Arthur Ginn of St Lukes, London d. 1740

When I first researched papers in the Public Records Office (as it then was) in 1990 or so in dusty Chancery Lane I first came across the will of an Arthur Ginn, who instinct told me connected to the Hertfordshire family but I had no idea how.  Many years passed, then in 2009 or so I had enough circumstantial evidence to connect the man to Navestock and Shenfield, but persistence finally paid off in 2011 when definitive evidence as to the link finally turned up by way of the Essex Beneficiaries Index.

Arthur Ginn was born in 1682.  The evidence suggests that his father was not prosperous, but Elizabeth Turnage seems clearly to have come from a respectable family of yeomen and it is likely that Arthur’s grandmother’s family may have been able to help him financially. It is also possible that his future wife brought a little money to the marriage and, obviously, Arthur may well have been an enterprising man and made money himself.

He was the only surviving son from this family, certainly by the 1720s, and Arthur jnr decided to seek his fortune in London.

By 1712 Arthur was living in St Andrews Undershaft (near modern Liverpool Street Station) when that year he, (with a quoted age of 30) applied for a marriage licence to marry Dorothy Bednall aged 25 (St Pauls-Guildhall Library) at St Pancras Church – they duly married shortly afterwards.

Arthur and Dorothy lived in the London Wall area for the whole of their married life, roughly the environs of the current Barbican and not far from the offices of the Society of Genealogists.  This was Hogarth’s London.  So far as I know they were childless – certainly no child survived them.

London had experienced the Great Plague and subsequently the Great Fire of London in the 1660s and a huge rebuilding effort had followed.  The City was expanding and the area in which Arthur and Dorothy were living was expanding along with it.

By the 1720s the couple were living in St Giles, Cripplegate, near Old Street.

In 1720 a map (below) clearly shows the west side of Old Street was mainly fields.  By the 1740s there had been rapid expansion and by the 1780s the whole area was completely urbanized.

By 1729, it is known that Arthur was one of the churchwardens of that famous old church, St Giles without  (below) as he is mentioned in Berneaux’s Index (Society of Genealogists) concerning a court action of that year (Bundle 1258 suit 14 year 1729).   He must have been a fairly solid local citizen to have been made churchwarden of what was a significant church.

Between 1720 and 1740 the area west of Old Street became built up and a road called Noble Street was constructed.  Arthur bought a home there, near the corner with Brick Lane and such richly named alehouses as the “Dog’s Head and Pottage Pot” and the “Bag & Bottle” which were likely his locals and may even have been run by him (see below).

 In 1733, St Luke’s Old Street Church was built to try and relieve some of the population pressure on St Giles brought about by the people now pouring into London and the building in the area.  You can see from the 1740s map (below) how close that church was to Arthur.

We know from Arthur’s Aunt Ann (Sach) that Arthur Ginn was a Victualler, at least in the 1730s, so he obviously had some tavern in the area, and without yet having consulted the local ratebooks I am speculating as to which (see below)

In 1735 (Londonlives.org) Arthur was a juror in an assault and grievous bodily harm case at the Old Bailey.  He little thought that in a few years he would be going back as a victim.

 In 1738 (Old Bailey records) he was the recipient of a threatening letter,  I will let Arthur tell us the story:-

On 17^th March between 4 and 5 in the evening the Postman brought me a letter from the General Post office with the town mark upon it, demanding £10 to be laid at a certain place by 6pm that same evening

Arthur then produced the letter which was read out

To Mr Ginn in Noble Street nr Brick Lane – we are 10 in a gang and desire you’ll lay £10 in  a corner of the Old House in Brick Lane …..else we will set fire to your house and burn you alive in your beds.  The money you shall have again in a month

BR

Arthur and a couple of acquaintances went at 6pm to the Old House (whose location I cannot find) and found a certain James Taylor leaning against the house and “kicking brickbats” ie loitering,  and assumed that James was the criminal.

James was strongarmed to the Cock Inn in Old Street (shown on the east side of Old Street in the 1720 and 1740s maps - by 1780 it was a brewery) which was only a short walk from where Arthur lived, to be questioned. Given what his Aunt Ann tells us it is perfectly possible that Arthur was the landlord of the Cock Inn at this time.  James Taylor denied having any involvement in the plot and he had many solid citizens to speak well of him both before and during the trial and was discharged.  Presumably Arthur never got to the bottom of the mystery, but it must have worried him and Dorothy more than a little.

  St Giles w/o Cripplegate record of 1729 with Arthur’s signature

It was in 1738 that Arthur made his will.  He tells us that he was a yeoman and had aquired several properties, gardens and a summerhouse as investments, mostly near Goswell Street.  These were left  to  his wife for life and then to his six sisters who were, or he assumed to be living , with a guinea for each of them in the meantime. 

Arthur died at St Lukes in 1740 (will National Archives) – he was 58.  Dorothy Ginn widow of  St Lukes remarried Thomas Baynes widower of St Clement Danes by licence at Clerkenwell in 1742 (Guildhall Library)

Arthur Ginn of Navestock d. 1734

Arthur Ginn here was clearly the son of John Ginn, Citizen of London (see my post of 13th September) and brought up by his aunt and uncle George and Hannah Brockwell (nee Ginn) after his parents died.  All I know is that Arthur Ginn was a labourer/husbandman, likely pauper by 1700.  I think that it is safe to assume that  his father did not live long enough to build any sort of business and when he died young left little of worth for his children to inherit and his wider family provided what support they could.

Arthur married Elizabeth Turnage at Shenfield in 1680.  Unfortunately her parish was not given.
 

The couple were at Shenfield until 1684 when they moved to Navestock. Arthur Ginn “of Navestock” is mentioned a couple of times in Essex Quarter Sessions records concerning a couple of incidents in which he was allegedly threatened.

The survival rate of the children through infancy was incredibly high however, suggesting that they were brought up carefully and in good domestic conditions.

It is also apparent that Elizabeth came from a good, likely yeoman class family given what I know of her sister. Unfortunately I do not know where she was born and the Turnage History Society have not been able to help.

That (like her sister) Elizabeth was quite religious seems clear, because I know that she had some involvement in the life of the extravagantly named Hippolito du Luzancy du Chastelet.  This chap was a Frenchman, a Catholic, who converted  to the Church of England in the 1670s and became first Vicar of Harwich and later Vicar of South Weald in Essex, the latter adjacent to Navestock.  Du Luzancy was a charismatic figure who wrote on the links between Anglicanism and the Catholic Church, rather than emphasing Protestantism.  He was very nearly killed for his beliefs by a Jesuit who threatened him in London at the outset of his ministry. Elizabeth Ginn clearly came under the guy’s spell and likely attended South Weald Church. because she was left money in Du Luzancy’s will when he died in 1713 (ERO).

The sad thing is that the parish clerk of Navestock between the years 1710-25 was either absent or completely negligent – in short, there are no baptism/marriage/burial records for virtually the whole of those years.  This has serious consequences for research concerning the children, and also means that I have no idea when Elizabeth died, although she clearly died between 1712 and 1726.   Arthur Ginn died in early 1734, I believe that he was 75 or so.

 

Ann Sach of Billericay

This lady gets a mention here because without her much of this post would have remained speculation and the daughters untraced.

She was born Ann Turnage and was Elizabeth Ginn’s sister. At some point she married into the large Essex Sach family but I do not even know whom she married.  She ran some sort of business in Billericay. The Turnage Family History Society (the name is apparently unique to Essex) have not been able to assist in the origins of the family but as I have said they were likely yeoman farmers.

Ann had no children who survived her and left money to Great Burstead Church, the poor of Billericay and numerous (and I mean numerous) nephews and nieces in her will.

She died in 1736 and is buried in Great Burstead Churchyard in a grave once marked with a wooden marker and a stone arch above (which is not mentioned on the list of surviving memorial inscriptions) and asked that a service on the basis of Isaiah 58 v 7, on the way to seek righteousness, be given at her funeral, which in her memory I reproduce below

“Is it not do deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house, when thou seest the naked that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh”

Arthur and Elizabeth had a huge number of children:

Arthur - see next post

Elizabeth - I found a marriage licence (ERO) for this couple years ago, thinking is impossible that Liz connected to the Study but she does. She married John Outing of Purleigh at Stow Maries in 1714 who I believe was a Yeoman.  They were at Danbury from the date of their marriage until 1721.

Known issue

Elizabeth

John

Mary

Both John and Elizabeth Outing snr were alive in 1732.  Liz snr was still alive in 1738 aged 55.    
 

Sarah - married Richard Munshall, yeoman of Billericay in Great Burstead at the latter church in 1712.  They had a large family and Richard left a will. Sarah was alive in 1738 then 54.  Research is continuing. 

Mary - married Robert Turner.  Both alive in 1732.  She was still alive in 1738, then 50.

Hannah - married John Hubbard of Navestock.  No register until 1725/6 but known issue

John married

Arthur (alive 1738)

Henry d 1726

Elizabeth  1727

Margaret 1728

Both John and Hannah Hubbard were alive in 1732 and Hannah was alive in 1738, then 47.

Grace  - a Ginn in 1732.  I am sure she married Alexander Baines at Cranham in 1733, likely a Scotsman or of Scottish descent. Alive in 1738 aged 38.  Not traced at present. 

Martha - was a Ginn in 1732.  Alive in 1738 - then 35. Untraced.

Thomas, Henry, Susan and Ann - both the will of their brother Arthur and their Aunt Ann make it clear they were dead by 1732 and, presumably, died without issue.  I think all lived to their teens.

John and George -  died in infancy

Edward Ginn of Layston d. 1778

Edward, son of Nicholas in my last post, presumably moved to Buntingford when his father died.  He clearly took up residence with his mother’s family, the Kings (because he took up shoemaking, the principal trade amongst that family).  This was to start a century of Ginn shoemaking.

Edward married Mary Matthews at Layston in 1719.  Mary was born in Buntingford in 1688, her father was Richard Matthews, the landlord and probable owner of the "Bell Inn" at Buntingford (see parish registers - Layston) which still stands and is shown below, though now a gallery.  The Inn goes back to the 1500s, is supposed to be haunted and, yes you guessed it, Good Queen Bess slept here on one of her many trips north.

So, Mary was 43 in 1731, when the last child was born.  Logically, there were others born in the period 1723-8, perhaps one or two, but I can find no trace.  An unidentified Elizabeth (the clerk did not distinguish infants) was buried in 1730, but this could be Edward's sister.

The only known surviving personal record relating to Edward is the Marriage Licence of his son of 1750 which Edward signed and will be shown in a later post.

Mary is probably the Mary dying in 1759 (if so, she was 71).  Edward Ginn died in 1778, at the great age of 89.  

Edward and Mary had four known children:

 
William -  married Sarah Chirk at Layston in  1750 - see later post 

Richard - untraced for certain. BUT given that a lot of missing Ginns have been traced to London, I have considered the possibility that the Richard Ginn who died in St Botolphs, Bishopsgate London in 1766 with a quoted age of 45 is this chap,  no London born candidate having ever been found and the age exact.  It may be that that same man married Bithia or Bethia Philips at St Leonard’s Shoreditch (no children known) in 1748.  It is not known (unfortunately) whether the London Richard was a shoemaker.

 Mary - the second of that name, she married William Page (Basketmaker)  at Layston in 1759

Nicholas Ginn of Great Hormead d. 1704

Second son of Edward Ginn in the next to last post, Nicholas Ginn does not have any Ginn descendants alive today, his line dying out towards the end of the 19^th century as we shall see.

Apart from what is mentioned in the parish registers, the man is a total mystery.  It is pretty clear that he was a Labourer or Husbandman; possibly given a pound or two by his father.

Like his brother, Nicholas was not a young man when he married.  He was 39.  His bride was Eleanor King, of a Buntingford family.  Her father was William King, a Husbandman, but the King family were generally Shoemakers.

It may be that Eleanor (sometimes Ellen) went to her mother's house to have the first child, because Hannah was baptised at Layston, not Great Hormead church.  However, subsequently all the children were baptised at Great Hormead.

Ellen Ginn Snr died in 1694, almost certainly in childbirth.  She was 39.  Nicholas was getting on a bit, he was 53.  He was left with a number of young children, but did not remarry.

It is very clear that Nicholas received assistance from the King family, certainly with the bringing up of the children.  He died in 1704 and is buried at Great Hormead, but his children seem to have gone to Layston before then.  He was 63 when he died.

Nicholas and Ellen had a number of children:

Hannah - she had an illegitimate child (Robert) at Layston in 1703.  The father was Robert Sutton.  Both she and the child are thereafter untraced.

Ellen - sometimes known as Helen.  She married John Cooledge, a Husbandman of Aspenden and Layston.  The whole and extensive Cooledge family of Hertfordshire are known to be descended from this couple.

Sarah - she married Richard Turkinton.  She was then 34.  Her husband's surname was sometimes written as Turkintine.  Nothing more is known

William - untraced.

Edward - was apprenticed to his uncles, the Kings of Layston.  He became a Shoemaker.  See next post

Elizabeth - she is untraced for certain.  However, it is very likely that she is the Elizabeth Ginn dying in Layston in 1730, then 39.  This is particularly possible given the epidemics of smallpox and like diseases at this time.