The Great Plague struck London in 1665, killing a fair chunk of the population. The next year, almost like a natural event to purge the source of the disease, the Great Fire of London turned a large part of the City of London to cinders. The timber houses had gone, the resolve was to rebuild the City in brick and stone. In 1667 the government passed the Rebuilding Act, the aim to rebuild what had gone and the call went out for carpenters, masons, bricklayers and the like to come to London. They were promised good wages and that the rules of the City guilds creating a "closed shop" would be removed.
Henry Ginn was a bricklayer. He lived in Cheshunt (where I was born and my ancestors lived as Henry's contemporaries) which is close to London, to which workers commute today, and to where people moved then and now. There was work there for Henry, so to London he went.
My guess is that Henry arrived in London quite soon after the fire, probably 1667. He settled in St James Clerkenwell, unaffectted by the Fire.
The old church of St James is shown above. It was demolished in 1788 and the new church is rather impressive. Henry married Selina Woodard at St James in 1668. It is not clear who Selina was, she had a lovely Christian name.
Unfortunately where the couple settled was not so lovely. They settled in Turnmill Street "one of the oldest streets in London" (Wikipedia).
Turnmill Street was famous, or rather infamous, for about 400 years, from Shakespeare's time (who with Ben Johnson and others mentions it - it was sometimes known as Turnbull Street) to the late 1800s. A maze of alleys and courts adjoined the street and it was a den of poverty, the most serious vice , crime and disease. Prostitutes, Pimps, thugs, burglars, rapists and pickpockets rubbed shoulders with slum dwellers who lived in the most appalling conditions. There was no clean water, no sanitation, each family was confined to a room and the alleys and courts running off it were so congested and narrow that occupants of houses facing each other could shake hands out of their upstairs windows !
Jack (John) Ketch was the Public Executioner for King Charles the Second, notorious for botching his job. He died in 1686 and his name became synonymous with the Public Hangman. Turnmill Street and its alleys were so rife with crime it had the nickname "Jack Ketch's Warren". Why Henry settled here I have no idea - maybe he liked the street life, maybe he had no choice - but it was no place to bring up a family.
Henry and Selina had children over some fourteen years, but we only have five names. It seems likely there were more, but the burials largely match the baptisms and there is some suggestion in social studies of the period that birth control was practised in basic forms where living conditions were inadequate for a large family. "Selina Ginn wife of Henry of Bull Alley, Turnmill Street Bricklayer" died in 1683. Within some years Henry got together with a lady called Lucy, likely a widow, and had the only known surviving son, Thomas.
Turnmill Street as depicted in Ogilby's Map of London of 1676
Henry Ginn of Turnmill Street apprenticed out his son Thomas (then 14) in September 1707 which was a last flourish as Henry died in 1708 - he had done well to survive so long - he was 70. Lucy Ginn "widow" died in 1710.
Henry and Selina (1) and Lucy (2) had the following children
Mary - born 1673, she married James Garlington of Clerkenwell in 1700, he was born in 1675 and had previously married a Phyllis Coote who died without issue. James and Mary had a fair sized family over some 24 years, including a Phyllis named after his first wife (!) but how many survived is unclear . A James Garlington of Turnbull Street (ie Turnmill St) in Clerkenwell is mentioned in the "Liverymen of London 1733" (compiled in 1977) as a Freeman of the Company of Turners. The name was unique so it is obviously him. James died in 1734 aged 63. Mary's fate is unclear
Richard - no baptism surviving but a likely son - Richard was a family name. If he does belong then he likely became a Freeman because Richard Ginn "bachelor of the Green" (Clerkenwell Green) below was expressed to be buried at St James "in the church" in early 1692/3. He may have left enough money for that or perhaps being his father's only son at the time his father did.. Clerkenwell Green
was known to be full of artisans and some of the "better sort" at the time. In John Styrpe's Survey of London (1720) he reports a slab in the church floor marked "Richard Gynn 1692". In our calendar it would have been 1693. It is conjecture as I say, but he may be Henry's who I know I have badly underestimated.
Selina, Robert and Ann all died in infancy
Elizabeth - "spinster" died in 1707 in her 20s
Thomas - was born in 1693. Just before Christmas in 2020 it was discovered that in September 1707, Thomas Ginn son of Henry, Bricklayer of Clerkenwell was apprenticed to a John Davill, a joiner also of Clerkenwell. Davill was about 12 years older than Tom and was the son of a ragman - ie a purveyor of old clothes and rags in Clerkenwell which sounds about right for this area..
Tom was working not far from home, though was orphaned at 17. Tom Ginn married an Ann in about 1715, I cannot find a marriage entry and in 1720 Thomas Ginn became a Freeman of London, being entered in to the Joiners Livery Company.
He started a business on his own account, ie became a master craftsman, as he started taking apprentices (young Billy Acton - also a Londoner - in 1722) His claim to fame (for which he would be justly proud) is an entry in the British and Irish Furniture Makers Database online.
Tom and Ann also lived in Turnmill Street, likely in the house of his father- I suspect he had carried it over.
Hogarth's London of the 1730s - he lived in Clerkenwell
Thomas Ginn became ill and died in hospital (likely St Barts, maybe Guys) in 1732 aged 39 and was buried at St James. Ann never remarried and died in 1760 with a quoted age of 67. My theory is she brought up her surviving son Henry - see below - who supported her.
Thomas and Ann had Lucy (after Mum) in 1716 (died infancy) Uriah 1717 (after grandpa - also died infancy) Elizabeth (died 1721) and Henry Thomas 1728. It is on Henry Thomas that rests the hope that the Ginn line from Richard Ginn of Stocking Pelham (see post of 9th August 2012 re Ginn Band of Brothers)) survived. A Henry Ginn married a Rebecca Wiffin at Bethnal Green in 1753. It may well be this man
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