Billett Genn of Ely d 1917

 Billett Genn was born to Billett Genn snr (see post of 4th June 2014)  ) in 1827.  In in 1841 aged 14 he was signed on as an indentured apprentice seaman (for 7 years) aboard the brigantine "George Robinson", a merchant ship which sailed for Newfoundland. 

 Billett kept a diary of his voyages which has survived, and after a short stay in Newfoundland he sailed for the West Indies in "The Garland".  In the West Indies he caught Yellow Fever and nearly died.

Soon after Billett arrived back in England, for some reason forgoeing the rest of his apprenticeship, he enlisted (in February 1846) into the 3rd Kings Own Light Dragoons, signing on for seven years as a trooper.

The 3rd had been stationed in India for some years and he was soon on the troopship "East Indies", sailing for India.  He fought in the Punjab Campaign of 1848/9 against the Sikhs.  The Sikhs have always been fine warriors and this and the usual thick headedness of some of our officers meant that there was some hard fighting, though ultimately the British prevailed and the Punjab was annexed by the British.  The 3rd Kings Own Light Dragoons were heavily engaged in all this, and their charge at Chilianwala is depicted below.

Billett was dishcarged back in London in 1853.  He received the Punjab Campaign Medal.

 This medal was awared to Billett's comrade in the 3rd King's Own Light Dragoons

 Returning to Ely, Billett became a Schoolmaster at Needham School in Ely which was a charity school for poor boys.  The old building survives (below) but is now used for teacher training.  Billett left and then returned and worked there for quite some years through to the 1870s.

Billett married Victoria Haylock, daughter of an Ely Miller on New Years Day 1867 - he was 40, she 23.  They had a number of children.  He retained the "cavalry" whiskers for much of his early and middle years as we can see below.

Even after leaving Needhams, Billett contiuned to work part time as a schoolmaster in Ely, doing so until the First World War when he was in his 80s.  He also continued to have an association with the volunteer forces in Ely, having loved his time in the army, and we see him below sporting his Punjab Campaign Medal

Billett and Victoria lived at 1 Lynn Road in Ely, the house of his father and opposite the Lamb Hotel.  I have been there a numer of times, it is now a shop

We see him and Victoria, he sporting a clay pipe in later life, but they are obviously visiting, as this is not their home. This is 1906, Billett is nearly 80 and Victoria 61. Below is Billet at nearly 90.

Victoria, who was well known in Ely in her own right,  died in 1913 aged 68.  Billett was the last of the Ely Ginn and Genn family to actually live there.  He died aged 90 in 1917, the last of a family to have been there continuously for 330 years. He was granted a full military funeral which is depicted below, the courtege is passing his house.

                                            

Billett and Victoria had seven children

Arthur Robert - the first Ginn in Ely  was Robert (1587) and his eldest son was Arthur.  The last Genn in Ely was Billett d. 1917 a descendant of Robert, so it is a little spooky that his eldest son was Arthur Robert.

Arthur Robert joined the 17th Lancers the "Death or Glory Boys" in 1898.  His very distant cousin Benjamin Ginn had left the same regment in 1891.

             17th Lancers on Parade before embarking for S.A

 Arthur fought in the 2nd Boer War and received the South Africa Medal with 4 clasps.

He subsequently joined the Bedfordshire Police and rose to Inspector.  He married and had issue and his son, the late Lt. Colonel Robert Seymour Genn left genealogical notes that have contributed research to this blog.  Arthur died in 1955

Algernon - actually Billett Algernon Manners Genn - hated his name.  I can scarcely blame him.  He went into Warwickshire as a young man and took an apprenticeship (Birmingham) and lived with a Haylock Aunt for a time.  He joined one of the Territorial battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment when he was 18 calling himself Albert.  He obviously feared his name being ridiculed.  In 1900, there were moves to encourage volunteers from the Territorials into the regular army, and he volunteered (calling himself Alfred !) into a volunteer company of the 1st Btn. Essex Regiment.  It is all the same man- he gave his place of birth and parents.  Like his brother he fought in the Boer War earning the South Africa Medal with 5 clasps.  This was issued to him as Alfred of course and I have noticed that the medal was recently sold in Australia.  He took early discharge which as a volunteer was allowed in mid 1901 and some months later married.  There were issue.  Algernon was later an Engineer and a Freemason.  He lived in Bedfordshire like his brother.  He died in 1937.

Margaret Elizabeth - married Frederick Bixby in Westminster in 1906

Victoria Blanche - married Frederick Chambers at St Mary's Ely in 1913

Florence Martha - was a Housekeeper in Dorset in 1891 but untraced thereafter

Marian Bewster - married Thomas Martin Phillips at Ely St Mary in 1915

Yerbury Emile - died infancy

Acknowledgements - I am indebted to the late Lt. Colonel Robert Seymour Genn for much of the information on Billett, and to Robert's daughter Helen for the wonderful collection of photographs of him

John Thomas Genn and the Genns of Oregon USA

 Due to the discovery (during Coronavirus induced Lockdown) of conclusive evidence linking the Ely Genn family to the Ely Ginn family (who came from Hertfordshire) I have extended my research efforts on the Genn family and have created new posts out of the old.

John Thomas Genn snr  you will find online as the father of John Thomas Genn jnr (1867-1939) but where he is mentioned there is no comment on where he came from, nor any marriage record for his supposed marriage to a Mary Bloodworth  nor any burial record.  There is a reason for that - the guy is fiction.  Until a correspondent wrote to me in 2023 I believed this online story.   John Thomas Genn jnr was the illegitimate son of William Mackinder Genn (see post of  2nd March 2014)) and his cousin by marriage Mary Bloodworth.

 William Mackinder emigrated to America, going out to New York on the "Neptune in 1862 with the Bloodworths, his cousins by his sister.  He is not indexed on the Ancestry passenger list but is there as William Gen aged 18.  For some reason they give his origin as Ireland - a typographical error.  He was indeed 18 went he went out. He and the Bloodworths went to Winfield in New York State, a small place ner Utica.

William enlisted from Winfield into the Union Army in 1862, very soon after his arrival. After William returned from the Civil War in 1865, he went back to New York State where Mary Bloodworth was still living with her family in Winfield (1865 census) near Utica.  They obviously had some form of relationship and in 1866 she became pregnant, the child was clearly born in the area in April 1867 but there appears to be no record.  John T jnr later (see below) gave his birth place as Utica and his father as William Genn.

                                 William M Genn in later life

The relationship broke down, William Mackinder departed to Chicago (where he is reputed to be in 1867) and Mary, a domestic servant,  named the child John Thomas Genn (which suggests some involvement by William - he had a late brother of that name) and was living with her sister Fanny and family in Winfield in 1870.

In 1872 Mary married a George Cox and moved to Illinois.  George then died and she remarried Thomas Cox who was George's brother - both George and Tom were born in England also.  Mary died in 1903.

John Thomas Genn junior married Clara Sophia Morse at Winnebago Illinois in 1890 and moved up to Oregon by 1900 or so.  He was a Real Estate Salesman, what we in England would call an Estate Agent.  He and Clara had two sons - Willis B. (known as Bill Genn) and Vernon.

John T. jnr died in 1939 in Eugene, Oregon and Clara in 1949.  Their memorials are below

When John T died in 1939 his son Bill (Willis) was the informant on the death certificate which is below.  John T's parentage is given.

As for their two sons:

 Willis Burr Genn (known as "Bill") originally joined the Merchant Navy.  He had an ancestor and two Genn cousins who went into Law enforcement so it was no surprise to me to find that he joined the Oregon State Police and rose to Sergeant.  He married more than once but I do not believe  there were children.  Bill died in 1954. See below

                                                                 Willis in 1919

                            Bill is seecond from left (1925)

Vernon Chathburton Genn - worked as a manager for General Motors and spent some years as Japanese Sales Manager and in charge of a factory in Osaka.  A successful businssman.   He married, had three sons and there are known descendants.  Vernon  died in 1953.

                                                            Vernon in 1915