James Ginn of Maker Cornwall d.1906

James here, son of William in my last post was born in Bishop's Stortford Workhouse in 1839/4.  No baptism record survives.

In December 1858 he joined the 10th Regiment of Foot at Bishop's Stortford, his first cousin (also James) having joined that regiment exactly a month earlier. He was 19, 5ft 6ins and a bit, with brown hair and brown eyes. 

The army was not really James' cup of tea.  He was in the opinion of his superiors too fond of a drink (like many of his contemporaries)  and never earned any Good Conduct badges.

The two never got off to a good start anyway, as James had barely been in the army 18 months when he obviously met his future wife in Plymouth and, either refused permission to marry and/or facing embarkation for abroad (the regiment were in South Africa in 1861) deserted in 1860.  He wanted to stay in Plymouth and joined the Plymouth Division of the Royal Marine Light Infantry.

                                               RMLI 1860s


 James married Mary Ann Couch at East Stonehouse (Plymouth) in 1861 and hid from the army until 1864 when he was then tracked down, being shown in the records as being reclaimed from the Marines as a deserter from the 10th .  He was court martialled and imprisoned.

James was sent to India in the later-1860s.  It is plain that Mary went with him.  Only wives were allowed to travel with a regiment.

                                       Line Infantryman 1860s

He and Mary spent some time in Bangalore, the main barracks being at the fort below, their son James being born there.  Unfortunately James also caught dysentery there (endemic in the regiment) in 1868 and became extremely ill and no longer able to serve properly thereafter.

They kept him in the army for some time however (the family were at Rangoon in 1871) but in 1872 he was discharged, his conduct being given as "indifferent" He stated that he was settling in Plymouth, though he actually subsequently settled nearby at Maker in Cornwall described there as a labourer/army pensioner.

James died at Maker in 1906, he was 66.  Mary Ann's death registration has not been traced.

James and Mary had five children.  None known were born before 1867.  The name was in transition from Ginn to Gynn and ultimately all these children took the name Gynn

James George - he joined the Royal Navy.  He was born in Bangalore in approximately 1867.  He was ship's boy on the Royal Adelaide in 1881 (a training ship) but was in the Egypt campaign in 1882 on the Superb (below) and received the Eqypt Medal with clasp for the action at Alexandria

He was later an Able Seaman and Ship's Corporal (a Petty Officer) and left the Navy in 1899.  He married twice and had two sons and a daughter.  From one son he had a good number of Ginn descendants

Thomas Henry - also joined the Royal Navy and as a stoker.  He married in 1893 and three children are known.  He died in 1954

Frederick William - Joined the Royal Navy and was a stoker.  Actually William Frederick.  He married in 1899 and had ten children and a huge number of descendants are known.  Not sure when he died 

Alfred Edward - died a child

Maud Ellen - married 1915

William Ginn of Farnham d. 1847

William Ginn, son of William in my post of  19th January 2014, has given me considerable pause for thought because he was quite a lad, was this guy.  A rumbustious fellow, drinking where he could get it, fond of a row and a skuffle, fathering illegitmate children while married and alleged to have deserted his wife and kids and left them to the parish - this was the William that the records paint.

He married Ann Prior at Farnham in 1823, Ann's family (which I have not researched) coming from nearby Albury in Herts.

He was technically "of Farnham", presumably because he had settlement there, but he moved around quite a lot.

The couple had their first child (Elizabeth) in Farnham, but by 1827 they were in Albury, where they had their second and William got involved in a row which ended with him damaging a hedge (Quarter Sessions).

They were technically in Farnham between 1829 and 1832, but William presumably did most of his drinking in Bishop's Stortford, because in 1831 he and two others were fined for assault (Quarter Sessions).

In 1837 the new workhouse opened in Bishop's Stortford.  This Poor Law Union covered Farnham, and all those able bodied men and women on Poor Relief were moved in.  This included William and Ann and their children.  Sarah, and apparently James (of whom more later) were born there.  Thereafter the Farnham clerk knew William as "William Ginn of Bishop's Stortford".

The entrance building to the Workhouse is shown above,  It was redeveloped for desirable apartments in 2006 and where once the lobby had paupers waiting with some trepidation, is is now replete with doorphone access and potted palms!

The Overseer’s Book of 1839 (for Farnham) notes that William had an illegitimacy order made against him that year.  William and Ann would have been separated in the workhouse (the sexes always were) so quite how William managed to father an illegit­imate child I have no idea, but manage it he clearly did.  Research in the magistrates’ records might well reveal more details.  

It is also clear from the Overseer's Book that William got into a certain amount of petty trouble in Essex, so interested readers might find one or two amusing episodes recorded in the Essex Petty (and possibly, Quarter) Sessions records.

The family were out of the workhouse by the Spring of 1841 (because they were at Farnham) but William was not to live for long.  He died in November 1847, he was 47. "William Ginn of Bishop's Stortford" is buried at Farnham.

Ann, and the two children (James and Rebecca) were at Bishop's Stortford in 1851.  Ann took in laundry to survive.  She remarried John Boyton (a widower) in 1856.

William and Ann had eight children:

Susan - she had two illegitimate children before she married William Shed at Bishops Stortford in 1852, these were Henry 1849 and Betsy 1851.  Henry married and had a family and we will discuss him in more detail later

           

Mary -  also had an illegitimate child John in 1847 by a John Gillett .  In 1851 John was at Little Hadham, Herts (with his Gillett granddad) which has made me wonder whether John Gillett and Mary were living together.
 

William - followed in his Dad's footsteps character wise, but ultimately sadly died in the "Northfleet" disaster - see post of 19th July 2012

James  - see next post

Elizabeth - married George Prior at Bishops Stortford in 1847.  George came from Bishops Stortford, but the couple soon moved to Bromley by Bow in the East End with a couple of George's brothers where they were in 1851 with a child or two. They had more children there, but sadly George died in 1863 and is buried at Tower Hamlets Cemetery in Mile End.  It is unclear how many children were alive, but in 1865 Elizabeth married Richard Golding at Stepney.  She has quite a number of descendants from the children from that marriage.

Rebecca married Robert Birch at Bishops Stortford in 1864

John and Sarah - died in infancy

Charles Genn of Sparta, Wisconsin USA d. 1862

Charles Genn here, youngest son of Denton in my post of 27th August 2013 and brother of George in my last post, has led me a merry dance and I had to invest a few pounds sterling in trying to find out the full story of what happened to him.

Charlie was born in Quadring in 1821.  He appears in the 1841 census there as Charles Ginn, a Blacksmith and then he totally disappeared from British records.

I supposed for some years that he had joined the armed forces, but there was no evidence of this and a lot of army records have been checked over the years.  I thought that he might have joined the East India Company army with brother George, but this was discounted in August 2015 when George was fully researched.  Indeed, it was rather spookily after researching George that I consulted the records once again and realised what had happened to Charles.

Charles Genn emigrated to the United States.    There seems to have been a group emigration, that is a number of people and likely an eclectic mix of local families decided to emigrate in the 1840s, but more particularly we are concerned with the Hutson family (see below). Large new areas of the States were being settled at the time and the forties, "the Hungry Forties" as they were known in rural England, was a time of rural depression in advance of the repeal of the Corn Laws and both farmers and labourers found times hard..

Charlie's emigration was obviously as I say tied in some way to that of the emigration of the Hudson/Hutson family, one of whom formed his future wife.

The Hutson family were grouped in the villages about Quadring and elsewhere in Lincolnshire - they were farmers.   From what I can gather three brothers and various hangers on emigrated at various times from about 1840.  The first emigrant was a Solomon Hutson who was born in circa 1801 has apparent links to Pennsylvania and was one of the very first settlers in Wisconsin (Rock County) USA, being granted US Citizenship in 1845.  His brother John also went out and settled in Wisconsin.  The "Hutson Boys" were and are acknowledged to have been some of the first settlers there.  It is fascinating cross referencing the English and American records and noting what happened.

The person of note here is however their brother Robert Hutson, also a farmer, who was supposedly born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire in 1802.  He married Ann May Luff in 1825 and they had a fair sized family, of whom William Henry Speed Hutson (lived Pennsylvania but died Wisconsin), Ann May, Thomas Speed, John Speed (later a Pastor) and Solomon survived.  All of these were born in England and most at Donington, next to Quadring.

Robert and Ann and their family emigrated to join other Hutson family members in November 1847.  They came into New York on two ships - Robert and Ann, their daughter and Solomon on the sailing ship "Jane Glassin" on 20th of that month.  The passenger list of the other ship which contained their sons William, Thomas and John has not survived and I have speculated as to whether Charles Genn accompanied them, as not one of those children was older than 16 in 1847.

The family settled immediately in  Glade Township, Warren County Pennsylvania.  This was not great farming country and was just being settled and the reason for going there seems to be linked to Solomon -  as in the Glade Township genealogy page online (see History of Warren County 1878) there is mention that a Solomon Hutson " entertained guests in a slab shanty at Glade Run"  between approximately 1844-1850 - this being some sort of guest house.  I have assumed that Solomon had links to both Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and left his holdings in Glade at this time and his brother took over.  Robert and Ann both died at Glade and their grave is below.

So where in all this was Charles Genn ?  The answer is I do not rightly know.  Logically he had some connection/friendship/kinship and was also encouraged to emigrate or emigrated with the Hutsons.  He is not in the 1850 US Census nor that of 1851 in England.  My suspicion is that he left for the US in the later 1840s.

All that we know for certain is that Charles Genn married Ann May Hutson (Robert and Ann's only daughter) on 12th April 1852.  We know this because of what is said in Ann May's obituary and it seems certain that the couple married at the Methodist Church at Glade Township which was built in 1833 (above - the building shown no longer stands).  Ann May is known to have been a good methodist and, indeed, this was the main church in the township at that time.  Charles was 30 and Ann May just 22.

We are also told that Charles and Ann May spent two years or so in Glade or thereabouts, but in 1855 they moved to Wisconsin. 

They chose to move to Sparta, Monroe County.  Monroe County was itself just being settled by emigrants from the Eastern States and from various countries in northern Europe.  Charles, Ann and various Hutsons who arrived with them were some of the very first settlers in what was then described as a village.

                                 
                      Sparta in 1860  - copyright Monroe County Museum 
                   
Charles set up a blacksmith's shop on Main Street and on Christmas Eve 1855, Monroe County have a record of his noting his intention to become an American Citizen and renouncing allegiance to Queen Victoria viz..

The shop did rather well and we find the following in the local newpaper, the  "Sparta Herald" of 31st August1859

Everything seems to have gone fine until 1861.  In that year something very bad happened, either Charles developed a brain tumour or, quite likely, a horse kicked him in the head and caused both physical and mental trauma.  All that we know is that he was ill and not capable of managing his own affairs.  In May 1861, during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln which is reflected on the Grant (see below) Ann May purchased 40 acres of land in Monroe County in her own name

Things were bad however and in July of that year Ann May put the following in the local newspaper

 We know from Ann's obituary that Charles sadly died in 1862.  I finally found a burial note in 2019, he died in December 1862 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Sparta.   He was 41.  There is no record of Charles and Ann ever having any children.

Ann was an eligible widow and in 1864 she remarried another English settler, the farmer John Hobson.  But John also died in 1868 and Ann was a widow again.

In 1872 she remarried another Englishman now a Naturalized American, Solomon Hutson, another farmer,  who was born in 1827 in England, was obviously her cousin and said that he had come to Wisconsin in 1850 (gained citizenship in 1857), so Solomon and Ann likely came over to the US in the same mass emigration, though the precise connection (he was likely a son of John Hutson above) is unclear to me. Sol had children having lost his first wife in 1870. Sol died in 1878 and Ann May after a painful illness in 1885 aged 56.  They lie in Big Creek cemetery in Sparta - see below.

 

Acknowledgements - I am indebted to Jarrod Roll, County Historian of Monroe County, Wisconsin; the Warren County Pennsylvania Historical Society and Laurie Swimmer, Genealogist of the Wisconsin Historical Society for their help and assistance

George Genn of Quadring, India and Tasmania d. 1854

 George here was the son of Denton Genn the elder (see my  post of  27th August 2013)

He was born at Quadring in 1818.  I could find no further British record of him and even wondered if he had died in infancy, and then in 2009 I was looking on the FORBIS datebase regarding fasmilies in India and he was mentioned as having joined the East India Company Army and having gone out to India on the "Essex" in 1840.

I no longer live near London and further research was impossible, but in August 2015 I bundled a number of military research references together and engaged the specialist researcher Ann Swabey to dig them out.  George Genn's service record being one of them.

George as I say was born in 1818.  He was uncle to William Mackinder Genn who would have known of him if never met him, and had various other family members who had sons called George named after him.

George was born under a wandering star.   He has proved an interesting and frustrating cove to research and as I write this I am still digging.

I have never found any British record of him after his birth, but by April 1840 George was in London, enlisting in the army of the East India Company.  George was a farrier, ie a blacksmith (like his brother Charles) and with all the sense of the army they put him in the infantry rather than the cavalry.

The East India Company was a private mercantile company that effectively (until 1858) adminstered India and other Far Eastern British possessions on behalf of, and for the benefit of, the British Empire (and itself), the government of Britain itself not having control at this time.  It had done so since the British had defeated the French in the struggle for India in the mid 1700s.

The Company was very rich and had a vast bureaucracy and a large private army and navy, both of the latter being modelled on the lines of the regular British army and navy.

The Company divided India into three "Presidencies" or administrative geographical chunks, these being Bengal, Bombay and Madras to the south.  Each presidency had its own army.  The vast majority of the regiments were comprised of native soldiers commanded by British officers, but each army had a small number of regiments comprised solely of Europeans (not necessarily of exclusively British stock).

George was enlisted into the 2nd Madras European Regiment, initially recruited in 1839 and to be known as the 2nd Madras European Light Infantry.  He was 5ft 5 ins tall, with brown hair and grey eyes.

He sailed for India on the East Indiaman "Essex" and arrived at the centre of the Madras Presidency, Fort St George, later that year.  It is still there and shown below in the 1850s.

The East India Company European regiments modelled themselves on the British army in training and dress and we can perhaps see George reflected in illustrations of the period with the guys standing at the back below right being a fair reflection

 and the dashing fellows below a further shot.

 The 2nd Madras European Light Infantry wore red coats of course, blue trousers and buff facings.

Whilst many other company's regiments saw active service in the 1840s (his cousin Billett Genn saw service with the 3rd Lancers in the Sikh Wars of 1848/9), George's was not among them, and he spent nine hot and sweaty years on mostly garrison duty in Madras.


George took his discharge to pension in September 1849.  He was then 31 and there is no record in the Company records (they allowed wives) of any spouse.

The last record of him in the Company records is "embarked for NS Wales 19th September 1849".  This is New South Wales, Australia of course.  The Company paid your passage home but few men of the Company ever went home, most emigrated further or stayed in India.

I checked the Australian records, George not being on Ancestry or mentioned in the NSW Archives..  George did not go to New South Wales, he sailed on for Tasmania.

George is in the Tasmanian records.  He arrived in Hobart Town on 4th November 1849 - his ship was the 454 tonne sailing barque "Johannes Sarkies" ironically carrying a few transported convicts that had been convicted of offences in India.  The barque did a regular run from India to Australia and back at this time.

                                        Hobart 1850s

We know that George was carrying a rupture, indeed that may have been the reason for his leaving the army.  On arrival he is listed as an (army) pensioner.

Things did not work out for George.  It may be that his injury affected his ability to work.  It may be that there simply was little work, there being so much convict labour about. Stefan Petrow of the University of Tasmania in his paper of policing in Tasmania at the time, says that there was an economic downturn in the island in the late 1840s and that "both convicts and the increasing number of free  emigrants found work scarce".  He goes on to say"large numbers of people, not just convicts, were in financial need and were forced to steal to survive".

George was on his own and between a rock and a hard place. What is known sadly is that George and two others stole from his employer, 3 bushels of wheat to the value of 15 shillings and received a 7 years sentence at Hobart Town Quarter Sessions on 30th August 1851. An extract from the "Colonial Times" of 2nd September 1851 reporting the Quarter Sessions hearing ..

George was clean shaven with dark brown hair, a long face and a large nose.  He carried a fair number of tatoos, being bracelets on both wrists, the regimental motto (cede nullis - yield to none) and the bugle symbol of the light infantry (below) with the figure  "2" inside it denoting his regiment on his left arm, and on the right a tatoo of a woman and the initials "MR" whoever she was.

George had to be put in the work or probation gangs as they were known, and he was required to work on those for eighteen months, being known to have worked at the Cascades Probation Station in 1851/2 which was one of the worst in Tasmania, the convicts being required (George already had a rupture) to cut and draw logs a long distance at the timbered area called Cascades at Hobart.  He was not built for it and it must have nearly killed him.

Subsequently George must have been assigned to work in the colony, but he was not well and at the end of 1853 we find repeated references to him in the "PB" (prison barracks) and Hobart Hospital.  He died at Hobart Hospital on 19th March 1854 - he was 35.  A sad end.

Joseph Ginn of Wrestlingworth d. 1870

Joe (son of Joseph in my post of 11th September 2014)  married Sara Gillions at Wrestlingworth (next to Potton) in 1808.  The couple obviously had children before 1814 but the first baptism (presumably when she was in infancy) was Mary in 1814. The family seems to have lived in Wrestlingworth throughout their lives. 

 Joseph was an Agricultural Labourer and lead a seemingly hard working uneventful life.  He died in 1870. Sara predeceased him in 1860.

Joe and Sara had nine known children

Joseph - see later post

William -  was a Labourer and married Frances Darts at Wrestlingworth in 1842. They were friends of Sarah Dazley "The Potton Poisoner"  and last woman to be hanged outside Bedford Gaol in 1843.  Sarah (just google the name) was skilled with arsenic and saw a few people off "The Bedfordshire Murders", being hanged for the murder of her last husband.  It is said that the whole population of Wrestlingworth went over to Bedford Gaol for the public hanging.  William and Fanny testified at the trial (see reports in the Morning Chronicle)

It is self evident that Bill was not entirely right himself, and in 1851 he had a bit of a moment and over several days in October set fire to several houses etc.  We are not told why.  Nobody died fortunately.  The authorities were not exactly best chuffed though and Bill was sentenced to 15 years transportation for arson. We know from his gaol record that he was 5ft 7ins tall and had brown hair and hazel eyes.  Luckily transportation as such ended at this time and he spent his time in Preston Gaol and on the Isle of Wight.

The couple had no children.  They spent quite some years in Leeds after William was released.  Bill died in 1903, Fanny in 1886.

James - see later post

Simeon - see later post

Ann - married Thomas Tole at Wrestlingworth in 1844.  The couple are shown below (photo courtesy of Nick Ginn a descendant of Ann's brother Simeon)

Sarah -  married John Cartwright in 1833


Frances - married John Stratton in 1840


Mary - married Samuel Lindsay in 1832


Charlotte - may have died in infancy - untraced

Charles Ginn of Hertford d.1881

For various reasons have not had the time to update the blog over the last few months, but hope to catch up a little over the next few weeks.

Charles here is the son of Charles snr of Hertford in my post of 1st April 2013.

He married Jane Binton at Hertford in 1848 and soon after he and Jane had thoughts of emigration.

I knew that they had spent a few years in South Africa before returning to Hertford when researching in the early 1990s, but had no idea what happened.  In later years a few things turned up in my research.

Charles joined the Merchant Navy in about 1850, clearly with the intention of emigrating, as in about that year he and the pregnant Jane took ship to Cape Town.  Their first child, Hannah, was born on the voyage down.

The Cape had been annexed by the British from the Dutch in the Napoleonic Wars, indeed Charles' distant cousin John Ginn was part of the original British garrison.  The garrison was not just there to resist invasion from another European country, but to provide some protection from the native tribes, in the Cape these being known as the Xhosa or more generally and racially as Kaffirs.  A series of wars were fought ("the Kaffir Wars") between the British and these tribes when the colony expanded and land and resources were contested.

Charles clearly thought that he was emigrating from peaceful Hertford to a settled non threatening colony like New South Wales in Australia, instead he and Jane turned up in the Cape when the military and the settlers were caught up in the latest of the Kaffir Wars.  If not quite frontier country  it was obviously a bit of a shock for them and, believe it or not, there is a surviving letter from the couple letting us know what happened !

Charles wrote back to his family in early 1851 and his brother Thomas thought that its contents should be passed on to the local newspaper "The Hertfordshire Mercury" so he took the letter in to them.  The comments were published in the edition of  17th May 1851 along with the marriage notice of Tom to Rebecca Klusman.

Charles had written on 7th March 1851.  Reading between the lines he was not a happy man.  He said that the Kaffir Wars had raised prices and there was a dearth of provisions - as a result he could not any money aside - despite having found work at the Cape Town Gas Works.  He tried to put a gloss on it.  "In all other respects however he was prospering with an increasing family which he was managing to find sufficient for in spite of the Kaffirs" Their second child John was born in Cape Town.

They would have been better off going on to Australia or whatever, but by December 1853 they had had enough and took ship on the "Cleopatra" and returned to England.  There was nothing for them there, just the slum housing in Hertford thast they had left.

Charles was a labourer.  He and Jane in total had ten children before Jane died in 1874.  John followed in 1881 leaving a number of young orphans

Their children

Hannah - probable sighting of her in Spitalfields in the 1871 census.  She was called Anna and was a needlewoman.

John - the only son to stay in Hertford.  Married Ellen Drew in 1875 and Elizabeth Hurrell in 1908.  Had ten children by his first wife.

Elizabeth - married Joshua Shadbolt

Susan - alive 1881

Rebecca - married Walter Harvey

Albert - he was in jail in St Albans at the time of the 1881 census and was a small time crook.  Died in 1906 aged 33.

Benjamin - he used a middle name of Charles when he married Ruth Stockwell in 1893.  I have a note that at one time he was a soldier (pre WW1) but have no further information at present.  He was a Bricklayer's labourer later.  He and Ruth had three children 

Joseph - he was in Ware Workhouse with his brother Benjamin (called Richard) in the 1881 census – the two of them now being orphans.

He joined the army in 1885 or so (he was 16). Presumably he lied about his age.

Joseph joined the Bedfordshire Regiment and appears to have served in the 2^nd Battalion.  He served with them for twelve years, and I believe he probably spent some time on the North West Frontier fighting the Afghans.

At some point Joe appears to have married (or acquired a companion) whilst in the army. This seems likely to have occurred abroad.

Joe was discharged from the army in late 1896.  He volunteered for the Army Reserve and in January 1897 was a bricklayer’s labourer at Hounslow where he was attested for the Middlesex Militia.  In June of 1897, he stated that he was married with one child. At present I have no idea of whom he married or the name of the child.  He was 5ft 8 ins tall with hazel eyes and brown hair.  Both forearms were tattooed.

The Boer War started in 1899.  The Middlesex Militia were “embodied” (ie called up) in that year.  

 It seems that Joseph’s first "wife"  died and in 1899 he married Louisa Mooney – possibly in anticipation of being sent overseas.  (He declared himself to be a bachelor on the marriage certificate in 1899).  He went out to South Africa, ironically where he father had spent a few years.  He was in the 2^nd Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment.

Joseph Ginn may have arrived too late for the Battle at Spion Kop which was a very bloody engagement  involving the Middlesex in January 1900.  He was with the 2^nd Battalion by February however, because he was at The Battle for the Tugela Heights and was involved in Buller’s march to relieve the Siege of Ladysmith. He received the South Africa Medal and clasps for both these engagements were attached.

Joe was discharged from the army in January 1901.  Back as a bricklayer’s labourer, he was at Finsbury in the 1901 census with Louisa.  They had no children then, but Louisa was 28 and subsequently they had three children.  Joseph  was called up to joined Royal Engineers in 1915 aged 46 and worked as a Pioneer throughout WW1. 

Charles and Henry - died in infancy