Ginn family of Hertfordshire: John Ginn of Arkesden and Chigwell died 1770

To be honest I never expected to trace this man, so tracing him in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic was a bit of a shock. And this research is fresh, and further investigation large shelved at present because of the said epidemic.

John was born in Little Hormead in Herts in 1704 - son of John and Mary (nee Rayment) see my post of post of 13th January 2013. His parents moved to Rickling in Essex in or about 1707. I knew all this in 1995 but I did not have a clue as to what happened to John junior.

John senior ("Farmer" in the register) died in 1717. The children's stepmother died in 1718 and they were left to their own devices, none were much older than 20. Their daughter Mary married at Ricking in 1720, but the younger John and Margaret I searched for for years, and then in 2011 I discovered them both in Arkesden in Essex (up the road) where Margaret married in 1724.

John Junior would have inherited a few pounds on his father's death and in 1727 he married Susannah Catmore from Albury in Herts (born 1704 to William) at Albury.

John and Susannah settled at Arkesden (below) and it seems likely from what has been discovered that John had a few acres there and was a smallholding farmer.

John and Susan/ah had two children in Arkesden and then, after 1733, they were gone. In May 2020 I finally traced them.

John Ginn did what his uncles had done, he went south, in this case to Chigwell in Essex, like most men in this family, still "hugging" the Essex/Herts border area. I would assume that he and Susan arrived there in the 1730s, no further children are yet known.

Chigwell is not far from London of course, and even in the early 1700s it was influenced by it, prosperous merchants living in Chigwell on the more residential western side, whilst the eastern side was predominantly rural, I would assume that Jon's smallholding was there.

The "King's Head", the pub that Dickens immortalised in is "Barnaby Rudge" as the "Maypole Inn" and which he knew well, was already old in John's day, I am sure he downed a few pints there.

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At the moment all I know (research awaits) is that John farmed in Chigwell. The manorial records survive for this period and when I can research again in the actual archives, I intend to try and find records of his lands, though I suspect he only had a cottage and a field or two, also relying on his rights regarding the common land.

Susan Ginn died at Chigwell in early 1752. John did not wait around, because by 1753 he had found himself a new lady, who I suspect was younger than himself (she was not a widow) and decided to take her up to London to get wed.

Before 1754 (when it was declared illegal) it was common for people in the Home Counties (and pretty much the norm in London) to go up to London to be married by the clergy who operated in taverns, rooms and, in some rare cases even chapels, in the vicinity of the Fleet Prison (below).

The Fleet Prison was for debtors, and it was legal (if frowned upon by the Church of England) for clergy (often debtors themselves) who did not have a parish or other church income, to conduct marriages for a fee much less than the usual. Marriages at the Fleet were not only cheaper, the clergy did not ask too many questions about the age or status of the participants, the marriages were private (ie away from the prying eyes of the villagers of the couple) and the whole nature of the event gave the proceedings a carnival air. The couple and their entourage all ended up in a London Tavern and a good time was had by all.

One such Fleet clergyman was a certain Peter Symson, who married people for many years until he was banned in 1754, and who in 1751 was up before the Old Bailey for knowingly allowing a man to enter into a bigamous marriage, his defence being that if he had not done it someone else would, which was undoubtedly true.

Symons married his clients a the "Old Red Hand and Mitre", a chapel just off Fleet Street, now long gone.

Marriage at the Fleet

It was at the esteemed "Old Red Hand and Mitre" then that John took his new bride, Mary Rice or Rece, also allegedly of Chigwell and a spinster. They were married by Symson and the entry, in Symson's own handwriting and written up in his book and signed by him is below.

There is no evidence that further children were born to John with either wife at Chigwell. John died there in 1770 aged 64. Mary stayed on, not remarrying and died there in 1785.