Benjamin Ginn of Royston d. 1859

The Royston Ginns seem to have been involved with virtually every occupation involving inns and coaching.  Benjamin here, son of Benjamin in my post of  19th March 2013, was no exception, being variously described as an ostler, maltster, postboy (postilion), post chaise-driver and alehouse keeper. 

In their early married life the couple lived in Royston High Street, suggesting that they lived in one of the inns (as Ben Snr had done) though I doubt that it was the ‘Black Swan”.  Keziah has not been researched but would appear to have been about 34 when she married, suggesting an age of 48 or so when she had her last child.  There does not appear to be an entry in the Royston burial register, but is it known through an M.I. that Keziah died in 1834, quoted as being 54 years of age.  In 1837 Ben remarried Charlotte Beale, a spinster from an old Royston family of bakers and millers.  She was 39 and they only had the one child, Emma, but sadly she died in infancy.

                                           Barkway church

It took me many years to work out, but by the early to mid 1840s the couple had bought the "White Horse" public house in Barkway, selling this in 1849 and buying the “Fox and Duck”, an alehouse on Market Hill in Royston which is now, alas, no more. (see papers from Rowley & Sons (Estate Agents & Auctioneers) at CRO (ref. 296/B330).
 

Ben Jnr died in 1859, he was 70 and is mentioned on his eldest son’s M.I. Charlotte took over the pub and was running it throughout much of the 1860s and later.  Sadly she died in the workhouse in 1882; she was 83.

Benjamin and his wives had a number of children

William - he married Mary Livings in 1838 but they did not have any children.  Originally an ostler and postilion, William was the landlord of the “Catherine Wheel” pub in Melbourne Street for a great many years.  It was discovered in 1998 that he also owned and ran a small firm called “Ginn & Co’ from the same address.

Ginn and Co is not (so far as I know) mentioned in any surviving directory, but the sale particulars of the stock are mentioned in the personal name index to be found at the Cambs Record Office: the auction details were deposited there.

It appears that William ran a small omnibus enterprise from the pub, this consisting of two horse drawn vehicles with a respective capacity for 11 and 7 passengers.  It seems likely that this (obviously limited) service provided transportation to Cambridge, though he had stiff competition as Royston was on a major coaching route, the reason for the vast number of inns in the town.

A number of books have been written on the development of the Hertfordshire railway system, all are universal in their mention of the devastating results for the various omnibus services.  The Hitchin line was extended to Royston in October 1850, and it is no surprise to find that within a year Ginn and Co was no more, William putting the stock up for sale in the autumn of 1851.

Still running the pub, William died in 1868: he was 53.  There is a large monumental stone in Royston churchyard which mentions him, his parents and a number of his brothers and sisters.  Mary died in 1907: she was 94 and is also mentioned on the memorial.

Benjamin - see later post

Thomas - a coachman.  He worked in London, never married and his body was sadly pulled out of the Thames near Upper Mall, Hammersmith on 3rd April 1881.  He was 62, and although the Inquest verdict is unknown it is not thought that the drowning resulted from foul-play

Eliza - died unmarried at 21.  She is noted on her brother’s MI.

Hester - It was the local historian, Tom Doig, who discovered the marriage of Hester.  She married John Taylor at Barkway Independent Chapel in 1843.

George Henry - as a young man he helped out in the local shops.  He died at Tilbury in 1861 (aged 33) but the death was registered at Royston and he is on his brother’s M.I.  He is presumably buried there.  It is not believed that he ever married.

Ann and Emma - both died in infancy,  Emma is buried at Barkway

William Mackinder Genn of Texas & Oklahoma USA d. 1920

This fellow led quite a life.  He was born in Quadring Lincolnshire in 1844 to Denton Genn (last post).  There are various stories about how and when he emigrated, most of which appear to be conjecture, but in  1862 he took ship on the "Neptune" with the Bloodworth family (his cousins by marriage) aged 18.  For some reason he is not indexed on Ancestry and he went out as "Gen" mistranscribed as coming from Ireland, but it is him. It is likely that he was in part influenced in his decision by the presence of his Uncle Charles Genn in Wisconsin, and may not at the time of their emigration have known of his illness - Charles died in December 1862 - see post of 16th September 2015.

He arrived in New York.  It became apparent in 2024 that both William and the Bloodworths settled in Winfield, New York State, a small place of some 1500 souls in the Census of 1870 and only about 2000 now.. When next we hear of William  he was enlisting in New York into the newly raised 152nd Regiment of the New York Volunteer Infantry, part of the Union Army during the course of the American Civil War.  The information as to the regiment came from Nathan (see comment below) who had researched William and has access to his war medals.  In 2024 I came across the digitized Roster for the regiment and extracted William's record.  You can see below that he enlisted in Winfield. 

 This regiment (see it's banner below) had William serve for the next three years, save for a few weeks when he deserted to the cavalry (it is thought he may have got tired of walking !) before being returned. 

 He was involved in some 13 battles/actions, including most notably perhaps the Battle of the Wilderness.  One of his comrades from the regiment is also shown below.  

 William was discharged from the Army in 1865.  He was discharged in Virginia, at Munson's Hill, which had been the subject of a well known action in the Civil War in 1861.

                                     Munson's Hill in 1864 or so

 In 2023 I heard from a correspondent (who shall remain anonymous - some readers may not like what I am going to say) who told me (and it is clearly correct) that he then returned to Winfield and had a brief relationship in 1865/1866 with his first cousin by marriage Mary Bloodworth and got her pregnant (see post on the Genns of Oregon of 23rd April 2021)  We do not know the full story, merely that he clearly did - that Mary adopted the name Genn (there is no evidence that they married) and that William had some input into the naming of his son as it was named after his deceased brother John Thomas.  The relationship broke down.

We also know that at some point he travelled to Chicago, where in 1867  (the year that John Thomas was born in New York State) he married Edith Wright, an Englishwoman whose step father's name was Pogmore and she married under that name.

After the period of the Civil War the American government was anxious to promote settlement of some of the newly annexed regions and gave financial assistance.  William most likely took advantage of those and he and Edith headed for Kansas (by 1869) soon afterwards settling in Texas where he established himself as a Farmer. 

The couple had a good number of children, Frank being born in Kansas but the others in Texas. Edith unfortunately died in May 1877 when Charlie was three weeks old,  buried at Ennis, Ellis County Texas.

In October 1879 William remarried, a widow of the name of Harriet Elizabeth Palmer Vaughan (nee Herndon), who had two teenage sons at home: John and Rufus.  Harriet carne from Illinois and met William while visiting her married daughters who lived locally.  Harriet was some years older than William and the couple had no further children.

                                      William and Harriet in 1879

Harriet died in 1910.  William Mackinder Genn died in 1920 and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Ardmore, Oklahoma.

       George, Frank, William Jnr (rear) William Mackinder and Margaret Genn

William and Edith had five children

Franklin -  Frank was a stockman/cowboy  in Texas.  He married and had a son and daughter.  There are liivng descendants through the latter. 

George - a farmer and grocery store owner.  Likely named after his great uncle George Genn (see post of 25th August 2015). Married twice and had nine children  There are many descendants today.

William - married and had five children.  Descendants alive today.

Charlie - likely named after his great uncle Charles Genn.  Married and had two children. 

Margaret - married and descendants alive today I believe

Acknowledgement -  I have corresponded with many descendants of this family, and am particularly grateful to Dorothy Wylodene "Dene" Nall Morgan, a descendant of Harriet through her first marriage who did a lot of work with Dr Herb Brown in producing the book on the American Genn family.

Denton Genn Jnr of Quadring d. 1861

Nobody appears to know anything about Denton, son of Denton in my post of 27th August 2013 .  Denton is stated to have been a Labourer in the 1844 birth certificate for his son William and this is confirmed in the 1841 and 1851 census.  He spent much time in Quadring, but moved around a fair bit, obviously following the work.  He married Jane Mackinder at Boston, Lincolnshire in 1827.

Jane Mackinder was born in Boston in about 1810.  We do not know her parents for certain (yet) but they are almost certainly William Mackinder and his wife Susanna (nee Lawis) who are the only couple living in Boston and apparently having children at the relevant time.  Hopefully I will get access to the full Boston records in due course. 

The list of children may well not be complete, two unknown children being discovered in 2012.  Jane died in 1859 (National Burial Index).  After a long search I finally found Denton in the National Burial Index (he was indexed as Duelen Gen).  He died at Quadring in February1861 with a quoted age of 60. 

The deaths of the parents obviously caused a crisis, Denton the younger apparently being placed in the workhouse, he was there in 1861.  I think we must assume that William Mackinder was staring at the same fate and obviously decided to takes their chances in America

Denton and Jane had a number of children

John Thomas - two died in infancy

Rebecca  - married Thomas Bloodworth of Hawthorpe, an agricultural labourer, in 1860.  He was clearly son of Thomas & Angelina Bloodworth of Hawthorpe and it is clearly his sister Mary born 1837 who had a relationship with William Mackinder Genn in New York in 1866 and  was in the emigration of 1862 – this  Mary Bloodworth  having a suggested tentative birthplace of “Ilethorpe”,  clearly Hawthorpe mistranscribed  .  Thomas and Angelina Bloodworth are both on the New York passenger lists on Ancestry as is their daughter Mary. 

Isabella  - a servant.  She died a spinster in 1868 

Denton -  in the workhouse at one point.  A shoemaker - he died  unmarried in 1872   

William Mackinder - emigrated to the USA when he was 18 with the Bloodworths above.  See next post

Eliza & Phoebe - died infancy