Charles Gynn of Bluntisham, St Ives and Houghton & Wyton died 1851

Charles Ginn (sometimes Gynn) here turned up in my notes even before I produced my first bound volume on the history of the Ginn Family of Hertfordhire - ie before 1995.

Charles was born to William and Ann Ginn of Bluntisham (see last post) in 1771.  In May of 1794 he volunteered for the Huntingdonshire Militia during the time of the Napoleonic Wars (series WO13 National Archives)  which meant he became a full time professional soldier (but for home defence).  He spent his time around the home counties in various barracks and billets.

The Peace of Amiens came in 1802 and, for a short while at least the Militia was disbanded.  In any event, Charles had served out his stint.

Back in Bluntisham, Charles Ginn married Ann Mead of St Ives in 1803.  She was reputedly much younger than Charles who was 32, Ann was about 18 and I imagine the younger sister of the wife of his brother Henry and a young lady very impressed with Charles in his uniform.

Charles practised the curse of many of this family in that not only did he move around, but he did not have many of his children baptised.  It could be ( do not know) that the reason for this was that the family were Baptists and would not use a Church of England Church, although there were Baptist chapels in St Ives as well as Bluntisham.

I say this because he and his brothers (like their Mum) attended the Baptist Church in Bluntisham which was opened in 1791 or there abouts by a certain Coxe Feary (below) whose preaching to local shepherds and labourers attracted a following.

The Church is still there although altered, the original shown below.  Charlie had his first two sons baptised here.

 So, without baptism records, it has been a work of some genius to find out what I have on this family, and I certainly do not know everything.

Charles was an Agricultural Labourer.  The couple spent the early year of their marriage in Bluntisham, then apparently moved to St Ives where they spent the 1820s, before moving on to Houghton and Wyton where they were in 1841.   If you recall that Ann was born as late as 1785, she had a good two dozen years of potential childbearing in her when she married Charles, she lived those years, and they moved around having children along the way, most of them never baptised.

Charles died in Houghton in 1851, he was 80.  I am not sure when Ann died or whether she remarried.

Charles and Ann had four children that I know of

Robert - was the eldest son and has a baptism in the Baptist records.  He was born in Bluntisham in 1806.

Robert never married.  I have speculated that he had an illegitimate daughter called Emily born circa 1838 who lived with him in 1851 and he claimed as his niece.  But she was described as his niece in both the census and his will, so perhaps she was.

Robert Gynn (he was always Gynn) went to London.  He lived in Upper Chenies Mews (still there near Tottenham Court Road) part of the Duke of Bedford estate and later Hunter Street nearby where he had a house on lease with stables etc.  He lived with Emily and the Burgess family (Susan Burgess was his housekeeper and wife of a cab driver John) and lived in modest comfort as a Cab Master (he owned his own Hansom cab)

Robert Gynn died in 1857, he is buried in Camden - he was 51.  He left an informative will (see  PCC)

William - born in and baptised in the Baptist record at Bluntisham.  I have never found anything on him but he is likely the father of Emily Gynn, Robert's niece if Bob was telling the truth.

Mead - people interested in this family would be forgiven for thinking this guy never existed, he is a bit of a "lost soul" in the records.  My first note of him has a large question mark against it -as there is no mention of him in Huntingdonshire records that I have seen.

Mead Gynn (a glorious country name - worthy of a Thomas Hardy novel) was born in St Ives in about 1820.  He was a Chaff-cutter.

  

That is, he used a machine to cut the chaff for horse feed.  Mead never married, but he went to London and  got together with a Scottish girl a few years his junior called Mary Smith.  The couple had a son Charles in circa 1845 (whether Gynn or Smith seems a moot point) and in 1851 they were given by the census recorder as "Gwynn" and were living in tenements (probably one family to a room) in Little Denmark Street in St Giles in the Fields in London, not far from Tottenham Court Road where his brother Bob lived.  Living conditions would have been tough and sanitation poor.

By 1858 the couple lived in Great White Lion Street, also in St Giles.  Sadly Mead died there that year, he was about 37.  He could not have had much, although the previous year he had received a share of his brother's estate but as he and Mary were not married he needed to leave a will which he did (as Meed Gynn ).  This will give more information on children and clues for possible descendants.

Mary - There is  no baptism record. Robert Gynn mentions her in his will. He gave her as the wife of a William Horneby (as I read it)  a Miller as of 1857 of Brampton in Huntingdonshire.  I could not find anything on them and then I came across a note on Wikitree from a Kathy Olson in the USA  and realised that this was William Hornsby.  

Mary married William Hornsby (born Chellington in Bedfordshire) in 1843.  William was a fair bit older than Mary.  Mary afterwards said she was born in Wyton in circa 1812.  William Hornsby was a "journeyman miller" says the census.  They had a substantial family.  Kathy Olson's interest is in Mary Ann (1846-1920) their daughter (below) who went to the States in early life

William Ginn of Bluntisham, Huntingdonshire died 1775

This chap is the origin of the Ginn/Gynn family of Bluntisham , Houghton and Wyton and St Ives.  That is, the origin of the one that started in the 1700s, not the one that came from Hertfordshire to Houghton and Wyton and St Ives in the 1570s.

Whether the Ginn family of Eynesbury connect to that Hertfordshire family, whether this Bluntisham family connect to the Eynesbury family, these are all perpetual puzzles that may never be answered.

What we know is that William was born in around 1725, at least we assume that.  There are no records of the Ginn family in Bluntisham before he arrived (and records survive from 1538).  The first note is when William married Mary Mayfield "of Willingham" at Bluntisham Church (below) in 1751.

I know little about William, and have assumed he was a Labourer.  He and Mary had four sons and one daughter, and then Mary died in 1764.  William Ginn "of Bluntisham" remarried Ann Carter "of Colne" that same year.

William and Ann clearly had three more sons, the only one of which has a baptism however being Charles who was born in 1771.

William Ginn died in 1775, I would think he was about 50.   He left three children under the age of 12.  Ann was clearly a very strong woman, she did not remarry but managed to bring them up herself.  She became influenced by the preaching of Coxe Feary (below) in Bluntisham who converted a great number of the local shepherds and farm labourers (for more on this see next post) the local Congregationalist later Baptist preacher, and thus clearly started attending his church.

Having brought her sons up in this persuasion, Ann died in 1790 with a quoted age of 68.  The burial service was given by Coxe Feary himself and she is buried in the burial ground at the Baptist Church.

William and Mary had five, and William and Ann had three children.

John - (born 1753) was the eldest son. There is no suggestion in the records he died in infancy.  There could be a story here.  John was 11 when his father remarried and like all of the "first family" understandably "cleared off" from Bluntisham as soon as he could.  Indeed, when his father died in 1775 and his stepmother Ann was left alone, he either had the choice to step in to help or make his own way.  He clearly chose the latter.

Years ago, I found an odd record which may be this man, the only one which would fit.

The American War of Independence spanned 1775-1783.  So many of the British Army were sent out there (the country was overstretched being also at war with France - we were always at war with France) that England embodied its Militia Regiments, of which muster records survive from 1780.  Many years ago I dug these out.

There is a Sergeant John Jinn [sic] in the Huntingdonshire Militia in 1781 (see WO13 1016 at the National Archives).  The name is later mangled but my notebook says "it is definitely Jinn" in at least one entry.  If the man was a Ginn then it can only be this man

In 1781 the Regiment were stationed at Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.  None of this would be of much significance save for the fact that John was in Lord Charles Montagu's Company and who Lord Charles Montagu was.  

Lord Charles Montagu (1741-1784 - above) was one time MP for Huntingdonshire in the 1760s and Governor of Carolina in the American Colonies before American independence. He went back and forth being England and Carolina.  He raised the British Duke of Cumberland Regiment (largely from American prisoners but also some British and other soldiers) in the  early 1780s during the American War to fight the French and Spanish in the West Indies  - the Americans were therefore not to fight their own.  He reputedly sympathised with the Colonials.   Whether any of this has anything to do with the fate of John Ginn I have no idea - I will leave it with you !

 

William - I am confident that William here (born 1756) married Elizabeth Musick at Thorney in 1779.  His nephew Bob went up that way quite some years later - people had to move around for work and villages in these parts were far between. Elizabeth would appear to have been born in around 1740  and not surprisingly there were no children.  William died in 1812 with a quoted age of 57 (ie born circa 1755)

James and Thomas - apparently survived infancy but are untraced

Mary - died in her early 20s.

Robert- born in circa 1769 from the second marriage.  Robert followed his mother's Baptist ways.  He married Susannah Johnson at Bluntisham in 1792.  The couple had two sons, the last in 1796.  Whether Robert was ill early on seems unclear, he may have had tuberculosis, but he died in 1805 aged about 36 I would guess and is buried in the Baptist burial ground like his Mum

Susannah remarried Joseph Butcher at Bluntisham that same year.

Bob and Susan had two sons

              William    1794

              John         1796

Neither of the sons have yet been traced.  They may have moved away with Mum and her new bloke.

Charles - see next post

Henry - see post of 

Origins of the Ginn or Gynn family of Bluntisham & Houghton and Wyton

I have been researching in Huntingdonshire since the beginning of the 1990s.  Sometimes by visits to the Hunts Record Office or the Society of Genealogists, sometimes (in recent times) online, on the rare occasion employing a professional researcher to dig something out for me.  It is not an easy county to research, not least because many records are not indexed or widely available, if available at all. And the county is an "island" surrounded by other counties (Northants, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire) all of which had families with the Ginn surname themselves, and all felt free to nip over the border (and back again) whenever they felt like it.

However, if you ignore the family at Stilton on the Northants border (of which more later) there were three, apparently separate (but were they ?) families in Hunts with the surname Ginn (or a version of it) between the reigns of Elizabeth 1st and Queen Victoria.  These were:

• The Ginn family at Houghton and Wyton which originated in Hertfordshire in the 1500s

• The Ginn family of Southoe, Eynesbury  the Staughtons  and St Neots which can be traced from the mid 1600s

• The Ginn or Gynn family of Bluntisham, Houghton and Wyton and St Ives which can be traced from c 1725

All three of these families had a fondness for the surname Robert in the male line - is this coincidence ?  Until 2020, I was certain that the early Houghton & Wyton family died out (in Huntingdonshire at least) with the death of Thomas Ginn (Gentleman and Alderman of Huntingdon) in 1636. But this year has shown that Thomas had at least one male sibling who lived to adulthood that I was unaware of - so could the family have continued in Hunts ?  Could two or all three of these families be related - the truth is I have no idea.  There is no evidence that they are as yet.

So what do we know of the last of these families, of the three men who were are in the Bluntisham records in the 1790s - Robert, Charles and Henry ?  We know two things:

•   That all three  of these men were brothers
•   We know who Charles Ginn or Gynn was

So we can put the family together - see next post

Robert Ginn of Wood Newton Northants and the 3rd Foot died 1869

Robert Ginn here, is in one of my "Soldiers of the Queen" series, first researched back in the 1990s. before any online genealogy, almost before any online.

Robert Ginn was born to John and Susannah Ginn (John a Labourer) at Wood Newton Northants in 1833.

Bob here enlisted with the 3rd Foot ("the Buffs") on 16th January 1855 on "short service" for 10 years, ie not for life.  None of this is on Findmypast or Ancestry.  His is a "lost life" as I call them - he deserves a memorial.  On enlistment, Robert was 5ft 5ins tall, a labourer and aged 22.

The 3rd were sent to fight in the Crimean War,  Bob was a late arrival, sailing weeks after the main regiment, but in time for repeated assaults on the Sebastapol defences during which the regiment sustained casualties, including heavy casualties on 8th September 1855 where they took part in the major assault on the Great Redan at Sebastapol.  Robert was lucky to walk away from that one.

Robert survived the Crimean War intact, and was accordingly awarded the Crimean War medal with Sebastapol clasp - below.

Private Ginn was not to have a quiet time in the army. The 1st Battalion of the Buffs were involved in the Second of the China or "Opium" Wars, a duo of wars involving the French, British and other western powers fighting the Chinese to impose the opium trade upon them so that the British and other  western powers could trade opium grown in India  and elsewhere for luxury Chinese goods.  

It was a shameful exploitation of imperial power, which gave the British Hong Kong and Canton by treaty.

In 1860 the British and French sent a force to southern China to impose their will - the Buffs and therefore Robert Ginn among them.  The Taku Forts (below in 1860  and now)  were an obstacle

The British assisted by the French launched an attack (below) which succeeded quite easily after some initial resistance from the Chinese.

The Buffs took part in the battle, part of the British force of some 11,000 men.  But although they remained in China, they took no further part in the War itself, remaining to garrison Taku or Tientsin and did not march with the main army to Peking (as was) where the Chinese surrendered, after the British and French had rather badly looted and largely destroyed the Emperor's Summer Palace.

Bob was awarded the China War medal with Taku Forts clasp, I copy one awarded to a Sergeant in his battalion below.

The Regiment subsequently returned to Dover, where you will find Robert in the 1861 census.  But by accident or design, perhaps he had had enough of travelling around, in November 1861 he volunteered to join the 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot, where, the bagpipes excepted, he lead a quiet life before his ten years was up and he was discharged from the army in November 1865 "life service excepted" ie he would not get a pension which is why he is not in any online record.

Robert clearly went home to Northants.  He never married, has no descendants to research him and died too early in 1869 aged 35.

The Ginn family of Great and Little Staughton

Many years ago, when first researching the Hertfordshire Ginn families who went to Huntingdonshire, I came across entries concerning this family.  I did not have a clue who they were.

Over the years, they have turned up a number of times, often when I was researching another family altogether, and my notebooks have various references, jotted down in the hope that someday  things would make sense.  That day came earlier this year, 2020, when Findmypast loaded up  a record that made sense only to me, and I finally could see how they fitted in.

This was not easy, because various Ginn families were in this area at the same time, indeed the Ginn family of Croxton in Cambridgeshire which originates in Hertfordshire (- see post on Thomas Ginn of Croxton of 31st December 2012 in my other blog) had two girls marry at Great Staughton, and several others were in the area.

Matthew Ginn (c.1682-1747)

This chap is the key to this, because he was clearly born in Southoe in 1681/2 to James &  Ann, I can date it precisely because there is a gap in the register. See post of 13th April 2020.  This is in my notebooks but still not online.  He married a Mary in about 1705 (likely by declaration as I have not found a church entry) and they had six children in nearby Gt Staughton.  Matthew was a Labourer.

The six children were as follows

Elizabeth        1707
James             1709
Matthew         1711 d infancy
Mary               1712 d infancy
Thomas           1715
Mary               1719 d infancy


Mary died at GS in 1738, Matthew in 1747 approximately aged 65.

Of the two surviving sons: Thomas was a Labourer who married Alice Medbury at GS in 1743 (she died 1765) and later Martha Lowe in 1769.  There were no issue by either marriage.  Martha died in 1783 and Tom in 1784 aged 69.

James Ginn (1709- unknown)

Was a busy chap, marrying three times.  He married Elizabeth Howell at Great Staughton  in 1735. They had three children and she died with the last in 1738.  James then  got together with an Elizabeth Road or Read, had two further children by her but did not officially marry her until 1748.  She died in 1752.  James then married Alice Wadsworth at Great Staughton in 1755.  She died there in 1765, but I cannot yet find an entry for James.

James and his first two wives had the following children

James             1737 d infancy
Thomas          1737 d infancy
James             1738
Elizabeth        1745
Matthew         1747 d unfancy

James Ginn (1738-unknown)

This guy married Sarah Ladds at Little Staughton in 1771.  He had moved up the road into Bedfordshire.  Clearly a Labourer.

They only ever had one child that we know about and even he has no baptism, namely James in reputedly 1778 or thereabouts.   Sarah died in Little Staughton in 1783,  and James remarried  Mary Brown there the next year.  There are no burial entries for James and Mary yet found.

James Ginn (c.1778 - 1851 +)

James has often popped up in my research over the years when researching somebody else as is the norm.

We know he was born in Little Staughton in approximately 1778, but there is no baptism record I know of.

He had a bit of a shock in 1803, when Britain was once again (the short Peace of Amiens was over) at war with Napoleon Bonaparte.  Britain did not have conscription, as France and other European powers did.  It relied on a volunteer army, a full time professional  Militia for home defence recruited from volunteers or by parish ballot, and various ad hoc regiments of  part time amateur volunteers for service in their locality.

1803 brought a problem, because the country was facing invasion and needed a quick way to raise a back up for the full time militia.  The proposal was to raise tens of thousands of men by effective impressment from the counties - these men to be forced to join reserve battalions of the professional army, but on condition they not be sent overseas.  The men were to form what was called The Army of Reserve.

It will not surprise you to know that James was selected.  We know that he was impressed for service with the 30th Regiment of Foot which formed a 2nd Battalion (for home service initially) that year.

James (like  a good number of the impressed men as it happens) ran, ie he deserted.  We know this because he is mentioned in the Bounty Returns (they offered a bounty for his capture) see E182/10 at the National Archives.  It may not have been a bad move, because the 2nd Battalion 30th later fought with Wellington in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo.

James obviously (like Brer Rabbit) lay low for some years.  He surfaces again in 1811 when he married Sarah Pestle at nearby Pertenhall.

James and Sarah had two daughters that married.  I have a vague memory (lost to my notes and I can find nothing online) that there were more than two, but I may be mistaken

The two daughters were

Eliza -  married Thomas Peacock at Little Staughton in 1839
Elizabeth  - married James Stoneham at Little Staughton in 1840

In the 1851 census return, James was living in Little Staughton, sadly as a pauper, and Sarah was a visitor at the home of daughter Eliza and Thomas Peacock.  I have not researched further

Joseph Ginn of Eynesbury died unknown

Joe here was son of Robert and Mary in my post of  19th April and brother of the Robert Ginn who fought at the Battle of Waterloo.  He married Sarah Rutt at Eynesbury in 1805.  He was a Labourer.  This sadly all I know about him.  I checked to 1852 and never found a burial , and no website seems to reference a credible entry either, nor does he appear in the 1841 or 1851 census records, assuming these do not miss him.  Sarah died at Eynesbury in 1829 aged 46.  It is possible that he remarried but I have not found a reference to it.

Joe and Sarah had seven children

Mary - married Joseph Seymour at St Neots in 1831

Robert - there were two - the first died in infancy and the second was a Carpenter.  He married Martha Walton at Eynesbury in 1836, had one child there and then decamped to Surrey.  He and Martha had a good number of children.

Elizabeth - born in 1811, is untraced

Hannah and George - died as children

Sarah - born in 1820, is untraced

John Ginn of Eynesbury died 1819

John Ginn here was the son of James Ginn of my post of  3rd May 2020.  He was a Tailor and that is sadly pretty much all I know about him.  He married Lydia Plowright at St Neots in 1798.

Lydia died in 1816 aged 45.  John in 1819 aged 42.  They obviously both had hard lives.


John and Lydia has six children

Joseph - a Tailor, married  Mary Gardner at Wapping in London in 1828 and they had a massive family

James- likely a tailor, he died unmarried in 1842 in St Neots aged 41.

Robert - has a bit of a tale to tell.  This guy was born in 1810.  He was a Tailor, 5ft 5 ins tall with brown eyes.  In 1830 this guy was at Shefford where he was dragged in by the authorities for getting a girl called Sarah Saunders (descendants say Sanford so a typographical error in the record ?)  from Potton if memory serves (she was actually born in Southill in Bedfordshire) pregnant.  A bastardy maintenance order was made against him but he ran, so they stuck him in Bedford Gaol to cool him down.

This child was a Joseph Ginn (below) and, perhaps surprisingly, Robert and Sarah became a couple, they returned to Eynesbury where they had a daughter Lydia in 1832.  It is not thought they ever legally married.

Now I know that there are descendants out there, so they should (lol) pay attention as they may not otherwise have worked this out.

Robert and Sarah moved around.  They went from Shefford to Eynesbury, then Hitchin and Luton before returning to St Neots by 1840 or so.  Little Lydia died in Luton in 1836.

They had a number of sons, but in or about 1840 Robert died or scarpered, as in 1841 in the census, Sarah was alone in  St Neots as a laundress with three sons and a fourth on the way.  This woman was a grafter, she was still working and on her own when she was 71, still in Green End in St Neots.

Robert and Sarah had the following surviving sons

Joseph born in 1830 in Shefford 
William born 1835 in Hitchin Hertfordshire
James born 1837 in Luton

George born 1841 in St Neots

There are clearly descendants as some of these married.  George was in the Navy which you can see on Ancestry.  What you cannot see, which is in my notebooks, is that James here joined the 32nd Foot in 1858, was constantly on the run (J Ginn at Aldershot in 1861) or in prison (Preston prison at one time) and he received a dishonourable discharge, still in prison in 1863.  He was married with a  younger wife Fanny in 1871 back in St Neots.

Elizabeth - is untraced

William - died infancy

John - is believed (no other candidate) to have been transported as a convict to Australia.  I suspect he was a Tailor.  A John Ginn born 1810 or so was convicted of stealing a cloak at Toddington near Luton in 1837 after having been arrested in 1836. He was 5ft 7ins with brown eyes.  I suspect that he was travelling with his brother Bob who I know was in this area in 1836/7.  John was put in Bedford Gaol.

He claimed to have a wife and child, but I think this was a lie to try and avoid transportation.  It did not work - he was sentenced to be transported to the Penal Colony of Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania) for seven years.  You could not come back.

He was transferred to the "Justitia" Hulk ie prison ship (originally HMS Hindoostan  - which fought in  the Napoleonic Wars - see ship on the left below) and then sailed for Tasmania on the "Neptune" in 1838.  He arrived safely, served out his time and received his Ticket of Leave (conditional freedom) in 1844 (Tasmanian Archives).   The Tasmanian Archives have him as sailing from Hobart on the "Clarence" in 1846 to Port Albert in Victoria, Australia.  So here he is in mainland Oz.  There could be a whole new story here. I do not know what happened to him after that.

Sgt. Robert Ginn of Eynesbury, Buckden and Battle of Waterloo veteran died 1858

Robert Ginn here was the son of Robert and Mary Ginn - see my post of  19th April 2020  .  He has always had a  fascination for me, not least because he was engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, which have absorbed my interest since the age of 12, ie for over fifty years now.  He fought in two of the major engagements in British military history, and lived to tell about them.  I have always had an admiration for the guy.

Robert was a Labourer in early life, but that was a bore to him, he wanted adventure.  War had broken out with Revolutionary France in 1793, and in 1798 the 52nd Regiment of Foot returned from action in India.  They needed to recruit, and the recruiting parties went out round the country.  Excited by the thought of an army life, Bob here, aged 20, took the "shilling off of the drum" and joined their ranks.

Bob had joined what was shortly to be a famous regiment.  The 52nd, although in 1799 an ordinary foot regiment, were by 1801 designated (with the 95th (Rifles) and the 43rd) as Light Infantry and used not as a line regiment, but trained as Light Infantry skirmishers.  These three regiments were to become the famous Light Brigade of the Napoleonic Wars, a truly elite force.

It has always been interesting to me that there was a Ginn (unrelated to each other so far as I know) in each of these regiments, an Absolem (from Suffolk) in the 43rd, Sam Ginn from Hertfordshire in the 95th and Bob here.  These three men fought alongside each other.

Bob Ginn would initially have trained at Shorncliffe Camp in Kent and the man was a natural soldier.  By 1803 he had been promoted to Sergeant, in an army of tough, ill disciplined men he must have commanded respect.  At 5ft 9ins he was tall for a working class man of his day.

                                        Shorncliffe

Robert went out to Spain in late 1808 to join the army of Sir John Moore , Colonel of the 52nd and commander of the British Army of a mere 25,000 men. Napoleon had 200,000 available to him in Spain and in December/January 1808/9 he led those men against Moore who, in appalling weather, was forced to retreat to Corunna.  The retreat is famous, and infamous, for most of the army lost it's discipline, but not the 1st Battalions of the 95th and the 52nd, not Bob Ginn, whose men formed the rear guard.  Bob fought the French at the resulting Battle of Corunna, where he and his lads fought off the French and allowed the Navy to take the army off, later the 52nd also slipped away.  Sadly Bob was wounded, he took a wound to the face, whether sabre cut of gunpowder I do not know.

Safely back in England, Sergeant Ginn was nursed back to health, but he did not return to Spain for some time, and the first action he saw with the later Duke of Wellington was at the siege and subsequent storming of Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812, where he fought alongside Sam Ginn of the 95th from my main blog/One Name Study.

                                      The 52nd in action

I am not sure what happened (I have not researched this man in detail), but Bob did not apparently fight at any further action in the Peninsular, perhaps he was taken home to recruit for the regiment (the 2nd Battalion 52nd lost so many men at the heroic storming of Badajoz later in 1812 it ceased to be a unit).

Napoleon abdicated in the Spring of 1814.  The united powers of Europe had defeated him, or so they thought.  The 1st 52nd were transferred to Cork in Ireland, where they were to go out to the United States, to fight in the last days of the War of 1812, but they never sailed.  There were gales that prevented their passage, and by the time the weather improved, news arrived of Napoleon's escape from Elba.  The Napoleonic Wars began again in earnest.

The 1st Battalion of 52nd were sent to Belgium.  By May 1815 they were in training near Mons and were strengthened by the best men of the 2nd Battalion.  The combined force numbered about 1000 men, and the regiment was the strongest British regiment represented at the Battle of Waterloo. 

Wellington and his army, together with a Prussian army under Blucher amassed in Belgium with a view to marching on Napoleon.

Napoleon was a military genius, but his only chance of winning  a war against the combined armies of Europe was to attack the British and Prussian armies, split them and defeat them piecemeal before forces from Russia, Austria and elsewhere could arrive in France.

So he first attacked the Prussians at Ligny and gave them a battering and forced them to retreat away from the British.  He then attacked the British at Quatre Bras and forced them further away from the Prussians.  But the British fell back on the battle site at Waterloo, a site that Wellington already knew was good for a defensive battle and, crucially, this man who had never lost a battle against the French, sent a message to the Prussians to say that the British would stand against the French and fight all day if the Prussians could also bring themselves to march against them.  Which they did.

So the Battle of Waterloo was fought on 18th June 1815.  The 52nd had spent the 16th and 17th marching towards the guns, often in pouring rain and with the sound of French gunfire (fighting at Quatre Bras) in the distance ("Napoleon shaking his trousers" as one veteran said to a recruit) .  They spent the night before Waterloo attempting to sleep in a ploughed field.

The dawn came wet and muddy.  The French attacked late morning and for much of the day the 52nd were kept in reserve, incurring some casualties from gunfire but otherwise away from harm.  Late in the afternoon they were brought forward when mass French cavalry attacks under General Ney were launched against the British infantry who were in square formation.

Things were pretty desperate.  The infantry were resisting the cavalry who were in turns attacking and withdrawing, the infantrymen being hit by artillery fire as the cavalry withdrew.  Casualties were mounting, and it may be here, standing and urging on his men, that Sergeant Ginn was hit (see below).

The French eventually drew back, Napoleon was furious with Ney for his losses, and for a time, although there was fighting elsewhere, life for the 52nd quietened.

It was  now 6.30 in the evening and being June night was still a good way off.  The British had fought all day as Wellington had promised, they were exhausted.  The Prussians were beginning to arrive on the battlefield and Napoleon, aware that if he delayed he would definitely lose the battle, launched his final and he hoped conclusive attack.  Napoleon ordered the Imperial Guard, his finest troops who had never been defeated, to attack the British positions.

The French as Wellington said "came on in the same old way" (in column attack) and were defeated in the same old way, by concentrated fire from the British infantry lines who held their ground.  At the absolutely crucial point of the French attack, the Colonel of the 52nd brought them forward without orders , and as the French column came on head first against our Foot Guards, put the 52nd in line against the side of the French column (who could not fire) and poured fire into the Imperial Guard, advancing into  a charge as soon as the volley was fired.  It was the pivotal moment of the battle and the French broke, Napoleon lost and the war was over.

Bob Ginn lost his left eye at the Battle of Waterloo. The 52nd took quite a few casualties in the scrap with the Imperial Guard, but only Sergeant Ginn knew when he took his wound. The Regiment chased Napoleon to Paris, but left nearly 200 dead and wounded behind.  It is likely that Bob was tended at the Field Hospital at Mont St Jean (below).

Whilst his regiment occupied Paris for a couple of years, Bob was invalided out of the service on pension in 1816 - they made much of the fact that he had been at Waterloo which gave him increased service time on his record and thus a higher pension.

Having temporarily (it was mostly corrected by an operation) lost the sight in one eye some years ago, I know that life cannot have been easy for Bob once he was demobbed.  But he got by with his pension helping.  He also received his Waterloo Medal

                  Waterloo Medal awarded to Lt Cargill of the 52nd

Sgt Ginn did not return to Eynesbury, but by a roundabout route he clearly went back to Huntingdonshire.  Along the way the wounded veteran acquired a lady friend called Elizabeth from Ringstead in Northants,  I do not believe they ever formally married but I could be wrong.   Bet was as much as 20 years younger.

The couple settled in Buckden in Huntingdonshire- the church is below.

Robert and Elizabeth seem to have lived in Buckden for about twenty years.  Although Elizabeth was born in the late 1790s, it is not thought that they ever had any children. 

As late as 1847 the British issued their first ever campaign medal, the Military General Service Medal for those who had fought in the Peninsular War.  It was only issued to survivors, many who had taken part were of course now dead, but Bob claimed his with clasps for Corunna and Ciudad Rodrigo.

Sergeant Robert Ginn of the 52nd Foot died in his bed in 1858 - he was 79 and is buried in Buckden Churchyard.  Letters of Administration of his Estate (Death Duty Registers) were given to Elizabeth, who died in 1873 and lies alongside him.