William Ginn of Aston d.1774

Son of Francis in the last post, William Ginn married Sarah Wabbey at Essendon in 1708.   Sarah died without their having issue and in 1721 William remarried Ann Starkins.  He remarried at Aston.  Ann was likely  a widow  as there were so few children.

We know that William was living in Aston from 1721.  He is described as a "Miller” in Aston, from as early as 1722, and it seems clear that he initially rented a cottage there.  He does not appear in the Aston Land Tax however until 1734.

I knew all of this in the early1990s.  But while the people here are dead, my research is a living thing and just before Christmas 2021 a whole series of deeds on the Datchworth Ginns turned up - and William was in there !  The deeds not only proved my research, but people leapt out of the page and became real.  It appears that when Bill's uncle John Ginn of Datchworth died in 1723 he left a will (DE/P/T2882 Herts Archives)  which in itself was a shock to me as it was never proved.  He left  £5 to his "loving kinsman William Ginn  of Aston" .

This family never threw anything out, and when William Ginn of Walthamstow (son and executor of John) paid out the £5 he obtained a receipt which has survived the last three hundred years (below).  It reads "received the 13th day of October 1723 by me William Ginn of Aston in the within will named ...from my cousin William Ginn the son of the within named testator the sume of five pounds in full...."

As said, William was a Miller.  And he was obviously literate as we now have his signature. From 1721-37 it is clear that he merely worked at Aston Windmill.  In 1738 this changed; thereafter the Land Tax shows that "William Ginn has the Mill” presumably by Lease.

Aston Windmill was rather isolated.  It was shown on most maps (the site is today) though it no longer stands.  Anybody who wants to visit the site may do so via a footpath from New Park Lane.

The Land Tax has William as the owner of the Mill until 1752, he paid a considerable sum for the privilege.  Thereafter it became the property of a George Kent.

Ann Ginn died in 1743.  William lived on and died at Aston in 1774,  he was 89 and buried “poor”.  It is rather a nice touch that William named all three sons with family names: i.e. Francis, John and William.

William and Ann had three sons:

John - a Miller.  He married Sarah Kingsley at Ardeley in 1745.  They had three children:

                        Ann                 1747

                        Sarah              1751 md William Chakley 1777

                        William           1752 md Elizabeth Hilliard  1780

John and Sarah moved around a great deal.  Ann was born at Sandon, Sarah and William at Little Wymondley.  In 1757, John, Sarah and the three children are mentioned in a Certificate of Settlement that brought them to Broxbourne that year (HRO).  John is in the militia lists as a Miller there until 1762 when he was 40, but is not mentioned thereafter.  I could not trace  his or Sarah’s death entries and was highly suspicious that the couple left.  In 2005 –  I traced them - ironically back to Essendon – it appears John took over the newly built windmill there.  I have still not found their burial entries though

Of these children:

Ann may have died unmarried at Bennington in 1792, but that could just as easily have been (and quite likely was) her Aunt from Aston whose daughter (see below) may well have moved to Bennington and taken her widowed Mum with her. As yet then, untraced.

Sarah married William Chalkley at Bennington in 1777. There is some speculation that he was the nephew of Ann Chalkey of Aston who had married Sarah’s Uncle William Ginn (see below). She had five children by William Chalkley, stayed in Bennington and died there in 1832 with a quoted age of 80: she was 81.

William is in the Brickendon Militia List as a Miller in 1773 and married Elizabeth Hilliard (apparently from Ardley, a relatively distant parish but that of William’s Mum) at next-door Hertingfordbury in 1780. He was there in the Militia List as a Labourer and married man no children) until 1796 when he dropped out supposedly aged 45 (he was 44). He died in Hertingfordbury with a quoted age of 65 (he was 66) in 1819. He and Elizabeth had no children.  Elizabeth died in Little Berkhampstead in 1829.  Her quoted age was 67, but she was actually 65.

William - married Ann Chalkley, probably of Aston, at Aston in 1758. Earlier known as a Miller, he soon became known as a Labourer in the Militia Lists. Four children are known:

                        William            1758 d infancy

                        Ann                  1763 md  Geo. Pallett in 1793

                        William            1768 d infancy

                        John                 1770  Died in Aston in 1830

It is believed that William Ginn here (in Militia to 1773) died in 1777 when he would have been 53. There is some suggestion in the Quarter Sessions records that this guy was not afraid of a “punch up” - he certainly got involved in a fracas or two.  My feeling is that Ann his widow went to Bennington with her daughter and died there in 1792, believed to have been 62.

Francis  - see later post