Charles Genn of Ely died 1811

Charles Genn here was the youngest son (b.1776) of Richard Genn of Ely (see post of  9th March 2013 ) and brother of Robert and Denton.  He was ignored by all prior researchers of the Genn  family.

In 1802 (baptised1803) a Henry Fleet was born to an Ann Fleet of Ely (born 1782) who died in childbirth.  The midwife said that before death Ann gave Charles as the father.  There is a record at the Cambridgeshire Archives that Chas. was ordered to pay maintenance.  Henry was likely taken in by the parish, and he sadly died in 1815 aged 12.

Charles Genn was a baker.  He owned his premises which were in Ely, St Mary parish and  he was in business by at least 1802 as he was fined in the Petty Sessions at the Magistrates Court for serving up lightwight loaves.  He therefore had his shop on the west side of Ely, near St Mary's, but I do not know where.

                                     St Mary Ely, with the parsonage (one time house

                                             of Oliver Cromwell) in the foreground

In 1804, Charles Genn married Susannah King by Licence at Bottisham, her origins are not entirely clear. They only had one child, born in 1805.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the country was on high alert against invasion, men not only joining the Army (there was no conscription) and the official full time County Militia regiments (for Home Defence) but also local worthies raised units of part time civilian volunteers, largely tradesmen, kitted out in ad hoc uniforms reflecting the true military and the men enjoying "playing at soldiers"

Sgt Major

I know that Charles was the Sergeant Major of the Ely Regiment of Volunteers, in 1807 he was enjoying  himself so much in the role that he complained to the magistrates in Petty Sessions that a local millwright, Robert Wilkinson, had obstructed Charles "in carrying out his military duties" !

Susanna Genn died in 1810, it is unclear why - she was given as 32.  Charles was friendly with a lady called Margaret Varnum, who I know had worked for his brother Robert at the Lamb Hotel since at least 1802 (Petty Sessions records again) and in early 1811 Charles married her by Licence at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk (St James) from whence she came.

The Lamb today is scarcely changed

But sadly they were not together long, for in October 1811 Charles himself died - he was 35.  His only child, aged 6, was now an orphan.  

Charles left a will (CRO), the original of which survives, his signature from that is below

Margaret remarried  William Cooper at Ely in 1815.

The only child

Billett King Genn - see next post

William Genn the younger of St Stephen,Coleman London died 1830

I am confident that William here was son of the William in the last post, though I freely admit that I rely purely on circumstantial proof.

William here was born in Ely Trinity (ie near the Cathedral) in 1766.  Whilst a babe in arms he was transported to Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire where he stayed until 1774, perhaps 1776.  His father then clearly moved to London where he appears in 1777.

St Stephen Coleman

William here then seems to have spent some years in Islington, at least until 1788 it seems.

Lydia Philpott was born in St George's in the East (East End of London) in 1773 to John and Sarah, John was a Bricklayer.  They were a large family, and Lydia was obviously close to her brother Richard.

Lydia married William Genn at Bermondsey of all places in 1793, she was barely 20 and he 27.  The marriage is incorrectly indexed on Ancestry (Genn transcribed as Gown) and this caused me a problem for a while, though I knew that Lydia had been a Philpott.

The marriage

The couple lived first in St Georges, because I know that Lydia was a Mantua (Dress) maker, and she took an apprentice, a local girl called Sarah Household in 1798, and was expressed to be wife of William. The Land Tax has them there to 1808, they lived  in a tenanted house at the north end of Princes Square, so they had their own place. William and Lydia sadly never had any children.  By 1810 they were living in the Minories in the City and by 1812 they were living at 7 Great Bell Alley, St Stephen Coleman in the City , likely moving in 1810  because of Bill's new job, see below. It sadly no longer stands as it was, being demolished in the Blitz of 1940.

The United States of America have inherited from their English cousins and former founding colonists the role of  County Sheriff, which is more than 1000 years old (Shire Reeve in Anglo Saxon times) and still exists in England, though large ceremonial today.

In London there were two Sheriffs elected each year -there still are. The Sheriffs are part of the machinery of the City of London, linked to the Guilds and the Lord Mayor of London (below). Their role by 1800 was largely in the serving and enforcement of writs, some involvement at the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court) and the sad duty of making sure that criminals sentenced to hang received their punishment.

What we know is that both William and his  Brother in Law, Richard Philpott, were  Sheriffs's Officers by 1810, in other words they were Court Officers and "Enforcers".  They lived  local to the job and in fact even lived  together at No 7 - in Great Bell Alley/

It was perhaps a natural job for William, his grandfather Richard (who he had known as a boy) had been Constable for both the City of Ely and Hoddesdon, and Bill had likely been attracted by the respect that grandfather Dick had commanded.

Great Bell Alley was like much of London of Dickens, rows of houses with families in tenements above and below but Bill seems to have all of his house - the houses were three storey and  the area lively - day and night.  Illustrations of 1818 and 1823 show the adjacent Little Bell Alley below - I particularly love the washing line.

 It was a long alley and though still there (rebuilt in the 1980s and before ) is much shorter than in William's day.

As I say, William and Lydia never had any children.  William died at Great Bell Alley in 1830 with a quoted age of 64, exactly correct (wrongly transcribed as 54 on Ancestry).  He  was buried at St Stephens. He left a will ( PCC) and left everything he owned to Lydia.

Richard Philpott continued to live with Lydia at 7  Great Bell Alley  and became the householder in the Street Directory of 1832 but by 1842 was at No 13, because Lydia remarried.

Street Directory 1842

In 1838 Lydia married a certain Joseph Voy from Gravesend in Kent, a widower and Ship's Pilot.  She spent her last days there, dying in Gravesend in 1847 aged 74.

William Genn the elder of Ely, Hoddesdon & London died 1780s ?

William was son of Richard Genn of Ely and Hoddesdon (see post  of  3rd February 2013)  and after twenty years is still being researched.  I am the first to research him.  He was a Shoemaker/Cordwainer.  He married Hannah Eastwell at Ely in 1764 and they had one child there, William, before in October 1766 making the move to Hertfordshire with his parents.  

I have absolutely no idea why he moved so far south and why to Hoddesdon.  His Certificate of Settlement for the Poor Laws is referenced D/P24A/13/5 at the Hertfordshire Archives, shoemakers barely made a subsistence wage it seems.  I have a copy somewhere and will add it to the blog shortly.  At the time of the move his brother John appeared before the Ely Justices to swear that the signature of the Churchwardens of Trinity Ely was affixed in his presence.

Whilst in Broxboume (the parish in which Hoddesdon is situated) he and Hannah had a further three children, two of whom died in infancy.  Hannah herself died in October 1773 and William remarried (as Genn) to Jane Bain at Gt Amwell Herts in January  1774. Whist in Hoddesdon the parish clerk invariably recorded them as Ginn.

Until 2019 I was confident that Jane was the "Jane Ginn of this parish" who was buried at Broxbourne in the summer of 1776, probably in childbirth I thought.  Events in 2019 have made me wonder.

Hertfordshire is very lucky in that the 18th century Militia Lists for the county invariably survive - they record every male of a certain age and, if in Broxbourne, should have counted William until he either had three children or was 45.  William is in the Militia List at Broxboume until 1773 (stated to have three children) as a Shoemaker.   His children William, Hannah and Richard were alive at this point.

What happened to William was a mystery.  He disappeared from Hertfordshire but did not go back to Cambridgeshire.  The name is far rarer than Ginn and that is rare, but I could not find him.  His son Richard died at Hoddesdon in 1774, and Jane I thought in 1776 - so where did he go?

Now 2019 has seen me almost certainly finding his son, so he likely went to London, but where was William snr ?

There is no mention of William on Family Search, or Findmypast, or Ancestry, but look at Londonlives and I am sure he turns up in the Middlesex Sessions (Court records) for in 1777 and again in 1781 we have William Genn and his wife Jane, he a shoemaker, coming up before the Magistrates for Assault - he and Jane were a pugnacious couple it seems.  Ironically, that same year, ie 1781, he was one of the many Constables of St Lukes, so he followed his father in that. So either the first Jane did die and he swiftly found another (like he replaced Hannah) or the first Jane survived.  The most likely scenario is that the buried Jane was an unbaptised infant of the couple - the parish clerk did not distinguish children from adults.  We even have an exact address, they lived at 73 Golden Lane, which is St Lukes Islington, North London, pretty much where I would expect immigrants from Hoddesdon to turn up and where Ginns from this blog had arrived previously …. research continues......but the Land Tax shows William there until at least 1788 (when son William was 22)……..

                                     William Genn in London 1781

William and Hannah had four children and he and Jane one

William - born in Ely but  went to Hoddesdon as an infant and alive aged 7 in 1773.  See next post

Mary - died infancy

Hannah  - alive in 1773 aged 2.  Untraced

Richard - died in 1774 in infancy

--------------------------------------------------------

Jane - died infancy in 1776

Edward Ginn of Lincoln died 1890

Edward was son of James in my last post.  He moved around a fair bit, and by 1840 was living in Stamford in Lincolnshire and working as an umbrella maker.  He married Jane Carlin (who was Irish) at All Saints Stamford (below) that year.

No children of this marriage are known.   The couple were running  what the Census clerk cheerily called a "lodging house for vagrants" at Scotgate in Stamford in 1851 - Edward was a Hawker, as were many of his lodgers.  It seems likely that Jane died in Grantham in 1856

In 1858 Edward married (for a second time) at Hitchin in Hertfordshire.  His bride was an Emma Porter (from Lincolnshire) and the couple moved back to that county.  They passed through the Spalding district, Boston and clearly moved around, but they settled in Lincoln.

Edward Ginn was a Dealer/Broker in Lincoln.  Originally in Waterside South, by the early 1870s the couple settled at 32 Cheviot Street.   He dealt in a mixture of things, but chiefly China/Glass and Furniture.  While at time he flirted with insolvency, in general he did quite well for himself, the couple had a maid.

Edward died in 1890 in Lincoln and left a will.  Emma's death is unclear

Edward and Emma had eight children viz

Edward - he tried his hand at the services - joining the Navy as a "ship's boy" in 1877 aged 16.  He spent some months on HMS St Vincent that year (built in 1815) a training ship shown below - she was stationed at Portsmouth

He and the Navy did not get on and he, or rather his Dad, bought him out soon after.  Undaunted, he then joined the Royal Horse Artillery as a Driver, where he stayed for three years see below, leaving in 1881.  He was dark haired, rather short with grey eyes.

In 1883 he married Sarah Jane Dove in Lincoln. They had three children, Edward, William (died infancy) and Gertrude.  Edward snr sadly died in 1896 aged 35.  Sarah remarried in 1904.  A correspondent (descendant of Edward's sister)  has suggested that what remained of this family emigrated to Canada

Sarah Ellen - married John Charles Quinlan at Lincoln in 1889

James - clearly died infancy

Emma - died infancy

Esther - alive in 1891 aged 21

Albert - sadly died in 1894 aged 21.  Likely tuberculosis

Florence - alive 1891 aged 16.  I think she subsequently married someone surname Taylor

Annie - alive 1891 aged 14

James Ginn of Stocking Pelham died c. 1828

James Ginn was son of John Ginn of Farnham (see post of 23rd March 2013 ) and was a Labourer.  DNA links discovered in October 2022 proved the relationship beyond doubt.  James moved to Stocking Pelham (where his cousin Cornelius lived) very early on after his marriage.  Both he and his half brother William seem to have been quite close to the elderly Cornelius (for Cornelius see post of 20th September 2012)

The reason for moving to Stocking Pelham was presumably work.  His father had died when James was very young, and his mother remarried.  I suspect that the childless Cornelius was asked to help out a bit.  Perhaps Uncle Cornelius helped in finding James work and there is some suggestion that he may have given James a basic training in carpentry (see below).  

James married Esther/Hester Rogers (dtr of John) at Stocking Pelham in 1805, the year of the Battle of Trafalgar.  The witnesses to the wedding included his half-brother William, who had also moved to that village temporarily.

James stayed in the Pelhams, unlike his half-brother, but he certainly did not initially gain settlement.  As seen Farnham was no more than a hamlet, and a lot of people who were officially settled there lived elsewhere.  See the Overseer’s Book.  This shows that the Overseer paid the rent for James's cottage to a Daniel Parker (apparently a friend of the Ginns of Farnham) who was not James' landlord who presumably passed this on.  Thi was in 1808, and James seems to have gained settlement in Stocking Pelham  for the purpose of the poor laws soon after.

I know very little about James, not even exactly where he lived and when exactly he died.  The Stocking Pelham register has no trace of him, but he seems likely to be the James Ginn (who in one record was described as a carpenter - perhaps doing carpentry work on some building or other) who died at Sawbridgeworth near Bishops Stortford in 1828.  We know that he died in about that year.

In 1837 his widow Esther married at Stocking Pelham.  The entry tells us that Esther Ginn "of full age, widow" nee Rogers, married John Wooten, a widower and local labourer.

James and Hester had at least eight children, likely nine (a gap in the register) viz

James jnr - something of a mystery man.  He was living at the home of John Wooten in 1851, who described him as his son-in-law, which initially confused me, but of course that term meant stepson in that period.  James never married . James had a passable education, as he was a Schoolteacher, and for a great many years was Stocking Pelham’s parish clerk.  He died in 1889.  He was stated to be 83; he was 82.

John - Married Mary King at Little Hormead in 1832 and stayed in the Hormeads.  He lived in the area called Darsell's  (Hobbs Farm) in 1851.  Ironically, he lived next door to a William Ginn (from the Hormeads) who was his very distant cousin (the branches had separated some 300 years before).  I have wondered if they ever discussed their joint surname over the garden fence - "you don't think we're related do you Bill?". John and Mary only ever had one child - Jane  - who was born in 1833 at Little Hormead.  In 1852 this Jane married a George Aldridge at Braughing.  So this Ginn family had come full circle.  Not only back in Herts, but back in Braughing where they started from.  John died in 1888 and Mary died in 1893.

Edward  -see next post 

Elizabeth - married James Whybird at Stocking Pelham in 1846

Hester - married Richard Marlow at Manuden, Essex in 1836

Sarah - married William Brett at Manuden,  Essex in 1841 - "a minor",  she was 16

Ann and Mary - died infancy

Henry Ginn of Norton Heath and High Ongar, Essex died 1656

I knew that Henry Ginn (born to Henry snr in 1594 - see post of  20th July 2012   ) survived childhood very early in my research, but until 2018 he has merely been a footnote in my research, in that year he became a "contender" as Marlon Brando would have put it.

Henry's father died in 1615, when Henry was just 21.  He was left various houses (in the plural) in Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire, but we are not told how many nor where they were.  In addition, it is entirely possible if Henry's brother Humphrey is to be believed from his 1622 court case, that Henry never actually received all of his inheritance.

In 1616, Henry was still in Fyfield where was assaulted by a Gilbert Church there (Essex Quarter Sessions) and in 1623 I  found him mentioned in conjunction with his brother Arthur and Humphrey Aylett in a Fyfield manorial record concerning land at Willingdale Doe (D/DCW M108 at the ERO).

I was certain that he was at Norton Mandeville in the 1620s because there was mention in some transcribed records of a Henry Ginn being churchwarden there, but the parish registers do not survive and the whole picture did not emerge until 2018, and though I say the "whole picture", I am looking at it through a hazy window due to the absence of parish records.

Henry married the lovely named Frances Pye at Sandon, quite some distance away, in 1619 when he was 25  At present I know nothing of her family.

What we do know is that the couple had children at Norton Mandeville, where Henry was certainly churchwarden for a good number of years, it being a tiny parish with a lovely church.

There seems to be no doubt at all that the couple lived at Norton Heath from the time of their marriage, and I even know exactly where.  A deed  (D/DQ 95/2) at the ERO tells me that Henry Ginn lived at "Wythams" a three bay Tudor built house (likely originally owned by the yeoman Wytham family) which as houses built in the day were required to, had four acres of land adjoining.  The house was on the Ongar - Chelmsford Road - and amazingly it still is and has the same name, lying in a tiny enclave of the parish of High Ongar that sits within Norton Mandeville and is not far from the latter church.

Wythams is now  Grade 2 Listed and being a 3 bay house was quite large by contemporary standards, Henry and Frances living quite well.

 

The main chimney breast was there in Henry's day, and part of the building shows the High Hall (living room) that they knew.

With these pictures bringing the atmosphere of their house to life.

Henry and Frances obviously had a good number of children, but because of the absence of the parish registers I only know (or can deduce) a few, and I am reasonably certain that Frances died in the later 1630s and that Henry remarried a Sarah Housden at Sawbridgeworth,  just over the border in Hertfordshire in 1639, my reason for this assertion being that Henry obviously had children through to the later 1640s.

There was however a parish visitation to Norton Mandeville in 1630 by the Bishop's representatives, and they took a duplicate of the Bishop's Transcripts of the register of that year away with them - it is now in the Guildhall Library. in London.  That DOES survive, and I show my photo of the relevant part below, because not only does it shown Elizabeth as being born to Henry and Frances that year, but Henry was still churchwarden at the Church, and here we have his only surviving signature.

There is also another significant signature here, the signature of a man whose family I am sure had some influence upon the Ginn family and most assuredly a major influence on Essex at this time and in the 1640s - and that is Isaac Joyner snr, shown here as the Minister.  We can imagine them both inside the church

Isaac Joyner snr was a Cambridge graduate who was the Rector at Norton Heath from 1598 until his death in 1638, so he was an old man here.  But it is his sons, Daniel and Isaac jnr, who are interesting.   Also Cambridge graduates - Daniel was Rector of neighbouring Chipping Ongar in the 1630s, and Isaac junior had been Curate at Fyfield no less in 1614/5 - so must have known the Fyfield Ginns early on, was a Puritan and later became Rector of Springfield near Chelmsford before dying in 1650.  Issac jnr was very influential during the English Civil War and was partly responsible for raising three Essex Regiments of Militia Cavalry for Parliament in 1642, my suspecting that he may have had something to do with Henry Ginn of Fyfield fighting for Parliament as I am sure he did (see post of 29th July 2012).

We do not know how many children Henry had, nor all of their names - but it is clear that he had quite a few - through to the 1640s.  It is equally clear that during the period of the English Civil War and thereafter in the 1650s, the problems that had for the clergy led to a decline at Norton Mandeville church, and though living at Norton Heath, Henry started to use High Ongar.  Those registers also do not survive until the early 1650s but I know Henry was buried there in 1656 - he was 62.

As I say, precise information on Henry's children but is impossible it is possible to deduce some:

Henry - there is a "shadow" in the records (we have no definite information) that suggests that Henry had a surviving son of that name who inherited the lease of "Withams" and vacated that property in the 1680s.  There is no evidence of a marriage or children, but Henry clearly died and was buried at Chipping Ongar in 1718 when he was likely about 70.

Arthur  - it was long debated whether he was Henry's child or that that of Henry's nephew John, but it seems clear that now we know that Henry had a large family he was Henry's - see post of 29th October 2012

Elizabeth - the only known baptism - born in 1630 - fate unknown

Mary - given the locality - it seems clear that the Mary who married Thomas Wilmore at Mashbury in 1664 was their child.  Thomas apparently came from Chignall St James which is not that far from Norton Heath.  Sadly the registers do not survive.

John - likely theirs - married Elizabeth Smith at nearby Chelmsford in 1678.  

George Ginn of Bermondsey died 1700

George Ginn was born in Welwyn in Hertfordshire in 1635, the eldest son of George in my last post.

The only thing that has ever been definitely known about him (and, to be honest, still is the only thing definitely known about him) is that a year after his father's death , in 1662, George jnr launched a court action against the Boteler family in the Court of Chancery in London, the Equity Court, ie that of fairness.  George jnr was 26.

The Court of Chancery sat at the ancient Westminster Hall.  To instruct lawyers  and to in a initiate a court action has never been cheap (as a lawyer I should know) and my understanding is that to launch a Bill of Complaint at this time could cost as much as one pound sterling a handwritten line, £20-30 to launch the simplest case therefore, the cost of a Hertfordshire labourer's cottage.  This tells us a lot about George.

                                                              Now - and - then

Firstly he had ambition, indeed he was openly optimistic if not downright foolish to think he could win against the Botelers, a century after the offence as it were.  Secondly he had the money.  Although described as a gentleman of Watton in the case, this was obviously nonsense - he was confused in the records with the Botelers.  But likely he raised cash against his future inheritance of his father's cottage to finance the case.  It is reference C10/66/62 at the Nation Archives.

Whether George ever got to Westminster Hall is a moot point, he certainly must have gone to London to launch the court case, but after issuing the Bill of Complaint the Boteler family answered, as did the Kents who occupied "Garretts" the old Ginn farmhouse in Aston, and the case seems to have died a death after that - likely because the trail of evidence was a century old and George could not bring forward any living witnesses to back up his case.

So what happened to George ?  That has been a mystery that has bugged me for nearly thirty years.  It was clear that he did not die in Hertfordshire.  The name George was not that common before the Hanoverian Kings from 1720, and those called "George Ginn" were always few and far between.  He could have died in a parish of which there are no surviving records for the period of course, or he could have been in the records in front of me, and I not realise it was him.  It was a mystery. 

There was one man in the records who seemed to fit however - a George Ginn of Bermondsey in London, but although there was no George shown in the nearby records in Southwark, there were earlier Ginns in Southwark,  and with no evidence that the Herts George had gone to London I had no reason to suppose it was the same man.  And besides, George Ginn of Bermondsey was a Tanner, Bermondsey being the centre of the leather trade in England from 1600 for about 250 years.  No Hertfordshire Ginn was in that trade.  End of story.

Then in 2018 I got a shock.  Ancestry loaded up an apprenticeship record for William the son of George's brother Henry, he was virtually untraced.  And Henry Ginn was a Tanner !

I obviously therefore have to consider it likely that George Ginn went to Bermondsey.  He was an ambitious man, had seen London and the delights it had to offer and must have known that Bermondsey was the centre of the leather industry and the place to go.

There is no Ginn in Bermondsey mentioned in the Hearth Tax of the early 1664, and George seems to have arrived after the Great Fire of London in 1666, which did not affect Bermondsey, the consequent destruction and subsequent rebuilding leading to a surge of immigration to London.

George was certainly there soon after, because he logically married in about 1667 (no marriage yet traced) and had his first child, also George, at Bermondsey in 1669.

I know very little about George's time in Bermondsey, save that he lived in St Mary Magdalene Parish, in fact quite close to the church, in Bermondsey Street.   In George's day this was known by the nickname of Barnaby Street, effectively the high road.

George and his wife (possibly wives) lived in St Mary Magdalene Parish as I say, the church (rebuilt in 1690) being what remained of Bermondsey Abbey.  The original church is shown below

George and his wife (Elizabeth - she may have been his only or possibly his second wife) had a good number of children but there are few remaining baptisms.  The Register seems complete, and though  the old St Mary Magdalene was torn down in 1680 and the new not completed until 1690,  this does not explain the absence of baptisms in the 1670s, so it may likely be that George was a Non Conformist - an image that fits a man who was anti establishment, willing to challenge the gentry, ambitious and pugnacious.

Tanning was an obnoxious trade, the tanner was obviously dealing with dead animals and the hides had to be taken, washed and dressed.  It required an awful lot of water, the tides of the Thames at Bermondsey supplying this.  A horrible process, which stank and led to tanneries being situate away from habitation.

George's wife Elizabeth died in 1696 - she seems to have had her last child in 1685 and I would assume was in her 50s.

George's son Henry was apprenticed in 1696 when George was alive, his son William in 1702 when he was dead, so George died in 1700 or so when he was about 65 and is buried in the new St Mary Magdalene Church completed in 1690 below - which , of course, is situated on Bermondsey Street.

George and Elizabeth had a number of children over the years, but I do not have full list and like most Londoners a great number died - 

George - there is only one known - and he died in infancy

Henry - there were several.  The only one who survived was born in circa 1678 (no recorded baptism) and in 1693  apprenticed aged 15 to Francis Thackham, a member of the Feltmaker's Company.  George Ginn seems determined that his son be feltmakers, ie Hatters.  He would have associated with a lot in the alehouses in Bermondsey and Southwark.

Francis Thackham took on may apprecentkces over the years, but does not seem to have lived in London or Surrey but likely Berkshire, running his business in London.  It is extremely likely that Harry was not really granted a full apprenticehip, but taken on as what was known as a "singing boy".  This had nothing to do with actual singing, but such "were employed in the stiffening or doeing off hats setting the firrs".  This was just one job in a complicated messy business and there was controversy about boys being exploited in this way at the time, such lads having to be offered full apprenticeships at age 18 and if their master had no place then another master had to offer one.  If not then their master was fined 10s a week, a lot at the time.

So, obviosuly Thackham had no apprenticeship for Henry because at the beginning of 1696, when Henry was now 18 he was apprenticed to a James Bestly of the Feltmongers Company.  I know a lot about James.  He died in 1723 in Aldersgate in the City, but he had run his hatters business in Southwark in the 1680s and 90s.  He seems to have lost all of his wives and children as he asked to be buried with them in St Olaves in Southwark.

Things did not work out.  Harry's mum died in 1696, and it was possibly that and Harry's limited range of  experience in the business leading to a parting of the ways, because in December 1696 (Henry was now nearly 19) "Henry Ginn son of George Ginn of Bermondsey Tanner" was apprenticed to a John Richardson, a member of the Blacksmiths Company.  I know nothing about Richardson and here the trail ends - I can find nothing further on Harry.

Most people in London at this time died in childhood, few lived beyond 50.  London was so vibrant as it was "the City of the young"

Elizabeth - there were one or two - but none lived so far as I know.

William - I call him "William Ginn the Hatter" as in 1702 when he was likely about 15 he "son of George Ginn Tanner lately of Bermondsey "- ie George was dead - was apprenticed to a Feltmaker (Hatter) called John Thompson.  See post of 28th June 2020