Benjamin was clearly the eldest surviving (not necessarily the first born) of the sons of Richard Genn/Ginn of Ely and his wife Joan/Jane (see post of 28th September 2012 ). I would guess that he was born in around 1648, there is no baptismal record as I say, there is a gap in the Ely Trinity register. It became obvious as 2019 progressed that he was Richard's son, but ironically the clinching piece of evidence was obtained in the Lowestoft Record Office (Suffolk) where I now live having moved from Hertfordshire. It was an air punching moment !
The Covid outbreak held back some research on this guy, but in late 2020 it was discovered that Benjamin Genn ("Gynn" in the register) married a Mary Salmon at St Mary, Bury St Edmunds in early 1680. This church is one of the largest parish churches in England and Ben had an association with the church (below) until he died.
I have an affection and some sympathy for Mary because of what happened, and she deserves a couple of paragraphs here because she is caught up in this story.
Mary Salmon was born in Bury in 1655, she was the daughter of John Salmon jnr - the Salmons were an old and established Bury family, although I have yet to discover their occupation. But Mary's grandfather John Salmon snr had married Mary Moody in 1622, Mary Moody being the younger daughter of George Moody (1560-1607) of Moulton (google him) who was a distinguished gentleman. Indeed, George Moody jnr was the heir and moved to Bury St Edmunds. He married but had no issue and when he died in 1652 he made "my brother John Salmon" his executor and left money to John Salmon jnr, Mary's dad. George and Mary Moody's brother Samuel Moody Esq of Bury St Edmunds next became the heir (Mary Genn's gt uncle) Samuel being a Woolen Draper, an avowed Parliamantarian in the English Civil War and MP and Justice of the Peace for Bury. Mary had Moody cousins who were Cavalry officers under Cromwell - Ben Genn had married well.
What we know is that soon after their marriage Ben took up his father's occupation ie he became a Haberdasher of Hats. Richard Genn in Ely gave his son a head start (pun intended) as I know that he put money into Benjamin's first shop..
Charles the 2nd in 1680s
In the second half of the 17th century particularly, Newmarket, a horse racing town and not far from Ely, was very fashionable with the Royal Court and the gentry. Charles the Second took the throne in 1660 and he and his mistress Nell Gwyn had a house there and attended Newmarket with the court for an average of two months every year until his death in 1685. Charles would wander around the town to mingle with his subjects like a gent out for a stroll. The small town of less than 700 souls, more a village really, gave him his twin entertainments of horseracing and cockfighting.
If you wanted to sell hats then this was now the place to be, and Ben opened a shop in Drapery Row (sometime called Dolphin Alley) near the Market Square by or around the time he married in 1680. Drapery Row is still there, but no longer of consequence, effectively a tradesmen's entrance to the market, but in its day it was a busy narrow thoroughfare leading to the Bushell and Woolpack Inns.
If you wanted to sell hats to "the quality" then you needed a quality supplier, someone who could supply the latest fashions, someone in London. Benjamin made a deal with a partnership in the City of London, Jon Somers and Shem Bracebridge. Somers I know nothing about, save that he was partner to Shem, but Bracebridge was born in 1653, son to Samuel Bracebridge, a Parson from Warwickshire, he is mentioned in Percy Boyd's "Inhabitants of London" compiled in the 1930s, Percy having also helped me find Ben's brother John.
Shem Bracebridge was a member of the Mercers Company, he made and sold everything, hats, trimmings, silks and every frippery the gentry and those who chose to ape them might want, a contemporary of Ben, and sadly like Ben also died young, in his case in 1697.
Benjamin accrued a line of credit with the London partnership, ordering what he wanted on a monthly basis and sending moneys down to London each month in return. Exceptionally, we have one of Shem and Jon's account pages for Ben from 1689 (below) and we can see that on every order the guys would send a "parsell" up to Newmarket and Bury S Edmunds, Ben being rushed off of his feet in the summer when all the gentry came to town, not so busy in the winter.
copyright. National Archives
It is unlikely I think that Benjamin Genn ever lived in Newmarket, I am pretty sure he always lived in Bury St Edmunds. Some excellent work by Peter May M.A in his article "Newmarket in the reign of Charles II" includes an analysis of the 1674 Hearth Tax return and Rates records from 1670 and 1672. Peter notes that the assessors for the rates divided tax payers into two groups, Newmarket residents and "Bury and other shops". His analysis shows that the resident tradesman were almost all those suppling daily needs (food and drink and essential crafts) whilst those in the latter section were tradesmen from out of town who merely had shops in Newmarket (nearly 50% living in Bury, some from Ely even Cambridge) catering for a different clientele, in Peter's words "there was now in fact a market for what we would call luxury goods, made up and sold by mercers, haberdashers and the like; this new market can surely only be due to the fact that the aristocracy were now, under the encouragement of King Charles, having their establishments in the town, and bringing their fashions with them to be emulated no doubt by the wealthier Newmarket families". Several of the royal court had bought houses near the town.
What is certain is that by the 1680s, having a shop in Newmarket which was held copyhold from the manor, Ben also had a shop in Bury St Edmunds and lived there in a fair sized house, exact location unknown, research on which awaits. My suspicion is that he leased both shop and house in Bury.
Ben's first "knock back" occurred in March, 1683. King Charles was in town at Newmarket, living in his place in the High Street. His Lifeguards were stationed outside the town. Now Newmarket was divided into two "sides" the north side of the High Street which lay in Suffolk, the south side in Cambridgeshire, Drapery Row was to the north, King Charles to the south. It was very cold weather for March (winters were much colder then - it was known as the "Little Ice Age" the Thames often froze across) and the ground was as hard as iron with frost. At about 9pm on the 22nd March, a fire broke out in a stables near St Mary's Church, it is thought by a man smoking a pipe or dropping a lantern in the hay. It spread rapidly and engulfed most of the Suffolk side of the town in four hours. There was no fire brigade then and little water in the town, the little steam that ran through it was said to be choked with sewage and ice - how our ancestors lived !
The Great Fire of Newmaket as it is known left 300 of the 700 Newmarket residents shivering on the heath outside he town that night, 66 houses were destroyed and at one point the King rode into town to direct operations. Many shops also went or were damaged.
In the aftermath the King issued a "Fire Brief" which went to many towns, appealing for money to assist the rebuilding. A Petition went into the magistrates court at Bury St Edmunds in April 1683 signed by many of those who had lost out in the fire, these records being microfilmed in 1959 and the index of which has "Benjamin Gym and Richard Gym" asking for compensation for their loss. A total of £20,000 was raised countrywide. The actual record of course is not "Gym" at all. The Newmarket residents numbered 84 and lost over £6000. A few in outlying villages having shops in Newmarket lost £350. But so also did nineteen "other persons" living elsewhere including (names together in the record) "Benjamin Gynn Haberdasher of Hats and Richard Gynn of Ely Haberdasher of Hats (these nineteen) ... having shops and warehouses in the said town of Newmarket and most of them being of the Borough of Bury St Edmunds did sustain losses (ie all 19 together) in their goods, wares and merchandises [sic] there by the said fire to the value of two thousand eight hundred and twenty seven pounds..." So Richard had invested and had stock in Benjamin's shop. It is likely Ben's shop had to be completely rebuilt.
By 1685 therefore, the year of the King's death, Benjamin was prospering again. He had a wide ranging clientele (by some miracle a partial list of his clients survives !) from the lower middle class of tradesman like Goodman Chinery (who probably managed a 10 "bob" (10s) felt hat, through many gentry and up to quite a few of those with landed estates, such as Lady Read and Henry Goldwell of Tuddenham Esq. Goldwell was a Freeman of Bury St Edmunds and was one of the two Members of Parliament for Bury from 1690 until his death in 1694. It is likely that he bought his fashionable beaver hats for the House of Common from Ben, very popular with the gentry and as Samuel Pepys observed, costing no less than £4 and upwards.
A 1690 follower of fashion
The records suggest that Benjamin was a kindly man, trusting, sometimes trusting when he shouldn't. It is not a fault, but it is always seen by some as a weakness and not the accolade it should be.
Tradesmen often offered credit to customers, it was the rule rather than the exception - gentlemen were expected to pay their debts. But whilst Ben kept his books, Mary implies that he did not always insist people signed "chits" for what they owed him and as Mary put it at Ben's death he had "book debts" of what customers owed him of some "ten or twelve years standing ……… many of the said debtors being insolvent, others dead or run away" and others she could not prove the debt due to Benjamin "for a long time before his death having no apprentice or other to attest the same...." so they were relying on word of mouth as to who owed what. We are talking of about £100 worth of bad debt, enough to buy three cottages at the time. He was certainly being taken advantage of - as Henry Goldwell above owed Ben £7, yet Goldwell is reported on the House of Commons website to have taken a bribe of £1000 in 1690 whilst an MP !
And then there was Nathaniel (see last post) Ben's brother. Benjamin was always helping him out. He needed Ben to stand surety for his debts, and Benjamin was understandably not always willing ….. being "drawn in" says Mary by Nathaniel's "earnest intreaties [sic]". So Benjamin was in debt to Shem and Jon, had other bonds of his own, had bad debts and now he was backing Nathaniel's business in Wisbech, for Mary tells us that Nathaniel's debts were "in his own way of trade" in other words Benjamin was getting nothing out of standing guarantor for his bro !
All this being said, Benjamin Genn was no fool - he was never so financially exposed as to risk bankruptcy. Indeed we have a full inventory of his house in Bury and shops there and in Newmarket, in summary as follows:
Cellar
Seventeen (mostly brewing) vessels, tubs, coal and lumber
Ground floor
Three bedrooms - the Parlour chamber (they had converted the parlour to a bedroom)- the Little chamber "next the street" and the Hall chamber. All of these had four posters and all the trimmings with tables and chairs, chests of drawers
The Hall - ie the main living room - with three tables, eleven chairs, three joined stools, a press (ie a wardrobe with hanging clothes above, drawers below) silver plate, all the stuff in the great fireplace and Ben's musket and pair of pistols (presumably to deter thieves)
First floor
Two further bedrooms - the Great Chamber (Ben and Mary's bedroom) with a four poster bed, the trimmings, table and six chairs, rug and a great fireplace and the Little Chamber with two trundle beds
Second floor
Two further bedrooms, the Great Garret with four poster and all the trimmings, table and chairs and fireplace and the Little Garret with trundle bed. These were likely occupied by servants and, when they had them, apprentices.
Outside
There was a Stables and Yard with horse, saddle and all the gear and a Brewhouse for home brewing which everybody did
Shops and Warehouse
Benjamin had two shops and a warehouse in Newmarket and Bury, stuffed with "one hundred and fifty eight dozen of hats, hat bands, linings, cases, loopings and tresses" (wigs ?) on counters in the shops and warehouse together with packs of wool and lambs wool in the Wool Garret above - worth together nearly £300.
So Benjamin Genn should not be underestimated. That said, like for many of us today, it only took one stroke of bad luck for the apple cart to be overturned, and that came at the end of 1690, Ben became ill.
We do not know the nature of the illness, but it was winter and a quick fever or smallpox are unlikely. Consumption is the best bet, not least because Mary tells us that Ben chatted to he and told her what to do to protect herself in the event of his death; I rather like this man.
Benjamin Genn died in February 1691 - he was I would suspect a little over 40. He and Mary had never had any children. He had continued his association with St Mary's church to the end, and is shown in the burial register as "Benjamin Genn, Churchwarden".
By his will made in January (PRO) he made Mary his sole executrix, left his copyhold shop in Newmarket to her as also all his goods and money. He implored her to pay all his debts, because he knew what was coming.
I know so much about Ben of course because of a court case, in fact we are told there were several court cases after his death (mostly in the Court of Common Pleas) but at present only one (C6 331/1) seems to have been suitably indexed by the National Archives. That is more than enough, the information it provides is truly extraordinary.
We have seen (see last post regarding Nathaniel Genn) that Benjamin stood surety for his brother and soon after Ben died, Nathaniel fled Wisbech "to parts unknown" fearing his creditors and realising this the creditors went after Ben's estate. Mary in Bury St Edmunds was left with the mess.
John Lancaster was a Yeoman in Wisbech. Nathaniel had borrowed money from him (£60) and Ben had stood surety. Lancaster now sued, he was late for the party because most of Ben's creditors had already been paid off. To some extent he was "fishing", "flying a kite", as a lawyer I can tell this , because his lawyers had some information on Ben, but a fair bit of it was guess work, they were not sure what money he had or what Mary was doing and whether she was being manipulated by third parties. They were mauling an already butchered carcass (Ben's estate) and wanted what they could get back.
The first mistake Lancaster made was to portray Mary as "the little woman", being manipulated by Shem Bracebridge and Jon Summers. Mary was certainly not that, she clearly came from a minor gentry family and was literate in an age when few women were allowed to be, her signature is below.
If she had not been capable of it, Benjamin would not have made her his sole executrix. The second mistake Lancaster made was to assume that Shem and Jon were falsifying debts, because he alleged that Shem and Jon had forged with Mary some of the Bonds ie debts that Ben owed them, thus reducing the Estate to defraud Lancaster. They involved a Cornelius Arnold in this allegation too, whose part in this seems to have been that of an innocent bystander. This was all thrown out by the Court.
Lancaster "threw the kitchen sink" at this though, alleging that Ben "departed this life with bills, bonds, book debts and other debts owing to him, horses, cattle, plate (ie silver plate) jewels, rings, linen, woollen, pewter or brass, household stuff of all sorts, fats (vats) brewing vessels, coppers and a very great number and quantity of hats of all sorts, with other wares and merchandise in the several shops and dwelling house of the said Benjamin Genn which with other diverse goods and chattels elsewhere merit the value of one thousand pounds and upwards...…...and also of diverse other securities for moneys, some in his own name and some in other names or names intent for him or for his use to the value of five hundred pounds" Note that no real estate is mentioned.
A probate Inventory was taken after Ben's death, these rarely survive but in this case Mary produced a copy to the court. It assesses his wealth in goods, debts and money as £700, about £100 more than the payment of his and his joint debts with Nathaniel, his funeral expenses (£14) the court fees and expenses of the court cases etc. No mention of the value of any real estate again. The amounts quoted are in my view a little convenient. Did Mary hide assets - yes of course she did (people do it today in similar circumstances and on divorce). I suspect she was counselled on by her father in law and others (including Ben before he died) and equally suspect that Benjamin Genn truly was "worth a thousand pounds and upwards"
Part of the Inventory
But the case did effectively ruin everything. Mary could not have walked away with much and may have gone to live with her father, who was still living in 1691 aged 68 as he is shown in Ben Genn's accounts as one of the "book debts". Mary sadly never remarried and died in 1708 aged 53, likely of smallpox which was very virulent at that time. She and Ben lie together in St Mary's churchyard. If Benjamin Genn had not died young and debt swallowed up his legacy, the history of the Genn family of Ely could have been very different.
