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
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