The origins of the Ginn family of Ware

So far, the posts in the blog have been just about exclusively those relating to Ginn men and women descended from William Ginn of Aston who died in circa 1520.  But, as mentioned in the Introduction to this blog, there were other Ginn families in Hertfordshire that cannot be shown to be or certainly were not descendants of William, though they are likely relations - and one such family is the first (post 1600) Ginn Family of Ware.

Three Ginn men, Richard, William and Nethaniah all seem to have come into Ware in about 1615.  The fact that they arrived at broadly the same time suggests that they could have been brothers, though there is absolutely no evidence of that.  They do not seem to be ancestors of nor related to (in my view) the second Ginn family that arrived in Ware in the 1650s, but more of that later.

All three of these men married, although William died immediately afterwards and although Nethaniah lived until 1669 , his sons died in infancy and only two daughters lived to marry.  So, effectively,  the first Ginn Family of Ware are descended from this Richard, he being born in about 1585.  So who was he ?

Well the sad truth is I do not know, but there are two schools of thought as to his origins:

One, the Broxbourne theory, is that these lads came into Ware from neighbouring Broxbourne (whose registers do not survive for this period) as I know through the odd will that there were Ginns in Broxbourne in the 1500s.  This family itself had likely originated from Ware, as I also know that Ginns were present in Ware from about 1450-1550, and the family used the name Richard.  But my suspicion is that this theory "does not run".

Secondly, the Stocking Pelham theory, is that Richard Ginn came into Ware from Stocking Pelham.  A Richard Ginn of there, a Tailor, had property there (see post of 9th August 2012 ) and is known from the will of his brother Jonas (the SP registers also do not survive for this period) to have had a substantial family there in the 1570s through likely to 1600 or so.  Jonas, who died in 1605, also tells us that Richard's son Harry (who had a son Uriah as opposed to Nethaniah)) went into Cheshunt  (considerably further from  Stocking Pelham than Ware) and given that SP was a tiny hamlet, the boys may have felt compelled to move out.  My suspicion is that this theory runs.

Both theories are conjecture, there is is no evidence either way.  So what do we know of this first Richard ?

Well the first Richard was a Brazier, that is he made items of brass.   And he married twice, Beatrice Gilderson of Stanstead Abbotts (likely daughter of George and born Roydon in 1596 - I know this area well) in 1616 (by whom he had his only child) and the widow Alice Hare of Broxbourne in early 1623.  For some reason both marriages were at the small but beautiful Widford Church nearby, Richard and his brides seeing the wall paintings from 1500 that are still there today.

And that is pretty much it, we do not know when Richard died nor does there appear to be any burial record of either wife.

As for the only son, also Richard - see next post