and "remember you must die" in Latin (ie a reminder to live a good life in every sense)

Memento  mori signet ring of the 1600s

He also left land to Tom Ginn junior, then only 11.  It is a complicated and fascinating story which will be told later as I say.

Thomas Ginn was a substantial Yeoman/Gentleman who both inherited and got himself into, severe debt.  His father had left his lands tied up, to the extent that Thomas was required to pay marriage portions to his siblings and raise the money to pay the same from his lands, principally Gibbs.  Indeed, a 1652 entry on the Essex Record Office website concerns Thomas, and it states that he wanted his Poor Law rates reduced because he was in financial trouble in order to pay portions - his land, other than in Fyfield had been mortgaged to pay them, and he did not want to be rated on those lands. It clearly went beyond this however, and Arthur tells us in 1691 that his brother was in such debt that for a good few years before his death he went to live with his only son Thomas jnr. 

Whilst Thomas is thus portrayed in court cases as something of a sad figure, I think that in reality this guy was quite a character.

We first find him documented during the English Civil War in 1643, where he signed his full name to the Vow & Covenant of that year, swearing himself to support Parliament and its forces against the “horrid and treacherous plot” of the King and his men.  This is enrolled in the parish registers and is the only known example of Tom's signature (see above at top of signatures bottom right hand side).

During the 1640s Thomas was obviously a figure in Fyfield life and in 1647 it is known that he was one of the two contables of the parish and rendered accounts for this in 1648 (E.R.O., D/P 144/8/1). His character soon deteriorated however, probably in line with the gathering debt, because in 1655 during the Commonwealth when the aristocracy was not exactly in favour, he and brothers John and Arthur together with his brother-in-law had a warrant issued against them in Quarter Sessions for killing deer belonging to Lord Petre at Crondon Park at Writtle. Petre came from a famous family of Papists (he ended up dying in prison as the result of an alleged catholic plot*) and his estates were fair game (pun intended) during the Civil War and Commonwealth period. John was arrested but escaped.  Indeed, in 1657 a warrant was issued (ref Q/SR 372/3) to the Constables of Fyfield to arrest Edward Collins and Thomas Ginn for killing deer in Writt1e Park should they not pay a fine levied against them. They were to be taken to Colchester Castle no less. The constables concerned, Ignatius Allam and George Foster, declined to execute the warrant and were indicted in their turn.  

Further references to Tom in the Quarter Sessions for 1642 and 1650, suggest that typical of his day, he was not afraid of offering fisticuffs to anyone who upset him.  

Now in 1657 Thomas Harvey jnr died - he was childless.  He left many bequests to the Herridges and related families, but his chief beneficiaries were John Harvey of Moulsham his cousin and Thomas Ginn junior then 11.  So in 1667, when Tom Ginn jnr was 21, the family fortunes would be substantially improved.

Mary Ginn died in the Great Plague in 1666 and I believe that it was at this point that Tom went to live with his son who was now of some substance in his own right.

We are also told in the 1691 court case that Thomas Ginn transferred all of his lands, which were stated to be considerable, being in Fyfield, Hanningfield, Margaretting and Moulsham to his son Tom jnr for valuable consideration (lawyer’s words for full monetary value) during Thomas snr’s life.  This was a good way (now as then) to try and avoid creditors, and Arthur may well be lying for the sake of his late brother here.  If no money had been paid and the lands changed hands by way of gift, then the creditors could have “followed the assets” so to speak and sought repayment from Thomas Jnr.  The same principle applies in law today. 

It is tempting to think however that Arthur himself had little actual knowledge of his brother's and nephew's affairs (both being dead and Arthur never having lived in Fyfield) in 1691 and may not have realised that the lands in Moulsham (and probably those in Hanningfield and Margaretting) had been acquired by Thomas Ginn jnr either by inheritance from Tom Harvey or by himself, in other words they had not been owned by Tom Ginn snr and could not therefore be the subject of court actions by his creditors.

This does explain why I have never found a will for Thomas here though, he did not leave one.  In fact, both court cases state that Thomas jnr never even took letters of administration of his estate, obviously because he had gone to some lengths not to have an estate to bother with.

So having with with his son’s family for some years, Thomas died in 1679, he was about 63

Tom and Mary only had one child:

Thomas jnr - see later post

*Petre was arrested as being part of what turned out to be the fictional "Popish Plot" Some catholics were wrongly executed, others imprisoned.