Who are we and what have we got to offer?
The “Pinsent” family comes from a single branch in the upper canopy of the “Pinson” family tree. The “Pinsons” lived in France and Spain, and elsewhere in Europe in the early Middle Ages, and members of the Norman-French branch started to arrive in England soon after the Norman Conquest. The “Pinsents” descend from a small subset that came to live near Exeter, in Devon, in the Southwest of England.
This website examines the early development of the family and then looks at the eight “Pinsent” family lines that are, or until recently were still active in the United Kingdom. It traces them as far back as I can go.
At the outset, I hereby apologize to the Newfoundlanders for not including their “Newfie” lines. They come from the English family’s involvement in the cod-fishery during the 18th and 19th Centuries and their descendants, nowadays, form the largest concentration of “Pinsents” in the world. I know of well over 1,500 past-and-present Newfoundland “Pinsents” whose branches should – and in a truly global database would – be included. Unfortunately, my knowledge of them is limited and, for now, they are beyond the scope of this study. Still, my grandfather was born in St. John’s and a few of the “Pinsents” discussed here (including my grandfather) definitely considered themselves to be Newfoundlanders.
Here, my focus is the more than 5,200 births, marriages and deaths that I know to have occurred in the United Kingdom between 1541 and 2005. This is unlikely to be a complete accounting; however, it suggests that the population is a relatively small one and thus amenable to a “Single Family” or “One Name” study. These studies follow the patronymic line. Thus I also apologies to the women-folk who, of course, made it all possible! Without them none of us would be here. If you are looking for a “Pinsent” wife or daughter I may know of her and refer to her but I may not be able to tell you much about her.
I have tried to limit my discussion to people who I know to have died or reached the magical milestone of 100 years of age. If you are a “Pinsent” yourself, or are looking for an English (pre-World War II) male “Pinsent” you should find him.
To give credit where it is due, this study was started by my father, Dr. Robert John Francis Homfray Pinsent (1916 – 1987), his uncle, Guy Homfray Pinsent (1889 – 1972) and a distant “cousin” John Pinsent (1922 – 1995). Guy received an inquiry from Joey Smallwood, the first Premier of Newfoundland after it ceased to be a colony and joined Canada. Mr. Smallwood was compiling data for an “Encyclopaedia of Newfoundland and Labrador” and he was interested in the life of my great-grandfather, Sir Robert John Pinsent – who had been a Judge of the Supreme Court in Newfoundland in the 1880s and early 1890s.
Guy involved my father, who decided that it was time to write the definitive family history. If the truth were told, however, he was not the first to wonder about the family’s origins; my grandfather, Francis Wingfield Homfray Pinsent, had made an earlier effort to sort out “who was who” in the family. My father knew that Hennock, in Devon, was the place to start.
This was in the 1960s, so there were no computers or digital databases. He extracted baptism, marriage, and burial data from old ledgers and from their transcripts, and picked up anecdotal references where he could. Fortunately for me, he wrote it all down. He corresponded with family members and I am lucky to have copies of many of his letters. Predictably, the history never got written. However, the mystery drew me in and now – after fifty years of pecking away at the problem myself, I find there is more to be said about the family than he ever could have imagined. It is time to start writing.
The Pinsent website is designed and managed by my daughter, Elizabeth (GRO1385) who is nobly assisted by my wife who also helped with data entry and editing. Without their tireless efforts the database would be no more than a figment of my imagination.
A “family tree” should, in theory, grow from a single seed. However, the best I can do is identify sub-branches coming out of a “Pinson” family tree in the middle-ages. I have tried not to graft twigs where they do not belong, and I hope the following will stand up to scrutiny. However, when dealing with patchy records over many centuries there are bound to be degrees of probability and mistakes may have crept in. I will happily discuss perceived inaccuracies and I accept responsibility for any errors!
You will find several sections. I hope some of it is useful. Go digging and see what you can find. For further information, I can be contacted by email.