John Ginn of Thundridge d. 1743

John, brother of Thomas in my last post  married Susanna (sometimes Susan) Walford at Standon in 1710.  He inherited his mother's cottage (which was freehold and thus gave him the vote) and held on to this even after he left Braughing.  This has enabled me to trace him through the Poll Books.

I have assumed that he was a Labourer.  The family moved around a little, having children baptised at Standon, Ware and Thundridge; finally settling at Thundridge.  The old church was demolished in 1853 and only the tower (below) remains.

I know very little about them and have been researching them and their children for twenty three years as I write this. Some of the sons took part in the massive Ginn exodus from Herts of the early 18th century.

John Ginn Senior died in 1743.  He was 59, and is buried at Thundridge.  Susan died in 1745.

John and Susan had eight children:

John - married twice an Elizabeth in circa 1740 and Ann Tinsley in 1773.  Assumed to have been a labourer.

The following children are known to he and wife Elizabeth

John                             1743 died infancy

Elizabeth                     1745

  

In 1747, there is also a Jeremiah Ginn baptised at Thundridge with no parental details given.  It seems likely that the clerk made up the register entries from notes and the notes mistakenly failed to indicate the parents. I have assumed that this Jeremiah (who did not die in infancy) is a child of John and his first wife but obviously cannot state this as a fact.

John lost his first wife and remarried Ann Tinsley (he a widower and she a widow) at Thundridge in 1773.  John died in 1774 aged 61.  Ann was buried in 1789.

Of the children, Elizabeth is untraced but see the note re Jeremiah below*

Mary - had an illegitimate child (Sarah) in 1737 by a John Harris.  She married Thomas Cutmore in 1738 and is believed to have stayed in Thundridge.  Sarah Ginn would appear to have never married and likely died in Thundridge in 1789 as the age given is correct.

Susanna - was discovered in 2009 to have married John Scott , a gardener of Hertford in 1745.(RG7. 219)  It seems clear it was her and not her first cousin.  She and John had a number of children

Ann - also seems to have drifted into Hertford.  She married John Robinson a Mariner of distant Stepney at the Fleet in 1752 (RG7. 13).  It is obviously her.  How she met her husband I have no idea.  The National Archives have records of several John Robinsons of Stepney – all mariners and shiprights.  There are no obvious children on the IGI

Thomas - untraced for years.  A shock arrived in 2010 with the uploading onto the web of the Londonlives.org website.    London/Middlesex magistrate records show that in 1785 a Thomas Ginn and wife with settlement in Thundridge became a burden on the Overseers of the Poor and were moved from Staines in Middlesex (borders of Surrey) to Cheshunt in Hertfordshire.   It could only be this fellow and Tom was then 57. The story became even more intriguing in 2012 when Ancestry loaded up Dorset records.  It appears that at some point Thomas married a Sarah (when and where unknown).  In 1785 they are begging (maybe playing the fiddle/busking) in a pub in Shaftesbury in Dorset no less and were arrested as vagabonds and swiftly moved back through Dorset to Donhead St Mary in Wilts with a view to being moved on to Hertfordshire. The full story I do not yet know but am working on it.  Where they married (if they officially did)  where they were pre 1785 and where they died is a mystery.  I assume there were no children but cannot rule it out completely, not least as those same Ancestry Dorset records show a Thomas Ginn, Labourer (ht 5ft 8ins) in the Militia records at nearby Sherborne in 1798 and the Ginn name in Dorset is otherwise unknown.  Watch this space.

Henry - untraced for sure. Born in 1730, he  is the only real contender for  the Henry Ginn who married Martha Williams of Christchurch, Spitalfields at the Fleet in 1751 (RG7. 98).  He a labourer bachelor of Sandridge in Herts and she a spinster.  Spitalfields is near Bishopsgate  and he may have been required to come into London by his employer to visit Spitalfields Market. I cannot find any Sandridge reference to any Ginn (registers, militia, overseers records) and have assumed that Henry was either passing through or the reference is a clerical error (ie Sandridge for Thundridge and written up from notes) which, given errors on other Ginn entries is not unlikely.  There is no trace of them in Herts and Martha being a “townie” may have induced a move to London.

William - untraced

Robert - died in infancy 

 *  Jeremiah Ginn.   It is considered by myself and other Ginn researchers that it is this Jeremiah (no other of any county being known) that married Elizabeth Dartnell at Chelmsford in 1776.  Jeremiah Ginn was a Victualler (Innkeeper) in Chelmsford and in 2014 I discovered that he held the "Half Moon" which was demolished soon after 1900 but is shown below. 

I do know that he died there in 1787 and has the earliest Ginn "In Memoriam" in any newspaper (Ipswich Journal 14th July 1787) which cites for news from Chelmsford

Elizabeth Ginn remarried William Mudicks at Sandon, Essex in 1788 (Marriage Licence at ERO).  Mudicks was a Yeoman farmer of Sandon who had originally married an Elizabeth Bearman.  Elizabeth Mudicks formerly Ginn/Dartnell died at Great Waltham in 1794 – she has a gravestone in Great Waltham which cites her as formerly the wife of Jeremiah Ginn.  Mudicks is not buried with her so likely married yet again. My research suggests that Jeremiah and Elizabeth never had any children.