John Ginn of Great Hormead d. unknown

John Ginn here, son of Edward in the last post, has given me a headache since I started researching him over twenty years ago and he, his wife and two of his children have still not been ultimately traced which is very irritating !

John was 34 when, in 1673, he married Ann Collup at Watton.  Ann was also 34, being the daughter of William and Elizabeth Collup, and born in Datchworth in 1639.

So Ann was no youngster when she got married, and this cut down on the number of children.  Only three children were baptised at Gt. Hormead, and it seems clear that this is all there were.

At some point after 1682 John Ginn and Ann left Gt. Hormead.  In 1990, this was all I knew about this family. Six years later I traced their son John and no particular progress in the research has been made since, despite repeated efforts.
 

It seems pretty clear that John Snr was not just a smallholder (it is known that he held a little land in Great Hormead).  He was probably a Higgler (see below) an occupation which would have required him to travel around.  This would explain how he met a girl from Watton.  It seems likely that when he left the Hormeads he went south, probably to London, but certainly to the outer London area but, as I say, I have never yet found where they died. 

John and Ann had three children:

John Ginn Jnr. - tracing the movements of this man and his family was a genealogical exercise all in itself.

John Ginn Jnr was born in 1674.  He was a Higgler, a licensed itinerant dealer or pedlar.  Higglers generally (but not exclusively) dealt in foodstuffs.  They sold door to door, or at markets, fairs and the like.  They did not only sell for cash, but often bartered ie haggled, hence the name, so they actually dealt in a large range of goods.  They were “packmen", roaming all over the place selling their wares and given the distance he is known to have covered it is likely John travelled with a wagon.

In 1716 John Ginn was at Loughton in Essex.  On the 1st October of that year John Ginn applied for a London Marriage Licence (below - with his mark) and there "appeared John Ginn of Lowton Essex aged 42 years and a Bachelor and Avis Bruce of the same widow”.  They married at All Hallows, London Wall. 

Avis Bruce was born Avis Dorrington.  She was apparently the daughter of a family of farmers at Hatfield Broad Oak in Essex .  In 1700 she had married a man called Robert Bruce at Loughton, and they had two daughters: Avis (1700) and Sarah (1703). By 1716, probably about 40 or so, she was a widow.

John Ginn just appeared in Loughton.  He was clearly the first Ginn there.  As you would imagine, John was highly mobile and it is clear that he went into London to trade a great deal.  He doubtless made his money selling at the many London markets, fairs and public hangings etc.

John must have had a fairly lively life, and as a "window" on his world I have included the contemporary Hogarth engraving in this section.  It is easy to forget that the sun rose and set in his day, just as in our own.

As Avis was past childbearing, John's branch of the Ginns stopped here.  He seems to have been a nice chap, he certainly took his responsibility to his step-children very seriously.

He was also a hard worker.  He still owned the land at Gt. Hormead, which must have been tenanted.  Before his death he also bought three acres of land (freehold) at Theydon Bois and a couple of acres of copyhold at Loughton.  So they lived in passable comfort.

His step-daughter Avis Bruce married a William Nutt (Nutton) at West Ham in 1721.  They were at Bow in 1732; Nutton was a Blacksmith.  His other stepdaughter, Sarah,  married a John Gates in London while John was on his deathbed, which annoyed me somewhat given that John went to some lengths to take care of his stepchildren. The latter couple lived in Loughton.

John Ginn died in November 1732; he was 58.  He made a will (National Archives ) in which he mentioned his two sisters.  Avis went to live with her daughter Avis in Bow, so became an adopted "cockney".  In 1758 she made a will (also at Bow, by this time Avis Jnr was the wife of a William England).  The will (National Archives) mentions the Bruces and Dorringtons over some four pages.  She was actually buried at Loughton alongside John.

Elizabeth - in November 1732 (from her brother's will) she was the wife of someone with the surname Luck.  She was then 56. Her brother bequeathed some "heriditaments" ie property to her in Great Hormead.  As a lawyer, I am aware that the executors had to do their best to trace her and it is clear that my 18th century colleagues did their best over some forty years or more as there is an entry in the London Gazette.  The suggestion therefore is that she was not that close, emotionally or geographically to John and could not be found.  Unfortunately I have had no success either.  Even assuming that Mr Luck was her second or third husband I cannot find her. 

Sarah  - She was the wife of someone with the surname Harwood in 1732; then aged 50.  She clearly had sons named John and James.  I have found nothing in the marriage indexes.  We may trace her.  Also came into the hereditaments (above).