The Ginn family of Southoe - later Eynesbury

Many years ago I was researching one snowy day in the Huntingdon Record Office.  I was actually there to research a Hertfordshire family, but a lot of other information turned up, and I became fascinated by what I found in Southoe and Eynesbury, some of this information now being online, it was not then - in fact there was no "online" then !!

A James Ginn and what I took to be his brother William arrived in Southoe (some six miles from Huntingdon) in the 1670s.  They were likely born during the English Civil War.  There is absolutely no evidence to connect them to the only Ginn family known to have been in Huntingdonshire at this time (distant Stilton) nothing to connect them to the family at Swavesey (to be discussed in a later post) nor to a family from Hertfordshire (see post of 7th July 2012  in my other blog regarding Robert Ginn of Wyton and Houghton) that had settled in Huntingdon and Wyton and Houghton nearby, so the origins of the Southoe family are a total mystery.   All that having been said, the discovery in early 2020 of unknown Ginns from the Wyton/Houghton family and the propensity of this family to use the name Robert over centuries, has made me wonder if they do connect to the latter family and there is something hidden in the, as yet, available records.  All speculation at the moment.

My theory is that a couple arrived in the area after the  Civil War with family in tow.  Significantly, perhaps, a Mary Ginn (who I suspect was a widow) married a Richard Fowler at Eynesbury in 1657.  The move to Southoe is even more odd because Southoe has always been a tiny place, with a population of less than a hundred souls in medieval times and scarcely ever more than 200.  Why did James and William go there ?

William Ginn married and had issue but everybody died including a son Robert, so is not explored further here.  But James Ginn married an Ann Saunders at Southoe in 1673.  He had one hearth in the Hearth Tax of 1674.  They had four known children.  James Ginn died in 1706, likely about 65.  Ann died in 1716.

They had four children as I say

Elizabeth- married John Rappet at Southoe in 1693

James - married Elizabeth Jackson at Southoe in 1698 and Miriam or likely Marian Harding there in 1702.  Elizabeth had died in 1701. His  two known children, Dorcas and Matthew, both died in infancy. Marian died in 1705. James was given as "a workman" in the register which does not tell us a lot. James is untraced thereafter - so there could be more to this story.

Matthew - later of Great Staughton is clearly theirs. My notebooks have a gap in the register for 1681 and 1682 and the guy was born then.   This is why James jnr had a son Matt to honour his Uncle.  See post on the Ginn family of Great Staughton

Thomas - see next post