Most Wanted

Captain John Winn is my husband's earliest known Winn ancestor and a huge stumbling block to tracing the family tree any further back in time. I know nothing about his origins. He first appears in the records with his marriage to Heneretta Tomlin on 5 October 1829 at St Mary-le-Bow, London, when he was stated to be "of this parish". The witnesses to the marriage were Heneretta's father, William Tomlin, and an unidentified man named John Nickless.

John and Heneretta Winn had only one child, William Winn, baptised on 29 August 1830 at St Dunstan's, Stepney. The baptismal register shows that the family were living in Mile End Old Town and that John was a master mariner, the captain of a merchant ship.

I cannot find John Winn in the 1841 census, which does not surprise me, given his occupation. Heneretta was living with her sister and brother-in-law, James and Mary Ann Horn, in Green Street, Bethnal Green, a short distance from her father's business premises at Twig Folly, Bethnal Green. William Winn cannot be identified with any certainty, the most likely candidate being an 11 year old pupil at a boarding school in the township of Roby in Lancashire.

In a document dated 25 February 1847 Heneretta described herself as the wife of John Winn, of 6 Waterloo Terrace, Commercial Road, in the Parish of St Dunstan Stepney. On 10 February 1848, William Tomlin wrote his will, in which he described his daughter as: "Heneretta Winn, the wife or widow of John Winn, who some years since went to North America and whose existence is uncertain." By the time of the 1851 census, William Winn described his mother as a widow and when she made her own will, on 9 July 1856, she did the same. But eight days later, when William Winn married, he made no mention of his father being dead. When Heneretta died, in Southampton, on 15 August 1857, her death certificate described her as the widow of John Winn, master mariner. That is the last mention of John Winn in any records I can find.

You can read more about John Winn, and my attempts to find him, in these two blogposts: All the nice girls love a sailor - 1 and All the nice girls love a sailor - 2.