Your monument shall be my gentle verse
That eyes not yet created shall o'er read
And tongues to be, your being, shall rehearse
When all the breathers of your world are dead
You still shall live, such virtue hath my pen
Where breath most breathes - in mouths of men

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Richard Ginn of Bishops Stortford d. 1670


The son of Aquila Ginn the elder, by 1663 Richard had moved to Bishop's Stortford.  From 1663 until his death he held, presumably owned, the "Half Moon" Alehouse in North Street, Bishop's Stortford.

The "Half Moon" Alehouse/Tavern is very old; it claims the date 1638, but the book "Hertfordshire Inns" says that it is older. The pub started life as "The Half Moon", was briefly "The sign of the White Swan" and then "The Green Man".  Between 1746 and 1767 it changed back to the "Half Moon", for some years being known (in the deeds) as "The Half Moon lately [i.e. previously] the Green Man, formerly the White Swan". It sits just as the deeds describe it “on the north west corner of North Street”.



Why Richard took up this trade is a complete mystery, though I have wondered if his father Aquila wanted a retail outlet for some of the barley (for brewing) from his lands and Richard's uncle, John Poulter, was a brewer and alehousekeeper in the Hormeads which may have influenced the matter.

Richard was not yet twenty when he acquired the pub.  He got to work quickly, because in 1666 (the year of the Great Plague in Stortford) he issued a traders token for one farthing, to be used as small change in the pub.  Some few of these tokens survive (one is in the British Museum), and are described at length in the book "Trade Tokens issued in the 17th century” Wilkinson (reprinted 1967) where they are illustrated.  On one side the token had the sign of the half moon, the year and Richard's name; on the other his initials, six stars and "at Bishop's Starford".  In 2010 I was lucky enough to get a photograph of one which is reproduced below and in 2012 one came on the market (the first for 12 years) and I was extremely fortunate in being able to buy it.


                              Richard Ginn’s token of 1666

Richard had found his feet by 1667, because in that year he married; his bride was an Elizabeth Jones.  In 1668 they had a daughter, Mary.

As we shall see, 17th century Stortford was a very unhealthy place.  Chat to some of the older residents today, and they will regale you with passed down stories of some of the ancient history of the place, the epidemics, the places visited by Pepys or King Charles 1st.  Stortford positively oozes history.

One such epidemic claimed Richard Ginn.  He died in 1670; he was a mere 25.  The pub was clearly disposed of, Richard's widow remarrying a Robert Lee (of Hatfield Broad Oak in Essex) in 1672.  The Vicar of Hatfield Broad Oak has never released his registers, so I do not know if Mary married.

Aquila Ginn the elder of Great Hormead d. 1687


There are a number of Ginns that I have researched that I would have liked to have met, and Aquila and Grace here are two of them.  They are not my ancestors, although Aquila's brother Edward is.  But I have always had an affection for this couple and would love to have sat in their parlour and had a pewter tankerd or two of small beer with them.   

Aquila was a yeoman.  As his father's eldest son he stood to inherit the family farm known as Margery Smiths, later Mutton Hall but it is clear that he never actually had it in his own right, because his grandmother died in 1625 (before Aquila was 21) and the lease of "Margery Smiths" would have ended with her which is a great pity.  

He was certainly a Yeoman however and was not poor.  We know this because he was eligible for jury service and is mentioned as a Yeoman in other surviving records.  He attended as a juryman on an inquest at Ware in 1659.  My suspicion is that he held a little free and copyhold land and a great deal more by lease.

He is also mentioned twice in the Lay Subsidy (National Archives).  In both 1625 and 1642 he was taxed on Lands.  This is a sure sign of some substance as most people were not assessed by this time.  My assessment is that he was a middling farmer of his class, with perhaps 50+ acres.

Grace was born to a Robert and Susan Milton of Newport in Essex, she was born in 1607.  Robert was a prosperous Yeoman farmer.  Robert and Susan (who may have married at Long Melford in Suffolk in 1602 – this needs research) had a number of children, William, Bridget, Mary, Elizabeth and our Grace.

Robert Milton died in 1625 or so, leaving a will the original of which survives (see ERO ref D/ABW/46/890 a page of which is below). He left his land to his son and a capital sum of £60 to each of his children, nearly all of whom were underage at his demise.  William and Bridget died young but the three surviving daughters clearly married (Boyds Marriage Index) and Susan (a youngish widow, probably in her forties) we are told married Robert Spark (at Newport in 1626).   Unfortunately neither  Susan or Spark were allegedly too forthcoming in giving the children their money and during the English Civil War period Aquila and Grace launched a lawsuit to get the money which did not actually come to court until 1659 - see C3/445/95 at the National Archives. It appears that Robert Spark (possibly a formidable figure who was said to not be badly off) was now dead and Susan, a widow again, was perhaps more vulnerable to an action.  The result of the case is unfortunately not known


Aquila died in 1687, at the great age of 82.  In a deed at the HRO, (ref 21656)  with her original signature Grace disposed of 17 acres of land after Aquila's death.  This land was at Furneux Pelham, right next to "Margery Smiths" and obviously Aquila also held lands in Great and Little Hormead of which I am unaware.

Grace died in 1700 – the old girl was 93 – truly incredible

Aquila and Grace had a good number of children:

Priscilla - married William Harslaw in 1655


Aquila the Younger - see post of 6th January 2024

Philip - moved to Bishop's Stortford with his brother Richard - see later post

Ann - married Thomas Barker at Sawbridgeworth in 1678.  Thomas lived in Little Hormead and in 1671 married Susanna Grave of Sawbridgeworth there, thus indirectly  introducing the Grave family of Sawbridgeworth into this branch of the Ginn family.  They had Susannah (1671) Thomas (1673) and Elizabeth (1676) and then Susannah died.  Thomas remarried Ann Ginn who was probably well known to him.  They had at least one child (Edward 1679) and a good number of descendants have corresponded with me.

Richard - moved to Bishops Stortford - see next post

John - married and had eight sons live to adulthood - blimey ! - see later post

Richard Ginn of Little Hormead d. 1624

Richard Ginn was the eldest son and heir of  Henry Ginn of Great and Little Hormead d. 1586, mentioned in my post of  11th July.       

Save for his birth, the first entry for Richard in the records is in 1595, when he is mentioned regarding his marriage to Mary Felsted of Much Hadham who was daughter of Robert Felsted, a yeoman farmer there.  Robert died in 1600 and his will is at the ERO.

It was a tragically short marriage.  In 1597 the couple had a son, Richard Jnr, who died.  In 1599, Mary died during labour giving birth to their daughter, baptised Mary in her memory.  As was common at the time, Richard remarried within months, to a widow Alice Page. Various correspondents have written to me to say that she was the widow of William Page of Ardeley who had died in January of that year.  This seems likely.  Alice was born Alice Bardolf in early 1576, daughter of James Bardolf who Gene Forbes-Hood indicated to me in 2019 had to be a Yeoman or minor Gentleman because he is mentioned in the Tudor Militia lists as providing arms and horses for the Muster during the Spanish Armada scare.  Alice married William Page in 1598.  There is some suggestion that the Bardolfs had a connection with Ardeley that went back to the reign of Henry the 5th, because in 1414 a Bardolf reputedly held Lites Manor in Ardeley..  Scope for research here.

I know a fair amount about Richard.  He was a  a Yeoman farmer, although the exact extent of his lands is unclear.

His father had died in 1586, and the family farm “Margery Smiths" had been inherited by his mother for life.  Margery Smiths was later known as Mutton Hall Farm.

Richard was granted a lease of Margery Smiths and its thirty acres by his mother which we know was for the term of her life  (see his will).  In 1614 his mother made a will leaving the copyhold of the farm to Richard's eldest son Aquila,  and tried to circumvent the judgement of the manorial court which precluded the farm being inherited by Henry Ginn's male heirs.  She does not seem to have succeeded when she died in 1625.

Even after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, England was still in fear of invasion.  Consequently the men were still mustered.  In 1596 Richard is mentioned in the Muster Book (HRO) as being allocated a Caliver (a lightweight primitive musket).

The fact that Richard is mentioned in the Lay Subsidy of the 1590s (being taxed on lands) confirms that he had some substance and we know from his will, that independent of the leasehold lands, he clearly had acquired  free and copyhold lands in his own name all around the house known as "Margery Smiths"-  in Jeffrey's Field, Randall’s Grove, Highfield and so on.  I suspect that he held some 40-50 or so acres including the leasehold lands, enough for his family to live on and have something in excess.

In October 1624, Richard Ginn became fatally ill, he was 52.  His lands fell in two parishes, and the Vicars of both: Edward Howsden of Little Hormead and Joseph Scrubie of Gt. Hormead came to his bed-side for the writing of the will.  The original will has survived  and a page with his signature is shown below (ERO). Within two days of its completion he was dead and buried.


Richard left his "Mansion house", obviously a large farmhouse, to his wife for life (under the terms of the lease which would have fallen away in 1625) and provided she looked after his mother with food and firing etc.  Alice Ginn his widow lived on, dying in 1651 aged 75.

Richard and his two wives had a number of children:

Mary - was from the first marriage.  I have always felt a certain affection for her because her mother died when she was born and she grew up with a step mum who went on to have children of her own. It cannot have been easy. She was clearly adored by her father though, he left her with a decent dowry when he died in 1624 - she was then 25.  

I have speculated for years, decades, that she married George Pettitt at Hertford, St Andrew in 1626. But that could have been a Ginn from Stevenage.  The Pettitts were prosperous tanners in Hertford who played a significant role in civic life there.  George died in 1663 (will PCC) accounted a Gentleman and leaving a wife Mary and four children (born from 1641) thus it is clear that this Mary was his second wife and the children from her.  So, if Mary here did marry George, she died in her late thirties without issue.

Ellen - married Robert Danes/Dines at Great Hormead in 1619 and John Poulter there in 1634. The lady had eight children by her two husbands and like her brothers lived a long life, dying when she was 80.  It is known that she was close to her brothers and her second husband had his own alehouse at Great Hormead which her brothers are known to have frequented !  It is possible that it was this Poulter connection that led to her Ginn nephews going into brewing and innkeeping from the 1660s.

Sarah - married Leonard  Daniel in 1642

Aquila - married Grace Milton at Newport Essex in 1629 - see next post

Edward - married Judith Perry at Great Hormead in 1633

 Martha and Priscilla are untraced, and James and Richard died in infancy

Monday 13 August 2012

Henry Ginn of East Wickham d. 1897


Henry Ginn here was a direct descendant of Robert Ginn (d. 1587 - see my post of  25th June )  and is mentioned here to break up the posts a little and introduce a different period.  Some of his siblings will be dealt with in a later post.

Henry was born in Great Hormead  but left at an early age and joined the Royal Navy - he was a stoker. He travelled widely, and at one point he is known to have visited his brother William in Australia.

Henry’s first term of service in the Navy was untraced by me until 2008, and even now I do not know for certain exactly when he joined up and when he left because there does not appear to be a full service record.  If he joined the Navy in his teens then he may well have seen service in the Crimean War but we will likely never be sure either way.  What I do know was that he joined HMS Chesapeake (crew of 500 or so), likely in 1857 when this 51 gun steam frigate sailed from Chatham for the East Indies and China, because in 1859/1860 it is known that he was a stoker on that ship in the Second China War as he was awarded the China War Medal with the clasp for the taking of the Taku Forts in China in 1860. The Chesapeake was the flagship of the British squadron and was at the forefront of the initial unsuccessful assault in 1859 (Second Battle of the Taku Forts), many of her crew (including some stokers) being put into gunboats (effectively landing craft) and assisting in storming the forts. After much hard fighting the attack was eventually beaten off by the Chinese.  A good number of men from the ship were killed and wounded, many of the wounded being taken back to the ship where they died.  The Chesapeake Memorial to the dead still stands at Portsmouth  and is shown below.




The British and French military expedition of the subsequent year  succeeded in taking the Taku Forts (Third Battle) and ultimately ended with the taking of Peking. Henry was awarded his medal, a companion to which is shown below.
 The Chesapeake sailed home and was paid off in early 1861, Henry obviously marrying Sarah Meldrum at Lewisham almost immediately.

He re-enlisted in November 1866 and is known to have served in HMS Basilisk (1871-4), HMS Pembroke (Medway shore establishment) and HMS Duncan.  By far his most interesting time was spent on HMS Basilisk.  This is a quite famous steam sloop (paddle driven) which was commanded by a Captain Moresby and was engaged in much charting and exploration of New Guinea and parts of north eastern Australia during the early 1870s.  There were several voyages, and Port Moresby in New Guinea is named after the ships commander. The Basilisk is shown several times on the website “Picture Australia”, there being several watercolours of it in Australian galleries.  Henry spent three years in the ship on the “Australia station” and it is undoubtedly on one of these voyages that Henry went to see his brother William in Australia (William had emigrated and his Australian Ginn descendants have a record of this) and Harry was supposed to have taken his brother a gift of a warm overcoat during the Australian summer, to the latter’s amusement, given the heat being experienced at the time.  

                            HMS Basilisk is shown to the left

Henry retired from the Navy on pension.  I have attempted to trace his service details from the number quoted in the index to these at the National Archives, but the index seems to be in error.  On leaving the navy he took up various jobs.

The family had originally settled in Plumstead, near Harry’s brother Thomas, but eventually they moved down to East Wickham near Dartford.

Harry Ginn died in 1897, he was 60: administration of his effects going to his eldest son.  Sarah died in Maidstone in 1914.

Henry and Sarah had five children, two of whom died in infancy.  Of the rest:

Jane - never married.  She spent some time in New Zealand, dying in 1931 and leaving a will which mentions the children of her two brothers.

Thomas - married twice, including his late brother's widow

Henry - also married twice

Thursday 9 August 2012

The Ginn family of Theobalds Park - Presbyterians

There is some evidence that Harry Ginn of Cheshunt (see last post)  had a son John who had his children baptised at both Waltham Holy Cross (Waltham Abbey) and Cheshunt and had a son Thomas there in 1625.

What is certain is that despite there being scarcely any evidence of them on the IGI, there were two Thomas Ginns, father and son, who lived on Theobalds Park in Cheshunt, living full lives and posing this researcher many headaches.

I was born in Cheshunt and some of my ancestors have lived there for many centuries and may well have known this man and, indeed his father and grandfather. The Cheshunt Ginn family, however, had so many links to Theobalds that it is impossible to understand them without knowing its history, and I was mortified to discover that I was woefully ignorant of part of the story of my own parish.

Cheshunt is today only really famous for one thing, it is the HQ for Tesco Supermarkets.  In the 16th century its main claim to fame was Theobalds Palace.  Originally built for the Cecil family, it became a favourite residence of James 1st who took it off of the Cecils in exchange for Hatfield House. James died at Theobalds, and in 1642 it was from Theobalds that Charles 1st rode to Nottingham to raise his flag for the start of the Civil War.

The palace apart, Theobalds was a wooded hunting park, extended and extended again to some 2500 acres, and sitting in three parishes, Cheshunt, Enfield and Northaw.

Charles 1st obviously lost the Civil War, and his head, and during the 1640s the palace and park were vandalised and exploited by the local population.  In 1651, needing money to pay off the army, Cromwell and his deputies decided to demolish the palace and deforest the park, making it into a small number of farms of some 70-200 acres and putting them under the control of a number of local tenants. It seems possible that one of these was John Ginn of Cheshunt, but, as below, this might not be the case and Thomas possibly took the property through his wife.

Oliver Cromwell (whose family have many associations with Cheshunt) died in 1658 and the country became almost anarchical, Charles the 2nd being invited back in 1660 ("the Restoration") and welcomed by many of the population. One of the leaders who invited Charles back was a certain George Monck, one of Cromwell' s own generals and friend. In gratitude Charles the 2ndgave Monck certain titles, including Duke of Albermarle, and some lands: including the estates of Theobalds and Old Park at Enfield in 1661.

The new Duke was required to continue with the tenancy arrangements, though from 1661 we see many leases being granted, either for three lives or for fixed terms of 21 years, many at quite reasonable rents. 

The second Duke of Albermarle, Monck's son, died in 1688, the same year that William the Third and Mary took the throne. The line dying out, the King gave the estate to his banker, William Bentinck, later Duke of Portland. Portland was not as generous as formerly, being a banker he attempted to change the tenancy arrangements and extract much more of a rack rent from his tenants.

What, you may ask, does this have to do with Thomas Ginn? Well, it is clear that early on, certainly by 1664 and probably from 1661 or even before, Thomas Ginn had a lease of one of the farms on Theobalds. Most of these farms still survive, even to this day, and it is likely that in due course I will find out which farm he held: for records also survive.

Thomas Ginn was therefore a Yeoman farmer, and a prosperous one.  It seems likely that he put the money inherited from his father to good use, and taking advantage of the reasonable rents given him, "made hay whilst the sun shone" and profited well until 1688.

He clearly married Elizabeth in about 1658, during the Commonwealth and possibly at Northaw, the registers not surviving. I have no information on her maiden name, though some suspicions based on her will. What I am certain of is that she was a widow and probably older than Thomas. I say this because in her will she names Thomas as "my last husband" and they obviously had few children. I am also fairly certain that it was Elizabeth who inherited the lease mentioned below which Thomas took over on marriage. She was an eligible widow therefore. I say this because her will intimated that Elizabeth had money of her own (which technically Tom allowed her) and which was likely brought to her second marriage. This could explain Tom's rise in fortunes. Only two children are known, Martha who has no apparent surviving baptism and may have been baptised at Northaw, and Thomas who was baptised at Cheshunt.

In 1664, Thomas Ginn and some other yeomen took on the Disher family of Theobalds (Chancery actions National Archives), who I know of through my own Cheshunt family history. The Dishers were a pugnacious, litigious bunch, avowed Parliamentarians during the Civil War (Capt Disher of Theobalds being a cavalry officer in Cromwell's army and leader of a Hertfordshire troop at the Battle of Edgehill) and of the puritanical persuasion. Indeed, Theobalds had a non-conformist chapel and was one of the most strongly Presbyterian/ Puritanical parts of the area, containing many of what the Quarter Sessions records call "phanaticks". Disher alleged that Thomas agreed to take a lease of substantial lands on Theobalds but did not follow through on his promise.  Tom denied all.

One of Tom's friends was a certain John Benton, who attended at his deathbed, appears in his son's will and who I subsequently found was a Yeoman of Theobalds and one of Tom's neighbours. This seems to be the same John Benton who married at Cheshunt in 1663 and was thus also one of Tom's contemporaries. In 1683 we find the following in the Herts Quarter Sessions records:

"The petition of Thomas Bridgeman, Thomas Gynne, John Benton, William Parnell, and John Disher, inhabitants of the parish of Endfield, co Middx: sets forth that the petitioners are tenants of the Duke of Albemarle "for severall messuages and lands lying in the said parish of Endfield" where they "with their families dwell and inhabit and have been so for many years past" and that they are also tenants of the said Duke of some lands lying in the parish of Cheshunt in the county of Hertford... "

The petitioners went on to ask for relief from repairing the highways of Cheshunt because technically they lived in Enfield. It would thus seem likely that Tom's farm was one of those towards Crews Hill in Enfield, probably including lands in Cheshunt, Enfield and Northaw.

Thomas Ginn obviously continued to hold his lease after 1688, because it seems clear his son took it. More will be known in due course, because research on the internet has revealed that extensive records survive for this period (leases, rentals and all sorts of papers for Theobalds from 1680 being in the Portland Collection at Nottingham University Library).

What was not known until 2006 was that this family were Presbyterians/Puritans.  I discovered Elizabeth's will at the Guildhall Library, quite by chance, and that fact became clear.  As mentioned above, Theobalds had its own Presbyterian/Baptist Chapel (it was shared by both sects) probably by the 1650s and certainly by 1662. There were two preachers, one Baptist and one Presbyterian and they preached there on alternate Sundays. The Baptist preacher was a certain Joseph Maisters, a Somerset man born in 1640.

The Theobalds congregation numbered one hundred or so souls and was comprised of several of Cromwell's cavalry officers who had taken farms in Theobalds, together with some two dozen families of what seem to have been exclusively anti Royalist "Parliament men". Charles 2nd was, as said, restored to the throne in 1660 and this Stuart believer in the Catholic faith and the divine rights of Kings had all non Anglican ministers expelled from office in 1662 and a period of some twenty years of persecution of non-conformists commenced.

Maisters knew the famous Puritan theologian John Owen (1616-83).  Maisters preached not only at Theobalds but also in London and in the early 1660s, during the most intense of the persecutions, Owen moved to a house near Theobalds, where he often attended the services.  In a letter of this time he was to write "the Anabaptists here at Theobalds and the Quakers in London more numerous than ever .. .a troope (of cavalry) came to Theobalds last Lords day thinking to catch the Anabaptists at their meeting, but you would not thinke how many came to warne them of it, so they dispersed and though the troopers stood gazing three or four hours on high ground to watch their rendevouz, yet they escaped their sight and met in a wood undiscovered".

                                            John Owen

Owen later moved to Stoke Newington, but kept in touch with the Theobalds congregation for years to come. Indeed, this was only one of several occasions when the Presbyterian and Baptist congregation were to be sought for arrest by troopers, sometimes they succeeded.  Theobalds became famous for the strength of the anti Royalist feeling and was feared by the King. The men there were spied upon, plots were considered all the time, a spy writing to the King's ministers in 1666 "we have a restless enemy amongst us, I mean the whole fanatic party... the head of which serpent lies especially upon the confines of Essex and Hertfordshire... about the road near Theobalds there is a crew of them lie concealed... that there should be the least commotion in London, we should find to our cost that they would be only too ready to second it"

Maisters was at Theobalds until 1692, when he moved to London, but continued to preach monthly at Theobalds until his death in 1717. His funeral oration was given by Jeremiah Hunt. 

In the late 1680s, the persecution of these people ceased, it was lawful for there to be non conformist chapels. At some point the Ginns started to attend meetings regularly in Enfield, though they had possibly done so on occasion for many years before, because Maisters sometimes preached in Baker Street, Enfield, where facilities were sometimes shared with Presbyterians.

At some time in the 1670s a Presbyterian minister called Obadiah Hughes began to preach at these Enfield meetings. Born in 1640, supposedly in Plymouth, Hughes came from a huge family of non conformists, virtually all of whom are mentioned in the Dictionary of National Biography. Indeed, Hughes' grandson John became an evangelical Anglican vicar at Ware in Herts and must have known the Ware Ginns, likely cousins of this family.

Obadiah was taught by Owen at Oxford (nonconformity was a small world) and was expelled from there for his views in the 1660s, never taking his degree. He eventually was ordained as a Presbyterian pastor and began to preach in London, from whence he came to Enfield.  He was likely preaching there from the 1670s and, in 1689, was invited to take over the chapel in Baker Street, Enfield which the Presbyterians had taken over from the Baptists. He died in Enfield in 1705.

Thomas Ginn died in 1695, he was 70. He left a will (original at HRO) and was stated to be "of Theobalds Park" at his death, although was buried at Enfield.  He left extensive bequests and was clearly quite well off. Amongst mention of his wife, children and grandchildren, he left money to "Mr Maisters, Minister" and £10 to "my brother Fordham's children" who was likely not his brother in law but one of his congregation, the Presbyterians regarding their fellows as "brothers and sisters"

 Elizabeth died at Enfield in 1696. Thomas jnr was probably there at the time. She was said to be "of great age" and left numerous bequests to individuals, to the "poor widows of Enfield who fear God" and to our old friend "my Reverend Pastor Obadiah Hughes" and "a preacher of London" a certain Richard Franklin

Thomas and Elizabeth had two children: Thomas and Martha :


Thomas Jnr

To some extent this man awaits further research.  He married Mary Trappes in about 1680 - as yet I have not found a marriage entry .  In his will he mentions his “loving friends” John Benton (of whom we know) and his brother in law John Trappes.  I feel sure that this is John Trappes of Sewardstone in Waltham Abbey, a fishmonger of some repute (he supplied the Tower of London) but cannot state that as a certainty.  What is certain is that Thomas had a few acres of freehold land in Waltham Abbey (mentioned in his will) which I have found (2006) came from his mother by dint of a mortgage from 1694 that was not repaid and she foreclosed on it.  The link to Waltham Abbey suggests, however, that there is more going on here than I know.  Perhaps more will be discovered in due course.

Whatever, Thomas Jnr obviously carried on with the Theobalds lease, describing himself as a Yeoman and obviously prospering.  He and Mary sadly only ever had one child;

 Mary               1683 

who was baptised at Enfield.

Tragedy struck the family in 1699, because Thomas became very ill, it could have been smallpox, TB or any number of the diseases prevalent at that time.  He made a will (National Archives) in which he left no less that £300 to his daughter, saw that his widow was provided for whilst unmarried and carried out his father’s wishes in respect of his sister’s children.  The most poignant bequest was to his sister - “fifteen shillings to buy a gold ring in remembrance of me”.  He was just 39 and is buried at Enfield.

In 2006 I discovered a case case, (Benton v Bosgrave and others -Ref C10/409/45 at the National Archives).  Briefly, it appears that the legacies of Thomas Jnr (particularly in so far as he was passing on the legacies of his father, Thomas snr) to the Benton and Rickard families were not paid out.  There was substantial legacies to the Rickards children and a £10 legacy to John Benton.  Thomas Ginn jnr was said to have left “a considerable estate” of about £1,000 in leases for years and bonds and money.

It appears that Thomas Jnr’s widow, Mary had remarried a William Bosgrave.  There is a surviving London marriage licence which shows that the marriage took place in 1700 and in 2012 it was discovered that the marriage took place at St Mary, Islington. The Bosgraves figure in the wills of this family, so William Bosgrave may have been a cousin of the Ginns and likely lived at Enfield.  In short, once William got his hands on the Ginn money there was no chance of any of it going the way of the Benton or Rickards family. 

John Benton, a yeoman, was dead and his eldest son Abraham launched the action, for himself and as “next friend” of the infant Rickards children.  We do not know the result, but it looks clear to me that Bosgrave and the widowed Mary were caught out.  They probably wished to hang on to the Ginn money and lands for themselves and the young Mary Ginn of whom as yet I know nothing.

Martha  

Martha here married Robert Rickards at All Hallows London Wall in 1676 (her name was mistranscribed as Gwin) and had a gigantic family:Viz Elizabeth, Robert, Martha, Thomas, John, Mary, Ursula, Sarah and Deborah. It would appear that Robert Rickards lived in Edmonton and had children baptised both there and at Enfield.  It seems likely there are descendants.

All of these children are left £20-25 each in their grandfathers will and bequests by Martha’s brother also.  The family seemed invisible on the IGI which puzzled me for ages (I thought they were non-conformists)  then I made one discovery.  Whilst researching the story of Theobalds in David Pams’ “History of Enfield” I came across one Robert Rickards, yeoman farmer of Old Park at Enfield (also held from the Duke of Albemarle) who actually lived at Edmonton .  In 1706,  Rickards had 157 acres of arable alone on Old Park (now Bush Hill Park housing).  

The research in 2006 mentioned above revealed a court case between the Benton and Rickards families and the estate of Thomas Ginn Jnr.   In 1702 Robert Rickards was stated to be of Northaw and it would seem likely that this man farmed Albermarle lands in both Theobalds and Old Parks.

In 2011 I actually found a will, Robert Rickards "of Edmonton" being buried at Enfield in 1708 and a page of his will with signature reproduced below.  Many of his children are traceable on the IGI and I am hoping that some of his and Martha's descendants might find their way to this blog which is why it is here.





Harry Ginn of Cheshunt d. 1647


Son of Richard in the last post. I sadly know very little about Harry and his wife.  He obviously married before he arrived in Cheshunt.  He gets a seperate entry in this blog because of his likely connection to the "Theobalds Park" Ginn family and because, frankly, most researchers would not otherwise know who he was, the answer being far from obvious.

My view is that he had one or two sons before he arrived in Cheshunt (see my comments in the later post regarding the Ginn family of Theobalds Park)  and it seems very likely that he lived in Waltham Cross (two sons having an association with Waltham Abbey or Waltham Holy Cross church which was easier to walk to from there than Cheshunt) and was a Husbandman, possibly also with a trade.  In 1605 he inherited his uncle Jonas' house/shop in Standon in Hertfordshire and likely the profits from the sale of that did not do him any harm.  It does seem clear that he was passably prosperous, because at least two of his sons were not that badly off.

Harry arrived in Cheshunt in about 1599. Initially he was known as "Harry Gene" which is why one or two entries do not appear under the right name in the IGI. Henry stayed in Cheshunt the rest of his life, dying in the spring of 1647 when he was about 75.  As for his widow, (whose Christian name is unknown) she lived on. 

Almshouses were built in Turners Hill, Cheshunt in 1620: the result of money given to Cheshunt by James the 1st as compensation for lands taken to extend Theobalds Park (as to which see later). The ten "ancient" almshouses survive, as do some later additions and are shown below.



Henry's widow for some reason went to one and "Widow Gyn from almshouses" was buried in 1659, she must have been nearly 90.

Harry and his wife had a number of children:

Richard - no baptism at Cheshunt.  I have assumed he was the eldest son.  "Richard Ginne of Waltham Cross" was buried at Cheshunt in 1640.  Plague seems to have been rife there that year, but he is not marked as having died of that disease.There is no evidence of  a marriage. He would have been about 40.

Mary - married John Preston at Cheshunt in 1623

Jane - married Edward Lane at Cheshunt in 1633



Uriah - a Husbandman - see post of 10th November 2019


Henry - born in 1608 and married Sarah Cutts in 1628 and Mary circa 1645. By his first marriage he had Margaret (1629) who is untraced and Ann (1631) who died "a spinster daughter of Henry" in 1658 aged 27.  By his second marriage he had Mary (1646) who is untraced.  It is not clear when Henry died, presumably after 1658.  He was dead by 1666 as in that year the Great Plague that had hit London arrived in Cheshunt and in August there was a mass burial of 16 souls, including "widow Gynn ye plague"






Margery - died a maid aged 29


An early Ginn - Band of Brothers

William Ginn of Great Hormead who died in 1568 (see post of 26th June 2012  ) had five sons who survived him: Thomas, Jonas, Henry, Richard and Michael, all of whom deserve and receive a mention here.

Thomas

Was his father's heir and inherited the tenement known as "Ginns".  He also bought  a freehold cottage or two in Great Hormead and is known to have married Martha Wigg (from a numerous and ancient local family) in 1572.


In 1583, poor old Thomas and Martha were burgled.  Two well known local burglars were apprehended and charged having "burgled the house of Thomas Gynne at Great Hormead and stolen a diaper tablecloth (value 6s 8d); a pair of linen sheets (5s); a towel (6s 8d); a felt hat (2s 6d); a pillow bar (2s 8d); 4 silver bells (4s); and a whistle with a coral (16d)".  (See Assize records).  The suggestion being that he and Martha lived in some passing comfort, their being able to afford such trinkets for the children. 

Unfortunately (for a Ginn historian) Tom and Martha only had a series of daughters, which rather ended their Ginn line, and of those none are known to have had children either so descendants are doubtful today.  Tom died in 1623 aged 79, the fate of Martha is unknown.

Jonas

He moved to Standon and was some kind of tradesman, but more I do not know. He does not seem to have married and had no issue.  I owe the man a debt because in his will of 1605 (National Archives - he was about 50) Jonas mentions all his siblings and helped me a great deal.

Henry

He married Rachel Wigg (sister of Martha) in 1585.  Henry was a Tailor and had one son and two daughters.  The Wigg girls had a brother Henry who died in 1617 and mentions the Ginns in his will.

Henry Ginn here died in 1606 aged about 50 and Rachel in 1615.  Their one son Henry would seem to have been in Chelmsford Gaol in 1613 as a vagrant and I think it unlikely there are descendants.

Richard

On Family Search etc this guy would seem to have not existed, but exist he did and he may even be the ancestor of the Ginn family of Ware, I frankly do not know.

Richard Ginn here was a Tailor. He is mentioned in his brother Jonas' will and I have managed to deduce lived in Stocking Pelham (whose registers have not survived for the time) by the 1580s through to 1592 - I researched him - where he is mentioned in manorial records as a juror (originals at Cambridge Record Office) and signed his name in the manorial rolls.  He was alive in 1605.

We know for definite that he had a substantial family and that his son Henry or Harry was the Harry Ginn of Cheshunt who will be discussed in the next post.

Michael

He is the known ancestor of the Ginns from this band of brothers alive today.  A labourer/husbandman - he married Agnes Shed at Great Hormead in 1580 and had a good number of children.  He owned what was later to be called "Bradbury House" in Hare Street and died in 1618, his original will (ERO) with his mark being below. He was 60.  Agnes died in 1623.  Their descendants will be discussed in later posts.