John Ginn of Burnham Green in Datchworth died 1610

 I have been nudged by a correspondent who has seen my original research  to put this post in the blog.  I was loath to because I cannot definitely say (the blog before 1700 is mostly based on wills and land inheritance and there is none of that here) that the John Ginn here connects to the Aston family, but I have always thought he does.

What we know for certain is that John Ginn of Aston who died in 1557 (see post of 12th June 2012) had two living sons with the christian name John when he died.  This was not uncommon in the Tudor period because of the high mortality rate amongst children.  John Ginn the younger was on my calculation about 15-17 when his father died.  I suspect that he might have been called Jack on  a day to day basis to distinguish him from his brother.

What we also know for certain is that Henry Ginn of Aston (John jnr's nephew - see post of 8th Sept 2012) was in dispute with the gentry Boteler family, Lords of the Manor of Aston, from when his father died in 1592. Harry was scared off.   He sold the lease of Garetts and was in Burnham Green in Datchworth by 1596 or so.  We also know that Henry was in touch with his wider family until he died in 1632 (his Uncle Arthur of Anstey mentions him in his will of 1630).  So it is quite possible that he sought the comfort of being near an uncle when the excrement hit the fan.  That uncle could have been this man, John Ginn of Burnham Green.  But I cannot prove it as I say -  and a problem is that the Datchworth parish registers do not survive for before 1570 or so - so conclusion drawing is risky.

John Ginn of Datchworth, assuming he is John Ginn the younger, inherited £20 when his father died in 1557.  He would not have received it until the 1560s.  John married (presumably in Datchworth but I do not know who, in about 1568.  I do not have his wife's name.

John Ginn was a labourer, husbandman.  It was common for a man to buy or lease a small piece of land, or even carve a spot out of the common and build himself a house upon it.  We have a fascinating description of how this worked in Gough's "The History of Myddle".

Neither the Manorial Rolls for Datchworth ot Welwyn survive for this period and I sadly know little about him, other than he lived in Burnham Green,

John died in 1609/10, he was about 70  He left a will (Hunts Archives) which does not tell us much

Their children

John and his wife had six children.  The family must have lived in fairly comfortable conditions because we have baptism dates for five of the six and all lived to at least their mid 20s

John - he married Joan Freeman in 1601 when he was about 30.  They had three children and then Joan died in about 1610.  John remarried a Helen Plumb in 1611.  He had three children by Joan and one son by Helen viz

       Edward died infancy

        Isobel died infancy

        Mary - who is untraced

        Peter - see next post

John junior died in 1622.  His widow Helen remarried John Gregory of neighbouring Welwyn in 1631.

Mary - was born in 1570 - she married John Adcock in 1608

Elizabeth  - was born in 1576 - she married Shadrack Wells in 1610

Joan - was born in 1579 - she was alive in 1609 aged 30 but she was disabled or unwell because her father was anxious to provide some little care for her.  I sadly have not traced her

Ann - was born in 1584 - she married Edward Ripley in 1612

Margaret - was born in 1589, a year after the Spanish Armada - she married Richard Woodley in 1616