Your monument shall be my gentle verse
That eyes not yet created shall o'er read
And tongues to be, your being, shall rehearse
When all the breathers of your world are dead
You still shall live, such virtue hath my pen
Where breath most breathes - in mouths of men

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Thursday, 10 October 2019

Charles Genn of Ely died 1811

Charles Genn here was the youngest son (b.1776) of Richard Genn of Ely (see post of  9th March 2013 ) and brother of Robert and Denton.  He was ignored by all prior researchers of the Genn  family.

In 1802 (baptised1803) a Henry Fleet was born to an Ann Fleet of Ely (born 1782) who died in childbirth.  The midwife said that before death Ann gave Charles as the father.  There is a record at the Cambridgeshire Archives that Chas. was ordered to pay maintenance.  Henry was likely taken in by the parish, and he sadly died in 1815 aged 12.

Charles Genn was a baker.  He owned his premises which were in Ely, St Mary parish and  he was in business by at least 1802 as he was fined in the Petty Sessions at the Magistrates Court for serving up lightwight loaves.  He therefore had his shop on the west side of Ely, near St Mary's, but I do not know where.

                                     St Mary Ely, with the parsonage (one time house
                                             of Oliver Cromwell) in the foreground

In 1804, Charles Genn married Susannah King by Licence at Bottisham, her origins are not entirely clear. They only had one child, born in 1805.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the country was on high alert against invasion, men not only joining the Army (there was no conscription) and the official full time County Militia regiments (for Home Defence) but also local worthies raised units of part time civilian volunteers, largely tradesmen, kitted out in ad hoc uniforms reflecting the true military and the men enjoying "playing at soldiers"

Sgt Major


I know that Charles was the Sergeant Major of the Ely Regiment of Volunteers, in 1807 he was enjoying  himself so much in the role that he complained to the magistrates in Petty Sessions that a local millwright, Robert Wilkinson, had obstructed Charles "in carrying out his military duties" !

Susanna Genn died in 1810, it is unclear why - she was given as 32.  Charles was friendly with a lady called Margaret Varnum, who I know had worked for his brother Robert at the Lamb Hotel since at least 1802 (Petty Sessions records again) and in early 1811 Charles married her by Licence at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk (St James) from whence she came.

The Lamb today is scarcely changed

But sadly they were not together long, for in October 1811 Charles himself died - he was 35.  His only child, aged 6, was now an orphan.  

Charles left a will (CRO), the original of which survives, his signature from that is below


Margaret remarried  William Cooper at Ely in 1815.

The only child

Billett King Genn - see next post


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