Philip Ginn of Bishops Stortford d. 1684

Philip Ginn was another son of Aquila Ginn of Great Hormead, mentioned in my post of 14th August.  He was a Tailor.  In 1663 he married a lady called Elizabeth at Great Hormead church: unfortunately her surname was missed from the register.

We can plot the movements of this man very precisely. In late 1663, possibly early 1664, he moved to Bishops Stortford.  He and Elizabeth took up residence very close to Philip's brother Richard, in North Street.  This property had just one-hearth in the 1664-6 Hearth Tax, but I have reason to doubt that it was the same property as Philip later owned, or possibly he had it enlarged.

In 1664, Philip and Elizabeth had their first child, a daughter.  At this point things were going quite well for them.

In the summer of 1666, to be precise from June to December, the Great Plague swept through Bishop's Stortford.  It killed 231 people, some one-fifth of the population.  Philip and Elizabeth did not wait around.  Elizabeth was pregnant, and Philip rushed her and his daughter to Great Hormead, to the relative safety of his parents' isolated house at Little Hormead.  It was a wise move.

 Philip Jnr was therefore born in Great Hormead, away from the contagion.  When the danger was over the couple returned to Stortford.  They were not to be so lucky the next time.

At some point, Philip started to use a property in North Street as a Tavern.  As I said, t is very doubtful that it was the same one-hearthed property mentioned in the Hearth Tax (unless he extended it) because there are later indications (chiefly in the Land Tax) that it was the size of "The Half Moon", i.e. a substantial place.

I have assumed that Philip's opening up the Tavern had something to do with the death of his brother Richard in 1670. Perhaps Philip acquired the brewing equipment, or just saw a business opportunity.  It is possible that Aquila (in Great Hormead) wanted an  outlet for his brewing barley and supplied the grain, Philip clearly brewing his own beer.

So, Philip opened up what he decided to call "The Pewter Pot", known as "The sign of the Pewter Pott" in contemporary descriptions, the Inn sign being painted with a pewter tankard.  The tankerds of these alehouses were themselves often inscribed with the name of the Inn, to avoid theft.

 

A contemporary tankard from a London Inn

  It is mentioned very briefly in Joe Smith's "Bishop's Stortford Hostelries”.  The writer says that nothing is known of it but, n fact, a whole series of deeds (from 1733 ) have been given by the brewery to the HRO.

"The Pewter Pot" was also in North Street.  The deeds refer to it as bounding North Street "towards the East", so it was on the west side; as was "The Half Moon”.

Bishop's Stortford was a major Herts market and malting town.  Before 1800, it sent more malt to London than any other town in England. It was also on a major route north and many well known people, including Sam Pepys used to travel through there and stay overnight. It had so many inns, taverns and alehouses that it became a joke and poems have even been written about it.  However, the locals sank a few pints themselves, for on a rainy night in the early 1700s  you could have walked down the west side of North Street, going from pub to pub and not even got your feet wet. You would have started with the 15th century "George" (still there) and staggered to the "Chequers".  You might have made it to "The White Horse" (now a restaurant), but been on your knees by the time you got to the "The Pewter Pot".  By the time you got to "The Half Moon" you would have forgotten your name.  And that was just one side of the road!

As I have said, the implication of later records is that the pub was quite large.  In 1768 one of Philip's descendants split it into two parts: one part (towards the south) being the pub, which he sold, the other (to the north) being a property which he continued to live in.  There was a large (beer) cellar under both; that gave the lawyers some worries.

I have made extensive efforts to prove exactly where the pub was, without success.  It does not seem to have been bounded by one of the other pubs (whose surviving deeds are the main points of reference) but North Street is not very long, it had less than 30 properties in the old days, and my feeling is that "The Pewter Pot" was near the "White Horse” which still stands pretty much as it was built.

Philip and Elizabeth had just the four children.  I have assumed that Elizabeth was in her early thirties when they married.

As I have said: Stortford was unhealthy.  Epidemics were common.  They had a particularly savage smallpox epidemic in 1684 which still lives in Stortford folklore as some families were wiped out  Unfortunately (having escaped the Great Plague) Philip and his daughter were caught in this epidemic and Phlip Ginn died of smallpox aged 47, his burial entry is marked with the smallpox "x". I have assumed that running an alehouse in the 17th century was a good way of meeting somebody carrying disease.

Philip's death left the family in turmoil.  His eldest son (Philip Jnr) was 18, and it seems clear that he and his widowed mother ran the pub from then on.

There is no record of what happened to Elizabeth, neither her death entry or a note of a remarriage.  I would be very surprised if she had married again, and assume that the death entry is simply missed. The details of what followed will be dealt with in the next post.

Philip and Elizabeth had four children:

Philip - see next post

Elizabeth - she died of smallpox in 1684; she was 20.

Aquila - see later post

James - see later post