Charles Ginn of Islington d. unknown

Charles moved around a lot and, annoyingly, I do not know precisely when and where he died, so would be grateful to any descendant who can supply that informatin.

Charles was the brother of John in my last post and son of James of Royston.  He was in Cambridge in 1844 where he married Sarah Lindsell who came from Debden.  Between 1844 and 1851 they had travelled all around Essex.

Charles was alive in 1871 as a tin plate worker in London but I cannot trace him after that.

Charlies and Sarah had six children:

Sarah - married Henry West in 1870.  A lot of descendants

Julia - she gave birth to an illegitimate child, Henry Charles Ginn in 1869.  In later life, he was always known as plain Charles Ginn and married and has descendants. The 1881 census shows Julia married to a Stephen Lipwick.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to trace the marriage.

John - married Martha Clark in 1881.  No children known to this marriage.  John died in Hackney in 1918.  Martha predeceased him in Shoreditch in 1904.

Mary Jane - married Henry Bonson in 1876

Alice - married Alexander Watford in 1879

Emily  -  is untraced

NB  I am indebted to my friend Michael Ginn for a lot of the information that appears here 

John Ginn of Ely d. 1900

Son of James in my last post, John moved up to Ely where he married Mary Ann Legge and established the second Hertfordshire Ginn family to settle there.

John was a Grocer/Draper at the time and it is believed had his own business.  The theory is that he got into financial trouble and moved quickly north to avoid creditors because it is known that by 1852 he was in Doncaster and was both there and in Manchester for the next few years.

The couple returned to Ely but it is clear that John's business venture had failed as he continued as an employee rather than an employer, being employed as a draper's assistant/warehouseman.

John died in Ely in 1900.  Mary Ann died in 1894 aged 78.  

John and Mary had ten children:

Martha - married Thomas Woodward in 1865 - children known

Julia - died as a spinster in Birmingham in 1925

John - worked as a clerk in London.  He never married and died in Poplar in 1891.

William -  married Charlotte Lofts in 1874 - descendants known

Christopher - married Rosa Link.  They had two daughters.  Chris was a House Agent and died in West Bromwich in 1925.  Neither daughter had issue

Alfred - died in Birmingham in 1927.  Apparently unmarried.

Charles -married Kate Arculus in 1895.  Descendants are known

Arthur - was mentally handicapped and died in 1900 in Chesterton

Frank - married Edith Link in 1891.  Descendants known

NB  I am indebted to my friend Michael Ginn for much of the information here

James Ginn of Royston d. 1842

James, son of Ben in my post of 19th March 2013 , married Sarah Pettitt in 1810.  James was an Ostler, though at what Inn (probably several) I don't know.  In his younger days he had been a Postboy, i.e. a lad in one of the posting inns in Royston who took the post by horseback to the next stage - likely from Royston to Cambridge.

                         Post - boys at The Inn by Geo.Moreland

James did the most extraordinary thing. I was astonished (and delighted) to discover that, after his father's death he made a claim to the cottages and land at Eastwood Lane, Anstey.  He had absolutely no right to do so, of course, but from my point of view it was very decent of him!   It gave me proof of the accuracy of my research.

James' grandfather (William) had sold the property (technically a 1000 year lease) in 1789, to a John Walls of Great Hormead. A joint tenancy had also been extended to a chap called Boultwood. Walls died in 1824; his executors were a Thomas Mott of Much Hadham and a certain Thomas Dellow.

Boultwood had also died, though had survived Walls, so technically Boultwood's estate was the owner.  However, that had not been the intention, and Dellow and Mott were prepared to give indemnities that Boultwood's estate would make no claim.

Thus, in 1825, it was agreed that Dellow and Mott would sell the Eastwood Lane property to Thomas Prior Esq. of Anstey, a prominent landowner. The price was £120.

The Abstract of Title (a summary of Mott and Dellow's ownership) survives (HRO).  Attached to it is a letter from Mott, addressed to Prior's solicitors.  It is apparent that James Ginn had made a claim to the Eastwood Lane cottage, probably soon after 1805 (when his father died).  I quote an extract from the letter (the underlinings are Mott's own):-

“Much Hadham

 Sept. 18th 1824

Dear Sir,

When, by my letter of the 29th May, I offered Mr Prior the Anstey cottage and Land and made the Stipulations regarding the Evidence of Title, I did not entertain the most distant notion of the existence of any person who could have the least possible claim, but in consequence of your statement that a person was now living at Royston who asserted a Right, I have directed particular Enquiry to be made; and I find that James Ginn, a Postlad or Ostler, at an Inn at Royston, did some time since assert his claim; but took no proceedings; and for the best possible reason, namely, because he claims as the eldest Grandson and Heir of William Ginn who in 1786 mortgaged, and in 1789 sold and conveyed the property to old Walls - with respect to the term of 1000 years, vested in old Walls and Boultwood as joint tenants....

Yours very faithfully

Thomas Saml Mott”

Mott went on to say that he was prepared to give indemnities against any claim by the Ginns, as well he might.  However, even the possibility of a claim upset the lawyers, and so a note was added to the Abstract of Title.  A most valuable note and proof of my research.

James Ginn died in 1842, he was 59.   Sarah was living with her daughter Mary Ann in 1851.

James and Sarah had six children:

Their children

John - married Mary Legge - see next post

Charles - married Sarah Lindsell - see later post

Fanny, Sarah and Emma - died in infancy

Mary Ann - was untraced until 2020.  She married James Reynolds, a Master Carpenter of  Hinxton in Cambridgeshire in 1848.  They had a number of children

Arthur Ginn of Anstey d. 1630

Everybody liked Arthur - I think that I would have too.  Arthur was the son of Robert Ginn in my post of  25th June 2012  .

Arthur married in 1580, when he was 28.  His bride was a Mary Pakeman, whom I have traced, she came from a large Yeoman family of Pakemans in Essex.

Mary had been taken very ill just before she married, and it wasn't just pre-marriage nerves.

In the late 1570s she became extremely sick, or as she puts it "visited with sickness, and in great peril and danger of death".  Mary was living at Farnham in Essex at the time, a mile or two from Manuden, where most of the Pakemans lived.

The whole family thought that she was going to die.  One of her family, an Edmund Pakeman, possibly her brother, visited her often.  Unfortunately he had more than her welfare on his mind.  Mary tells us that he made "many efectionate speches" before asking her to sign a writing effectively her will, leaving everything that she owned to him.  If she was an orphan (I don't know) this could have been considerable.

Edmund was a bit of a bad lot.  For even as poor old Mary lay in her supposed deathbed, he went around the house "compassing to himself", i.e. stealing, all her money, clothes and belongings.

Unfortunately for Edmund, Mary recovered.  She could do nothing by herself, but after she married Arthur Ginn she sued Edmund Pakeman (Chancery actions-National Archives  C2 JasI/P14/57).  The result of the case is not known, it was probably settled.  An Edmund Pakeman died in 1607, left a will (he was quite well off), but ignores Mary.

Arthur Ginn is one of the few men whose landholdings I know.  He held at least 80 acres of land in Anstey and Barkway, by free and copyhold, and probably more by lease.  In Anstey he held 30 acres including tenements called "Southman's" and "Parkins".  In Barkway and Nuthampstead he held 50 acres, including seven by freehold.  So Arthur was a prosperous Yeoman.

Whether Mary Pakeman had been severely weakened by her illness, I don't know; but she and Arthur never had any children.  They did however take in Arthur King, Arthur's nephew - Arthur was obviously fond of him.

I know that Arthur was popular because he is mentioned in virtually every surviving Anstey Ginn record of the period  When someone wanted an important job done, they asked Arthur to do it.

.                                    Caliverman of the 1580s

Arthur took his responsibilities as a Yeoman seriously.  He was required by law to provide arms for the muster.  Arthur was not badly off, so he went out and purchased a Caliver (a sort of lightweight musket).  In the Spanish Armada period musters he attended himself, but he later gave the musket to the muster, for the use of the younger men.

Mary was perhaps always a bit sickly and she died in 1613, doubtless in her 50s.  Arthur soldiered on.

Like his brother Henry, Arthur had a strong regard for his nephew Robert Ginn and he decided to leave him all his land.

Arthur died in 1630, as he puts it in his will "accompanied by divers infirmities of old age".  He was 78.

Arthur dearly loved his wife and  asked to be buried in Anstey church "near unto the place where my wife was buried".  They doubtless still lie under the church floor.  He also gave some thought to the poor - he gave and charged two acres of his freehold land with a gift to the poor, yearly "for so long as the world endures". .a marvellous phrase.  This charity survives as “Arthur Ginn’s Charity” and is registered with the Charities Commission as of 2010 as a parochial charity.  Immortality indeed.  

Benjamin Ginn of Royston d. 1859

The Royston Ginns seem to have been involved with virtually every occupation involving inns and coaching.  Benjamin here, son of Benjamin in my post of  19th March 2013, was no exception, being variously described as an ostler, maltster, postboy (postilion), post chaise-driver and alehouse keeper. 

In their early married life the couple lived in Royston High Street, suggesting that they lived in one of the inns (as Ben Snr had done) though I doubt that it was the ‘Black Swan”.  Keziah has not been researched but would appear to have been about 34 when she married, suggesting an age of 48 or so when she had her last child.  There does not appear to be an entry in the Royston burial register, but is it known through an M.I. that Keziah died in 1834, quoted as being 54 years of age.  In 1837 Ben remarried Charlotte Beale, a spinster from an old Royston family of bakers and millers.  She was 39 and they only had the one child, Emma, but sadly she died in infancy.

                                           Barkway church

It took me many years to work out, but by the early to mid 1840s the couple had bought the "White Horse" public house in Barkway, selling this in 1849 and buying the “Fox and Duck”, an alehouse on Market Hill in Royston which is now, alas, no more. (see papers from Rowley & Sons (Estate Agents & Auctioneers) at CRO (ref. 296/B330).
 

Ben Jnr died in 1859, he was 70 and is mentioned on his eldest son’s M.I. Charlotte took over the pub and was running it throughout much of the 1860s and later.  Sadly she died in the workhouse in 1882; she was 83.

Benjamin and his wives had a number of children

William - he married Mary Livings in 1838 but they did not have any children.  Originally an ostler and postilion, William was the landlord of the “Catherine Wheel” pub in Melbourne Street for a great many years.  It was discovered in 1998 that he also owned and ran a small firm called “Ginn & Co’ from the same address.

Ginn and Co is not (so far as I know) mentioned in any surviving directory, but the sale particulars of the stock are mentioned in the personal name index to be found at the Cambs Record Office: the auction details were deposited there.

It appears that William ran a small omnibus enterprise from the pub, this consisting of two horse drawn vehicles with a respective capacity for 11 and 7 passengers.  It seems likely that this (obviously limited) service provided transportation to Cambridge, though he had stiff competition as Royston was on a major coaching route, the reason for the vast number of inns in the town.

A number of books have been written on the development of the Hertfordshire railway system, all are universal in their mention of the devastating results for the various omnibus services.  The Hitchin line was extended to Royston in October 1850, and it is no surprise to find that within a year Ginn and Co was no more, William putting the stock up for sale in the autumn of 1851.

Still running the pub, William died in 1868: he was 53.  There is a large monumental stone in Royston churchyard which mentions him, his parents and a number of his brothers and sisters.  Mary died in 1907: she was 94 and is also mentioned on the memorial.

Benjamin - see later post

Thomas - a coachman.  He worked in London, never married and his body was sadly pulled out of the Thames near Upper Mall, Hammersmith on 3rd April 1881.  He was 62, and although the Inquest verdict is unknown it is not thought that the drowning resulted from foul-play

Eliza - died unmarried at 21.  She is noted on her brother’s MI.

Hester - It was the local historian, Tom Doig, who discovered the marriage of Hester.  She married John Taylor at Barkway Independent Chapel in 1843.

George Henry - as a young man he helped out in the local shops.  He died at Tilbury in 1861 (aged 33) but the death was registered at Royston and he is on his brother’s M.I.  He is presumably buried there.  It is not believed that he ever married.

Ann and Emma - both died in infancy,  Emma is buried at Barkway

William Mackinder Genn of Texas & Oklahoma USA d. 1920

This fellow led quite a life.  He was born in Quadring Lincolnshire in 1844 to Denton Genn (last post).  There are various stories about how and when he emigrated, most of which appear to be conjecture, but in  1862 he took ship on the "Neptune" with the Bloodworth family (his cousins by marriage) aged 18.  For some reason he is not indexed on Ancestry and he went out as "Gen" mistranscribed as coming from Ireland, but it is him. It is likely that he was in part influenced in his decision by the presence of his Uncle Charles Genn in Wisconsin, and may not at the time of their emigration have known of his illness - Charles died in December 1862 - see post of 16th September 2015.

He arrived in New York.  It became apparent in 2024 that both William and the Bloodworths settled in Winfield, New York State, a small place of some 1500 souls in the Census of 1870 and only about 2000 now.. When next we hear of William  he was enlisting in New York into the newly raised 152nd Regiment of the New York Volunteer Infantry, part of the Union Army during the course of the American Civil War.  The information as to the regiment came from Nathan (see comment below) who had researched William and has access to his war medals.  In 2024 I came across the digitized Roster for the regiment and extracted William's record.  You can see below that he enlisted in Winfield. 

 This regiment (see it's banner below) had William serve for the next three years, save for a few weeks when he deserted to the cavalry (it is thought he may have got tired of walking !) before being returned. 

 He was involved in some 13 battles/actions, including most notably perhaps the Battle of the Wilderness.  One of his comrades from the regiment is also shown below.  

 William was discharged from the Army in 1865.  He was discharged in Virginia, at Munson's Hill, which had been the subject of a well known action in the Civil War in 1861.

                                     Munson's Hill in 1864 or so

 In 2023 I heard from a correspondent (who shall remain anonymous - some readers may not like what I am going to say) who told me (and it is clearly correct) that he then returned to Winfield and had a brief relationship in 1865/1866 with his first cousin by marriage Mary Bloodworth and got her pregnant (see post on the Genns of Oregon of 23rd April 2021)  We do not know the full story, merely that he clearly did - that Mary adopted the name Genn (there is no evidence that they married) and that William had some input into the naming of his son as it was named after his deceased brother John Thomas.  The relationship broke down.

We also know that at some point he travelled to Chicago, where in 1867  (the year that John Thomas was born in New York State) he married Edith Wright, an Englishwoman whose step father's name was Pogmore and she married under that name.

After the period of the Civil War the American government was anxious to promote settlement of some of the newly annexed regions and gave financial assistance.  William most likely took advantage of those and he and Edith headed for Kansas (by 1869) soon afterwards settling in Texas where he established himself as a Farmer. 

The couple had a good number of children, Frank being born in Kansas but the others in Texas. Edith unfortunately died in May 1877 when Charlie was three weeks old,  buried at Ennis, Ellis County Texas.

In October 1879 William remarried, a widow of the name of Harriet Elizabeth Palmer Vaughan (nee Herndon), who had two teenage sons at home: John and Rufus.  Harriet carne from Illinois and met William while visiting her married daughters who lived locally.  Harriet was some years older than William and the couple had no further children.

                                      William and Harriet in 1879

Harriet died in 1910.  William Mackinder Genn died in 1920 and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Ardmore, Oklahoma.

       George, Frank, William Jnr (rear) William Mackinder and Margaret Genn

William and Edith had five children

Franklin -  Frank was a stockman/cowboy  in Texas.  He married and had a son and daughter.  There are liivng descendants through the latter. 

George - a farmer and grocery store owner.  Likely named after his great uncle George Genn (see post of 25th August 2015). Married twice and had nine children  There are many descendants today.

William - married and had five children.  Descendants alive today.

Charlie - likely named after his great uncle Charles Genn.  Married and had two children. 

Margaret - married and descendants alive today I believe

Acknowledgement -  I have corresponded with many descendants of this family, and am particularly grateful to Dorothy Wylodene "Dene" Nall Morgan, a descendant of Harriet through her first marriage who did a lot of work with Dr Herb Brown in producing the book on the American Genn family.

Denton Genn Jnr of Quadring d. 1861

Nobody appears to know anything about Denton, son of Denton in my post of 27th August 2013 .  Denton is stated to have been a Labourer in the 1844 birth certificate for his son William and this is confirmed in the 1841 and 1851 census.  He spent much time in Quadring, but moved around a fair bit, obviously following the work.  He married Jane Mackinder at Boston, Lincolnshire in 1827.

Jane Mackinder was born in Boston in about 1810.  We do not know her parents for certain (yet) but they are almost certainly William Mackinder and his wife Susanna (nee Lawis) who are the only couple living in Boston and apparently having children at the relevant time.  Hopefully I will get access to the full Boston records in due course. 

The list of children may well not be complete, two unknown children being discovered in 2012.  Jane died in 1859 (National Burial Index).  After a long search I finally found Denton in the National Burial Index (he was indexed as Duelen Gen).  He died at Quadring in February1861 with a quoted age of 60. 

The deaths of the parents obviously caused a crisis, Denton the younger apparently being placed in the workhouse, he was there in 1861.  I think we must assume that William Mackinder was staring at the same fate and obviously decided to takes their chances in America

Denton and Jane had a number of children

John Thomas - two died in infancy

Rebecca  - married Thomas Bloodworth of Hawthorpe, an agricultural labourer, in 1860.  He was clearly son of Thomas & Angelina Bloodworth of Hawthorpe and it is clearly his sister Mary born 1837 who had a relationship with William Mackinder Genn in New York in 1866 and  was in the emigration of 1862 – this  Mary Bloodworth  having a suggested tentative birthplace of “Ilethorpe”,  clearly Hawthorpe mistranscribed  .  Thomas and Angelina Bloodworth are both on the New York passenger lists on Ancestry as is their daughter Mary. 

Isabella  - a servant.  She died a spinster in 1868 

Denton -  in the workhouse at one point.  A shoemaker - he died  unmarried in 1872   

William Mackinder - emigrated to the USA when he was 18 with the Bloodworths above.  See next post

Eliza & Phoebe - died infancy