Peter Ginn of Hertford died after 1675

 It was not my intention to regale you with the story of Hertford in the English Civil War, fascinating though that is to me. If it seems that way, my apologies.  But Hertford is the theatre in which this post is set, and the characters mentioned here are the "players" who in their lifetime performed this play. 

Peter Ginn was born in Datchworth in 1612, the son of John Ginn jnr and his wife Helen (nee Plumb) in my last post.  His father died when he was ten and his mother brought him up.

Peter trained as a Blacksmith/Farrier.  He worked on his own account and moved to Hertford by about 1640.  On 28th November 1643 he married a lady called Grace at Hertford, All Saints, there was a double wedding (two are bracketed in the record) and for some reason in the confusion her name was not recorded.   I suspect that Grace was a widow.

Now the English Civil War began in August 1642.  It had been coming for years.  Hertford declared for Parliament, but a few of the aristocracy and gentry in the county stayed loyal to King Charles the First who in that month issued his Commission of Array (under the Great Royal Seal) to Hertford, ie calling on the gentry to raise troops for the King.

                 The Commission of Array for Worcester

Enforcing the Commission of Array at Hertford was entrusted to Sir John Watts of Ware, son of Sir John Watts the elder.  He came from an old Hertfordshire family.  His grandfather, also John, had run privateers (ie he was a pirate) against the Spanish in the days of Queen Elizabeth and in 1588 had volunteered into one of his own ships to fight the Spanish Armada.  He made a huge amount of money.  He was later made Lord Mayor of London.

His father, the elder,  had been a soldier as a boy under Queen Elizabeth. He went to Holland in 1624 with the disastrous Count Von Mansfeld Expedition (where Henry Ginn of Anstey clearly died - see post of 19th July 2012) but unlike poor Henry he had the money to extradite himself before the final debacle and returned to England and was then signed up in October 1625 for the equally disastrous Cadiz Expedition against the Spanish.  You would have thought that the Watts family would have had more sense than to risk their lives again for the feckless and arrogant Charles Stuart who would never have returned the favour, but not a bit of it.  In August 1642, Sir John Watts jnr rode into Hertford with a few gentry to raise the King's standard and recruit a troop of cavalry.

He went to the Old Bell Inn in Fore Street.  Unbeknown to him, Parliament had raised the Trained Band (the Militia) and some 500 men armed with pikes and muskets and likely the odd obsolete bow and arrow had congregated there,  Hertford had a gunpowder magazine.  The Parliament men lined up against the walls of the Old Bell we are told.  Sir John  and his men beat a  retreat.

The Old Bell Inn dates back to the 1500s, it is now known as the Salisbury Arms and has been for two hundred years.  There is some suggestion in the records that Peter and Grace later held the Inn or at least had some connection with it, in fact I am suspicious that Grace was the widow of the landlord, had children from her first marriage and held it until a son may have come of age.  We will never know. We can see the Inn from a drawing of the 1790s below.   The building on the left is the Shire (Town) Hall which was built in the 1760s and is still there.  In  the 1640s this was a timber framed building.

Hertford was a member of the Eastern Association, a group of eastern English counties that had declared for Parliament against the King.  The west of the country was largely Royalist, and it is fair to say that the Midlands saw much of the fighting,

Hertfordshire raised a number of Regiments of Foot, Sir John Norwich's Regiment of Horse (see post re Richard Ginn of Ware of 2nd August 2020 ) some cavalry troops and a good number of Militia units.  One Regiment of Foot was under the command of Colonel Sir John Wittewrong* (of Flemish descent) a Hertfordshire knight.  He had been knighted by Charles 1st in 1640, so he must have had mixed feelings when (mostly because of his religion ( he was a Non Conformist) a couple of years later he found himself taking up arms against the King.

                             Sir John Wittewrong in later life 

Whilst Hertfordshire needed soldiers, it also needed men with the ability and experience to raise the money and resources to feed, supply and keep them active in the field.  Enter Gabriel Barbor of Hertford.

Gabriel Barbor* (born in the 1570s and thus in his 60s) was a prosperous London Merchant who whilst keeping his businesses there, had come to Hertford by about 1620.  He has been described as an "extreme Puritan" and had been circulating pamphlets against the divine right of kings in the 1630s.  He was the sort of man who might have gone with the Pilgrim Fathers to the New World on the "Mayflower" in 1620, and indeed he had interests in Virginia and his son William and family were to move to the New World after the English Civil War.

Barbor leased the property called "Lombard House" which is still there (The Hertford Club) and although refronted two centuries ago, is still pretty much the same at the back adjoining the river, and if you look carefully you might see Barbor waving at you out of the windows !

Gabriel Barbor was made the head of the Hertford Committee, who ran the administration for Hertfordshire's part in the war for Parliament.  By all accounts he was very good at his job, raising taxation without causing riots, suppling men and materials.  But there was always a shortage of horses.  These were needed in the fields and to get the harvest in, yet the army demanded them to draw wagons and obviously for the cavalry regiments and good mounts for officers.

There are various surviving letters from Gabriel Barbor to the front.  In 1643 Colonel Sir JohnWittewrong's Foot Regiment was in the garrison at Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.  Aylesbury saw some action during the Civil War as it acted as one of a series of strongpoints that guarded the Eastern Association from the Royalists in the west who probed the defences.  In Wittewrong's regiment were Captains John and William Barbor, two of Gabriel Barbor's sons.  The letter below to Wittewrong with transcription shows the plight regarding horses and Barbor's zeal for the fight.  I am fond of the comment calling for "stoute harts and faces like lyons"

You shall by *George Peach or his captain receive £200 for your soldiers.   I pray make a receipt and send itt.  Also ther being your 6 horses for wagon or scowtes, one bay gelding is reserved for my sonn John, so that be being willing, his owne gelding instedde thereof be imployed as you shall appoint.  I am in great hast. The Lord preserve you, your officers and regiments with the town they inhabit. I will be careful to procure what may be gotten for you and yours before all others. The Lord give you stoute harts and faces like lyons

I am your humble servant

Gabriel Barbour

Hartford 26th May 1643

There are one or two payments in the records of the Hertford Committee for payments to Peter for services as a farrier.  But the fact that Grace is mentioned  more often in contrast to Peter, suggests that he may well have been away in the forces for at least some of the time.  Alan Thompson in his work on the English Civil War in Hertfordshire (which mentions Peter and Grace), highlights the fact that the women had to cover while the men were away.

                                           Before Naseby

There were ups and downs in the First English Civil War, but Parliament won when in 1645 Fairfax and Cromwell gained a crushing victory over the King at the Battle of Naseby or "Naseby Fight" as our ancestors called it.  Parliament called for dinners to be held to celebrate the victory "Thanksgiving Dinners".  These were not wild parties, many men were religious,and the one in London featured the men singing the 46th Psalm ....

Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.

 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire

  Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

We know that the Thanksgiving Dinner in Hertford was held at the Old Bell Inn and Grace Ginn was paid for the meal as shown in the accounts of the Hertford Committee.  So she seems to have had some connection with the pub, what and how I do not know and likely never will.  This is the Salisbury Arms (as is) today, scarcely changed from 230 years ago.

Gabriel Barbor died in 1647 - he was about 70.  His will (PCC) is obviously largely taken up with his family, and surprisingly (although he likely fell out with most over religion - he certainly did with Wittewrong) there is no mention of the gentry with whom he must have associated to keep the wheels turning.  But he left small bequests to some of those who clearly assisted him, house servants apart these included "my late servant* Henry Peach". ."*Goodwife Downes the wife of Downes the Sergeant" and "Grace Gynn the wife of Peter Gynn".

In late 1647, the New Model Army was largely camped in Ware.  It was in revolt.  Generals Cromwell and Fairfax came to Hertford and reputedly stayed in the Old Bell Inn before they went out to the Army and calmed them down.

We hear very little of Peter and Grace after Barbor died.  There was a second Civil War which ultimately led to the execution of the King in 1649.  Peter is mentioned as a witness to the will of an Innkeeper in Hertford ( a fellow called Styles) in 1653 but that is it.

The Hearth Tax records note that they lived in a 2 hearthed cottage, likely a cottage with adjoining smithy.  They lived in All Saints.

We know that the couple lost both of their known adult sons, Peter jnr the last in 1668 which likely contributed to Grace's death in 1670.  She was likely in her 50s.

Peter Ginn was alive in 1674 living in the same cottage aged 62, but there is no trace of him after that.

Peter and Grace had their children during the period of the Civil War and Commonwealth - a period when records were notoriously poorly kept.  I have been surprised before, so the fact that I only know of two sons does not mean there were no other children

Their children:

John - died in his late teens

Peter - a smith, he died in 1668 aged 24

The Players*

George Peach - you may be curious about George - I was.  He was a Tailor in Hertford.  He married a Martha Minors in London in 1637.  They had Martha and Thomas ((the records are few)  He was obviously in one of the Hertfordshire Foot Regiments (likely Wittewrong's) from what Barbor says.  That regiment was broken up in 1645 and the men sent to other regiments including those in the New Model Army.  George survived the wars, he came home to Hertford and bought the Cross Keys Inn which was around the corner from the Old Bell.  It had gone even before I was born in the 1950s, but only just - here it is on the far right in 1823 and a century later.

George Peach died in 1657 (will PCC)  accounted a Gentleman.  I doubt he was that  much past 40.  John Downes, eldest surviving son of Hezekiah  (see below) was sole witness to his will.

Henry Peach - the late servant of Gabriel Barbor was likely brother to George and a young man in 1647.  The Peach Boys do not seem to have been locally born.   He would seem to be the Henry Peach, Gentleman of Ware mentioned later in Herts Archives records.  In 1680, he gave evidence defending a man accused of being a closet Papist.  Catholics, closet or not, were still viewed with fear in Protestant England - reference the Rye House Plot in nearby Hoddesdon in 1683 against the King's popish tendencies.

Sir John Wittewrong - He was a young man of 25 when made a Colonel and must have been somewhat shocked that the King who had knighted him in 1640 had his head removed from his shoulders in 1649.  Oliver Cromwell died in 1658 and the Parliamentarian government collapsed in short order.  There was a movement to bring the Royal family back (although not on the same terms as before) and Charles 2nd (son of his executed father) came to England in 1660.  Wittewrong wiped his mouth, welcomed the new King and was made a Baronet for his trouble.  He spent the remaining years of his life in the more peaceful pursuit of recording the weather - his weather diaries survive, as allegedly do a pair of his boots !  He died in 1693.

Goodwife Downes - was Priscilla Downes, wife of Hezekiah Downes snr.  They had a Hezekiah Jnr in 1619 who lived.  Hezekiah was a Blacksmith like Peter Ginn.  Chauncy says that Hezekiah snr was made Sergeant at Mace to Hertford Borough in 1631 and he held that post (holding the ceremonial mace at Borough functions) into the 1640s.  So he is "Downes the Sergeant",  The Mace (believe it or not) survives, ironically bearing the Arms of Charles the 1st.  It has been re-gilded, the gentleman below showing it off

Barbor seems to suggest that Hezekiah senior was away.  A Hezekiah Downes (I had assumed the junior but this may be wrong) was in Sir John Norwich's Regiment of Horse.  Priscilla died in 1654.  Hezekiah in 1665 (will Herts Archives)

Sir John Watts - the elder died in 1649 , the year that his King was executed.  The younger fought for King Charles in the War.  As a Royalist in a county that declared for Parliament, he had his Ware estate confiscated.  He gained some revenge however when the monarchy was restored in 1660.

Gabriel Barbor - died as I say in 1647.  He left four sons - William, John, Gabriel (a Surgeon) and Joseph.  His one daughter Elizabeth married Isaac Puller, who was also a member of the Hertford Committee, Justice of the Peace, Mayor of Hertford and even several times MP for Hertford before 1660.

There is a great story here, largely fantasy, concerning The Barbor Jewel which is at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  It is an onyx cameo of Queen Elizabeth 1st dating from the 1570s which the V & A say was reset in diamonds, rubies and pearls in about 1615.  The rear of the jewel has been enamelled with an Oak Tree - the "Hatfield Oak" (Hatfield near Hertford) which Princess Elizabeth was in legend standing under when she heard the news she was Queen in 1558 .

The Barber family story (written by another Gabriel in 1724) is that William Barbor a Grocer of London (Gabriel our hero's father who died in 1586) was a fervent protestant who having escaped burning at the stake because Protestant Elizabeth became Queen, bought the jewel in her honour. He was further to decree that all Barbor men were to have a daughter named Elizabeth in the Queen's memory.  It is fancy, but a lovely story.  My guess is that the jewel came into the family through one of Gab Barbor's wives. He would scarcely (being a Puritan) have indulged such a thing.  But it is, I think you will agree -a lovely thing