Sunday, May 31, 2020

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 




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