I am conscious of the fact that the blog is comprised of 186 posts and counting and, well, every one of them has a title concerning a male Ginn. Now it is not that I am a misogynist, and, obviously, in my defence the blog is about the proliferation of the Ginn family and that is in the male line - but I am conscious of it.
It is also true that in the past (widows excepted) women had no property rights, so they are almost invisible in the records and little can be known, but there are a few I do know quite a lot about, and Mary Gill here is one of them - she married John Ginn of Anstey in my post of 12th |September 2012 and is the ancestor of many Ginns and others. I have always been fond of Mary, and intending to put her on the blog for the last few years.
Mary was born in 1641, just before the start of the English Civil War. She was born at the Manor House of Bandons Manor in Anstey, at what was Pains and is now Paynes End in that parish. Her parents were Edward and Ann Gill (nee Swann) the Gills being a prominent gentry family on the Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire borders. How a gentry girl came to marry the son of a yeoman is the subject of this post.
The first Gill is known to have been a landowner in southern Cambridgeshire near Royston in the 1270s. They survived the Black Death in the mid 1300s, and by the 1400s were clearly prospering and there are various deeds that relate to the family.
A John Gill, Mary's ancestor, married a Joan, daughter of William Horne (some say Sir William) of Buckland in Hertfordshire near Buntingford, and the couple reputedly had six sons and six daughters. John Gill settled in and died at Buckland in 1499/1500 leaving a will (National Archives) and a Memorial Brass at Buckland survives purporting to show the whole family - the six sons are below.
Some say the next heir was William, I am sure it was Richard, but in any event the heir married a daughter of Leonard Hyde of Throcking in Hertfordshire which is also near Buntingford. The Gill family were consolidating their lands in the area as the Hydes go back a long way in Throcking. In 1395 the Manor of Throcking was granted to William Hyde, Citizen and Grocer of London.
Richard Gill died in 1502 leaving a will (National Archives) it mentions his sons John, Richard and Leonard.
John Gill was his father's heir and he did very well, being described as "John Gill of Buckland and Wyddial" . He married Margaret Cannon or Canon who was the daughter and heiress of George Cannon of Cambridgeshire in 1508. George Cannon owned a half share of the Manor of Wyddial in Hertfordshire, the other half was apparently owned by the Royal family and from 1509 (when he took the throne) by none other than King Henry the 8th who at this point was the young, athletic man we see below and not the obese chap we imagine.
John Gill and George Cannon had Wyddial Hall built. It must have cost a great deal of money. The Hall that you see below is the original, from an illustration by Drapentier in about 1700. This burned down in the 18th century and was rebuilt on the same site and almost to the same design, That still stands.
John Gill also purchased Bandons Manor in Anstey in the 1530s. This is crucial to our story and it will turn up again.
John Gill died in 1547, A brass (below) was commissioned to
commemorate him, his wife and children at Wyddial Church but, as it happens, Margaret remarried a John Wrengham that same year and is not buried with John.
John's Gill's heir was his son George. He held, and likely improved, Wyddial Hall.
In 1535 George married Gertrude Perient, daughter and co-heir of Sir Perient of Hatfied in Hertfordshire. The Perient family connection gave Mary some interesting ancestors, and my research on the Perient family will be in a post later this year.
George and Gertrude had seven children who survived infancy, the first two of whom were John the heir and Edward. Mary Ginn (nee Gill) is descended from Edward. Gertrude died on 15th March 1545. And in 1547 George remarried an Ann Whethill, daughter of Robert Whethill in Calais in France, in 1545 Calais was still held by the English, the Tudors claiming the throne of France. George had a further family by Ann.
George died in 1568 - he has a memorial in Wyddial Church with his ancestors, in which he is described as "Lorde of this Towne" below. He was 57.
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George as I say had a number of sons, of whom John was the heir and the second son Edward the ancestor of Mary Ginn nee Gill.
Now, there is an interesting thing here, because we know that there is a surviving portrait of one of the brothers, but there is some conjecture as to who it is.
Queen Elizabeth had a number of court painters, ie men who served at her Court in London. Some of these men were permanent like Nicholas Hilliard, but some were visitors, itinerants who only stayed there a few years. Many of these were foreign and they included Cornelis Ketel, a Dutchman, who was active in London, mostly as a portrait painter, from 1573-1581.
Cornelis painted one of the brothers. The portrait below was once attributed to Edward Gill, but it cannot be, he did not have the money to purchase this. And it has, wrongly, also been attributed to a Sir George Gill of Wyddial Hall who did not exist - the portrait is dated, it was painted in 1578. No, this must be John Gill of Wyddial Hall, a man of wealth as we shall see. It is a splendid portrait I think you will agree.
John Gill, though not Mary's ancestor, deserves a mention here as he had a secondary residence built at Buntingford, a place called Littlecourt. It apparently cost him a great deal of money and is shown below. It survives, but the grounds have gone and the house is much reduced.
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So we will call John - "John Gill of Wyddial and Littlecourt". He was close to Edward, Mary's ancestor, and reputedly both of them became Calvinists, Puritans if you will, in later life. And at this point or thereabouts - about 1570 (whether by John or his father George seems unclear) a long lease of Bandons Manor in Anstey was granted to Edward Gill.
Now John Gill of Wyddial and Littlecourt died in 1600 - he has a splendid brass at Wyddial, and his second son (Sir John Gill of Somerset we will call him - he had married a Somerset heiress) had made himself busy at the Royal Court of Charles the 1st, being an Equerry to the King, Member of Parliament, Justice of the Peace etc doing pretty well until the English Civil War. More of him later.
And so to Edward Gill (referred to as of "Bandons and Littlecourt" in the records) Mary's ancestor.
Well he was a Barrister in London, in American terms an Attorney. He entered St John's College in Cambridge University in his teens in 1557, getting his degree in 1561, three years after Queen Elizabeth 1st ascended the throne. He joined the Bar in 1564.
In February 1574, Edward married Margaret Brograve, widow of Henry Brograve of Buntingford, her maiden name was Campion. There is a suggestion (originally discounted by me but apparently true) that she was related to the Campions of Anstey in Hertfordshire and those of Witham in Essex, they in turn giving rise to Thomas Campion, the Poet and Musician at Elizabeth's court, and to the Edmund Campion, the Catholic who the same Elizabeth had hung, drawn and quartered for being a traitor in 1581. Interesting times!
In 1600, upon his brother's death, Edward Gill appears to have taken occupation of Littlecourt as well as having Bandons. He did not inherit it, it simply appears he lived there - the sons of John Gill of Wyddial and Littlecourt having left Hertfordshire, we do not know the full story.
Neither Edward Gill nor Margaret were that young when they married, and only had two sons. Margaret died in February 1605, and Edward remarried the widow "the lady" Barbara Fludd (nee Bradbury) in London in 1607. Barbara had already buried two husbands, both knights.
Edward Gill died in 1616, supposedly at Littlecourt. Barbara was a widow for the third time. She died in 1618. Edward (will National Archives) left his son Thomas £800 (not a great sum - but Edward was from a cadet family - ie a younger son and not the heir) and his son Edward junior the lease of Bandons Manor "for divers years yet to come". Thomas died unmarried in 1625, so Ted junior likely had everything.
Now Edward junior here, Mary's grandfather, married Mary Smartfoot, widow of Richard Smartfoot of Puckeridge. You will notice that marrying widows was popular, they could bring money and property to the marriage ! Mary was actually the daughter of Edward Mitchell of Standon.
The couple lived at Bandons Manor House, drew their income (which would not have been much) from the rents and fines that the tenants of that manor paid. They had five children, three sons, the eldest of which was another Edward Gill, Mary's father.
Edward Gill died in 1642, the English Civil War was just beginning. His will (National Archives) reflects the diminishing fortunes of the family. His daughter Susan was given £100, son George £250 and, crucially, the lease of Bandons Manor was given to his widow for life, and only then to Edward, Mary's father. And the widow did not die until 1675.
Edward Gill, Mary's father, entered Trinity College, Cambridge University in 1631, he did not finish his degree, not uncommon at this time, the gentry need only show a pretence of education. And in 1638 he married Ann Swann, daughter of Robert Swann of Newton/Foxton in Cambridgeshire, a minor gentry family.
Now Edward of course did not have the lease of Bandons Manor in his own right until his mother's death. Though she clearly let him live there, presumably she was there too, maybe also other members of the family.
Edward and Ann had two daughters, Ann 1639 and our Mary in 1641. Both were born at Bandons. Ann Gill snr then died, likely in childbirth, she is buried at Barkway. Mary scarcely knew her mother.
Edward Gill then remarried, a Lucy Bolnest of the Bolnest/Bownest family of Great Hormead, In time, they had five more children. But Edward died in 1658 (there is no will) and Mary was an orphan and Lucy left alone with a good number of young children and little or no income given that Bandons was not hers. In fact there is evidence (Hearth Tax) that Ted's brother George took it, Lucy was penniless. She could not remarry and died herself in 1664.
Now the Gills had not had a great time generally since 1642. Sir John Gill of Somerset tried to sit on the fence but was accounted a Royalist by Parliament who made moves to punish him by taking his Somerset estates, and he died impoverished in 1651, having himself at some point occupied Littlecourt which was sold after his death.
Now, if you have managed to not be too bored and got to this point, you will recall that Mary Gill was born at Bandons. What I have not told you is that the Manor House survives. It is true that the majority was rebuilt in brick in the 19th century, but it is a historical building, and the 15th century (no less) cross wing, a major thing, survives in its entirety - you can see it below. Every Gill, every Ginn of Anstey would know it, Mary would know it today.
So, it was a combination of matters- family impoverishment,
timing, and I am sure a good deal of love, which led to Mary Gill marrying John Ginn, a yeoman's son in 1661. The marriage is entered on the Gill pedigree.
Mary had obviously retained the family connection with Buntingford, because although their marriage is entered in both the registers of Layston (a parish of Buntingford) and Anstey (so it was considered a significant marriage) they actually married at Buntingford Chapel, built in the Puritan style in 1614. I have wondered if the Gills had retained their Puritan ways. Buntingford Chapel (extended but otherwise unaltered) is still there below. For the rest of Mary's story see my post of 12th September 2012.
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