William Ginn, Quaker & Clockmaker of London died 1750

William, son of William in my last post, has had a great deal of nonsense written about him on some of the family trees on Ancestry. Some researchers even link him to the Hertfordshire family!  Many researchers have blindly followed others, and only one or two good American genealogists have taken the time to really explore the earliest of the records they found back to the 1690s.

William Ginn was born in 1672.  He lost his mother when he was three and four years later, aged eight, his father decided he had  now become a Quaker. Unlike his half-sister Elizabeth, William at least was brought up in the Quaker ways.

In 1687 when he was 15, William Ginn "son of William Ginn  of Huntingdon, Baker", was apprenticed to a Thomas Woodman of London to train as a Turner (below)

William Ginn learned fast.  I have not researched him in the Guild records, but he clearly was admitted to the Guild in or about 1694.  Now a Turner.

But we know,  from records gleaned by the British Museum no less, that he had ambitions far beyond his admitted trade.

By 1697, still only 25, William was making watch/time piece cases, and he was good at it.  In that year he was running a business from Little Old Bailey in the City of London (near St Pauls - I worked close by thirty years ago) making watch cases, and he had enraged the Clockmakers Guild who were out to stop him.  The British Museum say that William Ginn, Turner,  placated them by paying his dues to the Guild and thus continued his business.

Clock or watch making it appears was a suitable occupation for a Quaker as you could practice it without necessarily swearing an Oath to a Guild, oaths being prohibited for quakers.  Theefore there are a great number of celebrated Quaker watchmakers such as Tompion and Daniel Quare who was the King's watchmaker.  Ginn worked with all of them in his day.

William Ginn's mark

William Ginn married in 1699.  He married Ann Watts, daughter of John and Mary Watts (nee Blaugdone).  John Watts was a Bristol shipbuilder and the marriage was in Bristol. Mary Watts was the daughter of the celebrated Quaker writer and "sufferer" Barbara Braugdone . see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Blaugdone and https://bolesbooksblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/3-the-jolliffe-family-descent-from-barbara-blaugdone-quaker-sufferer/ and her marriage to John Watts in Bristol in 1670 below.

William was given as a Turner, the son of William Ginn, Baker of Cambridge and everybody was there including Barbara, the marriage is below and many Friends were witnesses.

William Ginn returned to London and was living in the Poultry in 1700, but by 1703 set up his business in St John Zachary in London near Gresham Street, Goldsmith's Hall and the longstanding Quaker meeting place in rooms at the "Bull and Mouth" Inn (below) which had been rebuilt after the Great Fire of London.  I know that Will attended meetings there.

Will kept his business in St John Zachary for virtually the rest of his life, both the Land Tax and the Quaker records concur on this.  Many of his watches seem to survive, the British Museum have three - see https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1958-1201-2347.

Some come up for private sale and my correspondent Esther Odell (nee Ginn) sent me this below - Esther is no relation to Will.

So, we can imagine William busy in his workshop there for decades.  The British Museum says that he was active until at least 1730 when he was nearly 60.  Old age may well have slowed him down a bit, it was a precision craft.

I am told that during his life William acquired stock in a New England company, and he obviously made a very good living at his trade.  Quakers were sober and industrious and formed their own city within the City.  I have no doubt at all that with more research into Quaker activities of the time in London, a good deal more could be found out about this man..

William and Ann had a good number of children, but as was typical of London at the time, all but one died.  This was particularly a time of smallpox epidemics as we can see only too clearly in my other blog, and the majority of the children died of that cause as the Quaker records relate.

Ann Ginn died in 1742 of an apoplectic fit, in other words a stroke.  Her age was given as 69 - she was 68.

The Land Tax records suggest that William stayed in his workshop at Aldergate Ward until 1747, my suspicion is that then, on his own and aged 75 he gave it all up. sold his property and disposed of all but a little of the proceeds as we have no will.

William died in Southwark in 1750 with a quoted age of 78, which is exactly correct. He died of old age.  Like all of his deceased children, he was buried in the Quaker Burial ground near Bunhill Fields.  It is still there, there are no memorials of course, I understand some 12,000 Friends lie there.  

William and Ann had six children - all save one buried at Bunhill Fields

Benjamin and Benjamin Mercurius (Mercuius = orator) -   both died in infancy, the latter of smallpox aged 3

William - twice, both died in infancy

Nathaniel - died infancy

Anna Maria - died of tuberculosis in 1734 aged 25

Tralucia - Her birth is recorded in the Meeting at the Bull and Mouth in 1706.   She married Hans Steger, a clockmaker and son of clockmaker John at St Benet and St Paul's Wharf in London in 1733.  The Licence bond is below.  They emigrated to Virginia in the American colonies and have a huge number of descendants