Many Pinsents have lived, married, and died in Bovey Tracey over the years and they do not all fit into simple over-all family trees. Many must come from, broken, long dead branches that still need to be disentangled. Some are doubtless strays from out side the parish and others may be “Pensons” or “Pinsons” linked to contemporary families in Dawlish, Dartmouth, Moretonhampstead, Crediton, Exeter and elsewhere. Presumably they all fit somewhere – however, for now they are loose ends – in fact, I have a shoe box full of individuals with recorded births, marriages or burials in the district that have yet to be formally assigned to a recognized branch and given a GROID number. However, some of these early individuals have been assigned to fallen branches and they now hold DROID numbers. Others will, in time, join them.
The Thomas Pinsent who founded the BOVEY TRACEY branch is a case in point. We know where he died but not where he was born or who his father was. His line can, however, be traced forward, so he has been designated the founder of a separate branch of the family. Thomas and and his wife Jane had a son who was lost a sea while serving with the Royal Navy and a daughter, another Jane, who had an illegitimate son, Thomas Pinsent – who continues a branch of the family that has a different YDNA profile to the rest of us. Several of Thomas’s descendants were clearly undeterred by the fate of their ancestor who sailed with Nelson. They joined the “Senior Service” and also made their contribution to the Royal Navy.
The following is a brief summary of the BOVEY TRACEY Branch of the Pinsent family. For a full of members visit the FAMILY BRANCH page and for more information on selected sons click through and read their biographies.
Bovey Tracey
The records show that a Thomas Pinsent (1738 – 1818) died in Bovey Tracey in 1818, aged “80 years.” It is not entirely clear who he was, or if he even came from Bovey Tracey. Tracing his lineage is complicated as the births and deaths in the parish were poorly compiled for over thirty years (roughly between 1740 and 1770) and those records that do exist are now corroded and torn. There is not much known about him; however, he seems to have married Jane Glanville in 1772 and had several children over a period of twenty years, including at least three sons, Thomas Pinsent (1773 – 1799), William Pinsent (1786 – xxxx) and Samuel Pinsent (1793 – 1798). He also had three daughters.
Thomas’s eldest son, Thomas, “junior,” was probably the able seaman who served on H.M.S Captain during the Napoleonic wars. If so, he was lost at sea, when the “fore topmast went over the side when we were in chase, by which unfortunate accident two of the seamen were thrown over-board and drowned” [ADM 101/93/2. Folio 23: 13 March 1799]. We know that this Thomas was onboard H.M.S. Captain in July 1797 as he reported sick for a few days, and he was probably onboard when Horatio Nelson famously broke from the traditional line of battle and attacked, boarded and captured two interlocked Spanish ships (San Nicholas and San Josef) at the battle of Cape St. Vincent in February that year.
I do not know what happened to Thomas’s brother William, but Samuel died young. None seem to have married or had children, so this could well have ended the BOVEY TRACEY line. However, their sister, Thomas, “senior’s”, daughter Jane Pinsent (1788 – xxxx) had an illegitimate son, also called Thomas Pinsent (1806 – 1839) and he kept the line going. Albeit, with a different Y chromosome.
The latter Thomas Pinsent (above) was the agricultural labourer who married Mary Mugford in 1830 and had four sons, John Pinsent (1831 – 1908), Thomas Pinsent (1835 – 1884), William Pinsent (1837 – xxxx) and Samuel Pinsent (1839 – 1912) before he died in his early 30s. His widow, Mary (née Mugford) then complicated matters by adding two illegitimate sons, George Pinsent (1844 – 1937) and Francis Pinsent (1847 – 1847) to her extended family. They were the sons of George Tapper, with whom she had an acknowledged relationship. Mary died in 1850 and her younger children William and Samuel, and their half brother George, were sent to the Andover Union Work House in Newton Abbot. It was not a very pleasant outcome but, presumably, there were no adult relations around to look after them.
Mary’s older sons, John and Thomas had, fortunately for them, already left home. John worked in the pottery business in Bovey Tracey until 1855. He then joined the Royal Navy as a stoker. He signed on for two ten-year terms and served on several ships, including H.M.S. Vulture during the Crimea War. He married Frances Elizabeth Bennett in 1852 and they moved to Plymouth, where they had no less than nine children including three surviving sons, John Samuel Pinsent (1861 – 1931), William Thomas Pinsent (1865 – 1941) and Frederick Christopher Pinsent (1867 – 1890). John retired from the Royal Navy in 1875 with a “good” character and he retired back to Bovey Tracey as a “naval pensioner”.
John and Frances Elizabeth’s eldest son, John Samuel followed his father into the Royal Navy. He joined as a “Boy (Second Class)” in 1876 and served on a variety of ships before retiring to the Naval Reserve as a Petty Office (First Class) in 1903. He was discharged in 1910, but re-joined for the duration of the First World War. He served at H.M.S. Vivid (the shore station at Devonport) between 1914 and 1919. Like his father before him, he was reported to have been of “good character”. John Samuel never married and census records suggest that he spent much of his time while onshore with his younger brother, William Thomas and his wife.
William Thomas was a bricklayer and stonemason. He married Caroline Louisa Gloyne in 1887 but had no children that I am aware of. John and Frances Elizabeth (nee Bennett’s) youngest son, Frederick Christopher, also joined the Royal Navy. He rose to the rank of able seaman but, unfortunately, was transferred to the Cruiser H.M.S. Serpent in June 1890. He was one of the many drowned when the ship ran aground in a gale off Cape Camerinas on the northwest coast of Spain the following November. Only three of her crew of 176 survived.
Thomas and Mary Mugford’s second son, Thomas Pinsent (1835 – 1884) was a general labourer. At one point he worked for a mason (possibly his brother?). Thomas married Elizabeth Ann West in 1882 but I can find no evidence of their ever having had children. It seems likely that Thomas and Mary’s third son, William Pinsent (1837 – xxxx) also went to sea; however, he may have joined the merchant marine rather than the Royal Navy. The fourth son, Samuel Pinsent (1839 – 1912) survived the traumas of the Work House and went on to become a furniture upholsterer in Plymouth. He married Sarah Jane West in 1866 and they had no less than ten children, including two surviving sons, William Abraham West Pinsent (1872 – 1958) and Samuel George Caleb Pinsent (1875 – 1951).
Despite the losses the family had had at sea. Samuel’s son, William Abraham West, joined the Royal Navy and served in the Coast Guard for many years before retiring as a Chief Petty Officer. He married Louisa Bristow and had two sons of his own, William Oliver Bristow Pinsent (1900 – 1951) and Charles Hubert Pinsent (1909 – 2009): both have carried the name forward into modern times.
Samuel’s son, Samuel George Caleb, joined the Royal Navy, as a “Boy (2nd Class)” in 1894. This would normally be a ten-year engagement; however, after being assigned to H.M.S. Impregnable, H.M.S. Warspite and several other ships he seems to have been invalided out in 1895. He became a lamplighter, and eventually a cobbler and shoemaker in Plymouth. Samuel George married Florence Edith Louisa Hill in 1897 and they had had nine children by 1917. However, only two were sons: Leslie Samuel Pinsent (1904 – 1976) and Victor William Pinsent (1909 – 1983). The former married twice but, as far as I know, had no children. The latter also married. He had a son who is probably still alive. The name has been passed along.
George Pinsent, Mary (née Mugford’s) illegitimate son by Samuel Tapper is a Pinsent in name only. He survived the Work House and became an earthenware painter and a printer in one of the Bovey Tracey potteries. He married a widow (Sarah, née Green) in 1872 and she brought her own children into the marriage. His stepdaughter, Mary Emma Charman turned out to be a handful and she eventually became too much for him. In 1915, George told the Newton Abbot Magistrates that Mary Emma had come from London (presumably with her mother) nine years ago and, although he had treated her as well as he could, he could no longer cope with her drinking. He agreed to pay one last fine of 12s for her being drunk and disorderly but he pleaded with the magistrates to release him from the burden of looking after her. They said that, in future, he should call the police if she was a nuisance. Sadly, George had no children of his own.
The BOVEY TRACEY branch is still extant; however, the youngsters are now scatted around the country and less attached to the sea, If you are interested in any of the above, click through for a more detailed analysis.
Back: Pinsent Branch Summaries