Joseph Ginn of Hertford d. 1840

There were five brothers, sons of Benjamin Ginn in my post of 5th February, all seem to have survived to their teens, but only three, Joe here and his brothers Ben and Charlie have been traced.  They all went to Hertford together in the late 1780s/1790.

Initially however, Joseph went to work in Weston, miles from home, as it is clearly him there in 1785 in the militia lists.  I have speculated that the Halsey connection of him and his brother has some link to there.

By 1786, he was in Brickendon with his brothers and was working there right through the 1790s as a labourer. 

In 1790 he married Susan Halsey (sometimes called "Susanna”) who was clearly his sister-in-law.  Amazingly, they first turn up in Weston where they had their first child, Elizabeth.

The couple went to live in Pegs Lane in Hertford, where County Hall and the Record Office are now. This lane was bound by Wellfield (sometimes "Wallfield") to the east, while West Street bound it to the west. He lived very close to his brother Ben.

        A print of Rowlandson's showing Hertford Market in 1800

                                 It has scarely changed 

Joseph was not purely an agricultural labourer, we are told that he also had some involvement with coachmaking, presumably as a labourer in the yard, because this family were clearly poor.

I know little about this family, but points of interest came to light in 2009.  It appears that in 1816 (D/P 48 8/19 at HRO) Joe Ginn disappeared to Weston.  My suspicion is that he went there to find work, perhaps with his friendly farmer, as after the Napoleonic Wars ended  in 1815 agriculture virtually collapsed in England and there was massive unemployment .  There are records of the Hertford Overseers making payments to Joe  Ginn “of Weston” until 1817, but there is no further mention of Joe in Hertford records and given what is said below, I doubt that he ever came back. In short, he may have done what others did, and absconded and left his younger children to get on with it, particularly once Susan died.  For Susan died in 1817, she was quoted as being 51 years of age.  Joseph clearly stayed in Weston, at some point being placed in Hitchin Workhouse where he died in 1840.  He was buried at Weston (clearly having settlement now).  It is self evidently him.

Joseph and Susan had twelve children. The records are on Bishop Transcript records as the registers were destroyed in a fire and one or two birth dates are missed:

Elizabeth - until 2009 I believed that this was Ben’s daughter, because early on I had not realized that Joe had a daughter called Elizabeth.   She had four illegitimate children; all of whom definitely lived to adulthood.  The children were as follows:

                        William                        1817

                        Susanna                       1819

                        Henry                          1823

                        Eliza                            1825

Elizabeth Ginn lived in Pegs Lane and on the edge of Wallfield, outside Hertford Borough.  There was also a brief spell in the Hertford Workhouse.  She was therefore officially living in Brickendon, though that was not a separate parish at that time.  Elizabeth is continually noted in the Overseers records for the Liberty of Brickendon.  These show that she was commonly known as Bet Ginn.  Bet did extraordinarily well in bringing the children up.  There is never any mention of the reputed father or fathers of the children though. Bet died at Wallfield in 1832 with a stated age of 43 – which is accurate.

Of the four children:

William -  joined the army - see later post

Susanna – was untraced until 2010.  By cross referencing I then found a Susan Ginn who married a William Newman in Lambeth in 1851 claiming a deceased father Charles.  The couple had children Charles, William & Elizabeth in Lambeth.  Susan claimed to have been born in Hertford in 1819. It likely has to be this lady as there is no evidence that Charles & Hannah had a daughter Susan.  I would assume that her uncle Charles brought her up briefly after her mum died and she used his name as her reputed father to avoid embarrassment.

Henry - initially stayed locally and worked as a railwayman - see later post

Eliza - was noted in the 1841 census return.  She was in Hertford Workhouse.  A servant, it is not clear whether she was an inmate or working there.  She married Thomas Edward Seale in Marylebone in 1846 and had a number of children by him.

Harriet - was not researched until 2010.  She married John Hall in 1818 and lived in Pegs Lane with him and family saying she was born in Hertford in circa 1797.  She could be either Joe’s or Ben’s but the Pegs Lane connection has led me to her likely being Joe’s daughter.  Her husband was a wheelwright and they had a good number of issue.

Charles - see later post

James - named after his uncle whom I have not traced-see later

Thomas - died at Chequers Yard in 1828 where he lived with brother Charles, aged 22

Joseph - there is a series of 5 shilling payments to “son of Joseph” becoming “Joseph” (admittedly ambiguous) in Brickendon Overseers records in 1818 which suggests that he was then alive and unemployed.  There is no trace of him anywhere thereafter, and my best guess is that he joined the army where his record awaits discovery.

Sarah  - we first hear of Sarah in 1829 in Cheshunt, she has an illegitimate son  Newcombe, born April 26th 1829.  His father was William Pakeley (a postillion from Bond Street in London - a “postillion” was a post boy on the post coaches).  Newcombe Ginn lived with the Clarks (see next para) in Cheshunt High Street for some years, before moving to London and becoming a Metropolitan Police Constable, marrying and having a family.  See later post

Sarah had a further illegitimate child by Thomas Clark in 1831 called Ann.  Sarah married Thomas Clark in 1835.  Thomas became Newcombe’s step father.  Ann presumably took the name of Clark thereafter. 

Rachel - died in Aston in 1828 aged 17 

George - died in infancy

Mary, Charlotte and Hannah - are untraced