John Ginn of Great Hormead d. 1867

Little (too little) is known of this man.  John was brother of James in my next to last post and son of James in my post of  23rd March 2013 .  All that I know for certain is that John Ginn was a Labourer.  It would seem clear that he married twice, leaving Great Hormead after his first marriage to Sarah Coxsell, but returning after his second (which may have been a common law arrangement) .  Both wives are called Sarah.  He does not appear to have had any surviving children from his first marriage.

They lived at Great Hormead and hopefully with detailed research the exact cottage could be located.

John Ginn died in 1867, quoted as being 74: he was 73. Sarah has no burial entry at Great Hormead and so far has not been traced elsewhere..

John and Sarah had four children

Betsy - Elizabeth (commonly known as “Betsy”) became friendly with her considerably older first cousin, Thomas Ginn (see later post) who lost his first wife in 1853.  Elizabeth married Thomas at Camberwell in 1860.

John - married Catherine Lawrence in 1855.  They had five daughters and one son (James Levi) the latter dying in Bishops Stortford at 1947 as a bachelor and Annie also died unmarried.  Of the others, Fanny married Thomas Bardwell in 1897 and Ellen, Sally (Sarah) and Emily are as yet untraced. Catherine died in 1900 and John in 1906.

Eliza - married George Pursglove in 1866.  He was a widower aged 40, then of Wyddial.  In 1881, the couple were living in Great Hallingbury in Essex, and Eliza’s niece Ellen (above) was staying there.  Eliza and George have descendants

James - died in infancy

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William Ginn of Canberra d. 1904

William was son of James in my last post.   He married Mary Wade (of Canadian birth, but probably a soldier's daughter) at Edmonton (Weld Chapel Southgate) in 1853.

They had a son (Walter) in 1854, while working at Heighton in Sussex.  They returned to Great Hormead, and whilst there (in early 1857) had a second son, Henry Thomas.

A scheme was introduced in the mid-19th century whereby aspiring emigrants could gain sponsored paid passages to outposts of the Empire.  The scheme was introduced for several reasons: the British population had risen too steeply, while colonies were crying out for new settlers.  Equally, the powers that be were anxious to relocate many of the children of the rural labourers, now rapidly facing unemployment as new technology took their jobs.  William and Mary applied for a place on this scheme.

In 1857, William and Mary and the two children travelled to Liverpool, from where they sailed on "The Alfred" bound for New South Wales, Australia 

The ship berthed in New South Wales on April 23rd 1857, and William obtained work with a Mr Campbell, of Duntroon, a prominent local landowner.  This was near Canberra, except that Canberra did not actually exist then.

The following story about William Ginn is to be found in "Tales and Legends of Canberra Pioneers" by Samuel Shumack (a contemporary of William's):

"Sometime during 1857, William and his family arrived in Duntroon and he was engaged as a ploughman.  The harvest of 1857-8 was a splendid one, and during Christmas some of Mr Campbell's guests were in the harvest field and expressed admiration of the crop, one saying that it was the best that he had seen that year.  "Well" Mr Campbell said, "I have the best farm hand now I ever had - William Ginn".  Several farm hands heard this compliment of Ginn’s efficiency and were offended, and one of these was Albert Mayo.  Some months later, firewater [i.e. drink] caused a great commotion on the station, and Billy Appleyard was for several days unable to perform his duties as wood and water joey.  One evening, he went to see Mayo, who was suffering from the same malady and said -   "For God's sake Albert, give me a nobbler  (more booze) or I'll die".

Mayo handed Billy a frying pan handle, and said "Go down and knock on Ginn's door, and when he opens it, knock him down with this and I'll give you a bottle of rum".  The night was very dark, and Billy went down and knocked on the door of Ginn's hut.  Ginn opened the door, and Billy then struck him with a blow across the mouth, knocking out four teeth and splintering his jaw.  Ginn staggered back dazed, and Billy was preparing a second blow when Ginn closed with him, knocked him down, dragged him to the woodheap and had his axe in hand when Mrs Ginn intervened and prevented an awful tragedy.  Ginn was a very quiet man, and was surprised at this hostile action to injure him; however, he was later told that jealousy was the reason behind the attack.”

So, early Australia was a bit rough and ready, but I think that William handled the situation quite well.

William worked for Campbell (and other farmers around Canberra) for a number of years.  At one time, the family lived at Blundell's Cottage (now a Pioneer Memorial - a museum: see photograph).  They had more children in Australia.

In 1874 (or so) William Ginn acquired his own farm about 10 kms north of what is now Canberra's Civic Centre.  This area is known as Ginn’s Gap to this day.  His Ginn descendants farmed this until 1960, when the family sold it and bought another in the same area.

William Ginn did have some contact with his English relations, because family legend has it that his brother Henry visited him,  which I have proved to be correct by researching Henry's service as a seaman.

The year 1995 was the 150th anniversary of the founding of Canberra, and William Ginn is considered one of its pioneers. The local newspaper ran a special commemorative edition in which he was featured.  He died in 1904, aged 82, and lies in St John's churchyard, along with Mary (who died in 1917, aged 92 )

William and Mary had four children:

Walter - died in Sydney, NSW in 1925; unmarried.

Henry  - Henry  married Elizabeth Winter at Canberra in 1899, they had four children. At his father's death it was left to Henry and his brother Walter to run the farm. Henry inherited it when Walter died unmarried.  He managed it until his death in 1939 in Canberra.  Elizabeth died in 1960.

                                         Henry "Harry" Ginn

Agnes  - married Thompson Lawson in  1886.  She died in Canberra in 1946

Gertrude - died unmarried in Canberra in 1953

Gertrude and Agnes Ginn in c. 1880

                     A jovial Harry Ginn and his sister Gert in later life

Acknowledgement

I am indebted to my correspondent Bill Toone (a descendant) for the vast majority of the information on William and Mary.

James Ginn of Great Hormead d. 1878

James, son of James in my post of 23rd March 2013  married Ann Ricketts in 1816 and the couple took over Pest House Lane Cottage in Great Hormead when his father died in 1825.

The couple still lived in that cottage in 1832 (when the Land Tax ends) and Christine Jackson the local historian told me that she believed that they were still there in 1841, but they had certainly gone by 1851.

In the 1851 Census the couple were noted as living in Horseshoe Lane, which, while not Church End, is in fact very close by.

This is a difficult post to write because there is so much to say !  It is a bit of work in progress because I am sure that fascinating information remains to be discovered.

In about 1995,  I received a letter from a guy descended from this couple who had gone to tremendous lengths (at a time when Essex records were not online and had to be dug out of the Record Office in person) to trace Ann Ricketts.  He had checked every likely parish record over a vast area.  He had found nothing.

One of the good things about running a One Name Study is that people give you snippets of information, often they mean nothing to anyone else but me and now and again, just now and again, there is that "Eureka" moment.

Ann always said that she was born in Rickling in Essex or Clavering there, on one occasion Quendon.  There is no baptism entry.  However, amazingly, astonishingly, someone sent me  a letter from (but not written by) Ann dating from 1831 which survives.  This letter is not in the UK but in Australia, in their archives.  Furious research resulted.

We have to go back in time.  In 1772 a Thomas Ricketts was born in Rickling to a William and Ann (nee Read).  In 1800 Thomas married a Mary Wombwell at Rickling (born c 1769) who was the widow of a James Wombwell who had died in 1796 or so.  She and James had had three sons.

Now in 1801 (still in Rickling) Thomas and Mary began to have legitimate children (it seems clear from what follows that there was at least one illegitimate child named after Tom's mother before their marriage).  In 1801 they had a son Edward.  There was later a son William and other children by which time the family had moved to Clavering..  The story is an involved one and I am truncating it to a large degree, but suffice it to say that in 1825 Edward married a Mary Knight at Berden  and they had a daughter Louisa.  Unfortunately Edward was involved in petty crime and in early 1826 was hauled before the courts in Essex for burglary and spent some time on the hulk "York" (shown above) before being transported to Australia (Tasmania) for life.  On arrival it was given that Edward was married with a child and that his mother Mary was a widow (Thomas Ricketts had died at Clavering in 1825).

Now, Mary Ricketts (who died in 1838) the widow had no idea what happened to Edward when he got out to Australia and rumour had it that he had died.  His wife Mary apparently disowned him, claimed him to be dead and went to marry a local chap called John Tant. She reputedly (from the text of vthe 1831 letter) had died in childbirth by 1831 but we know this to be an error and possibly said to make Edward feel better.  We know from other sources that daughter  Louisa Ricketts eventually married a Thomas Chappell , had a family and emigrated to Australia on the "Robert Small" in 1858.  She died in Brompton South Australia in 1899.  She had actually emigrated with her mother and her mother's third husband  Edward Newman, John Tant also having died (1841)

It gets even more complicated because by 1831 we know that another locally born transported convict, Daniel Hollingsworth, had passed word on through friends to the Ricketts family that Edward was still alive. 

So Mary Ricketts in Clavering decided that she had to get in touch with her son.  She had the perfect opportunity, because it appears that her son William had also got into trouble and was also to be transported !  It was his task to take the letter.

But Mary did not write, or at least get someone to write on her behalf.  She gave that task to Ann Ginn - Ann expressing herself in the letter to be Edward's sister. So, in a very convoluted way, Ann here has to be Edward's sister and we can only assume that she was born illegitimately to Thomas Ricketts and likely Mary between 1796 and 1801 in Rickling and was brought up in Clavering, hence the confusion in the information given in her census records.  She thus had two brothers whom were transported convicts (Edward reputedly married again in Australia) and these contacts with Australia may have induced the movement there of her son William (see below).

I have copied into this post the small part of the letter clearly written for and signed on Ann's behalf, she signs as "Mrs An Gin".  A part transcript is below.  All kindly provided to me by my correspondent Barbara O'Neill*.  

Jan 15th 1831
Dear Brother   - I have taken the liberty of riting a few lines as it leaves me at present.  I have heard many times that you was dead but Daniel Hollingsworths friends told us that you was alive and doing as well as we could expect in the country considering the situation you by [sic] under.   

Dear Brother we all take it werry (very) wrong that you dont rite and your Mother thinks it werry (very) sad and unkind that you do not rite a letter to she and she wont believe what your not dead until you rite her a letter to answer the last you had ........................

So no more at present - from your tender sister

Mrs An Gin

                                                           

I know very little about James and Ann themselves, save that they were poor. Poor but respectable as my grandmother would have said.  They obtained frequent assistance from the local poor relief (apparently administered directly by the Vicar here).  James was also one of the bellringers at the church; he helped ring in Christmas Day 1847 (see Vicar's Journal HRO).  Their surname was often rendered as Gin, which concurs with the spelling in the 1831 letter

Ann died in 1876, quoted as 79.  James was unfortunately immediately deposited in Layston (Buntingford) Workhouse what remains of that building is shown below.. He died there in 1878, aged 83.

James and Ann had no less than thirteen children:

Eliza - A lively girl.  She had three illegitimate children: Joseph,  Henry  and Charles  all three of whom died in infancy.  I can trace no burial so assume that she got together with someone on a common law basis and took their name.  One of the children's fathers was a George Spicer which may be a clue

Thomas - see later post

Mary - married Thomas Cranwell in 1839.

William - see next post

Sarah -  married William Stevens:  A correspondent has told me that they moved to Mile End, London.

Charles - see later post

Edward - likely named after Ann's brother. See later post

Henry - see post of 13th August 2012

Elizabeth, George, two Josephs and John - died in infancy

* Barbara originally thought that the letter referred to Mary An Gin.Research has shown that the statement above has to be correct

Charles Ginn of Islington d. unknown

Charles moved around a lot and, annoyingly, I do not know precisely when and where he died, so would be grateful to any descendant who can supply that informatin.

Charles was the brother of John in my last post and son of James of Royston.  He was in Cambridge in 1844 where he married Sarah Lindsell who came from Debden.  Between 1844 and 1851 they had travelled all around Essex.

Charles was alive in 1871 as a tin plate worker in London but I cannot trace him after that.

Charlies and Sarah had six children:

Sarah - married Henry West in 1870.  A lot of descendants

Julia - she gave birth to an illegitimate child, Henry Charles Ginn in 1869.  In later life, he was always known as plain Charles Ginn and married and has descendants. The 1881 census shows Julia married to a Stephen Lipwick.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to trace the marriage.

John - married Martha Clark in 1881.  No children known to this marriage.  John died in Hackney in 1918.  Martha predeceased him in Shoreditch in 1904.

Mary Jane - married Henry Bonson in 1876

Alice - married Alexander Watford in 1879

Emily  -  is untraced

NB  I am indebted to my friend Michael Ginn for a lot of the information that appears here