Vital Statistics
George Pinsent: 1814 – 1894 GRO0348 (Tailor, London)
Elizabeth Leatt: 1822 – 1890
Married: xxxx: xxxx
Children by Elizabeth Leatt:
George Henry Pinsent: 1844 – 1915 (Tailor; Married (1) Amelia Pinsent, 1874, London; Middlesex; (2) Eliza Mason, 1901, Stratford, Essex)
Thomas Charles Pinsent: 1845 – 1868 (Fishmonger, Sydenham, Kent)
Unknown Pinsent: 1847 – xxxx
William John Pinsent: 1848 – 1849
Elizabeth Maria Pinsent: 1851 – xxxx (Married William John Shubrook May, Tailor, 1870, London)
Emily Jane Pinsent: 1854 – 1866
Jessie Caroline Pinsent: 1857 – 1944 (Married Frank Wood, Compositor, 1877, London)
Walter Pinsent: 1860 – 1863
Alice Amy Pinsent: 1863 – xxxx (Married William George Smith, 1892, West Hampstead)
Amelia Pinsent: 1866 – 1866
Family Branch: Devonport
Family Summary: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0348
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George was the fourth and youngest son of Thomas Pinsent and Elizabeth (née Pridham). He was born in Newton Abbot and, like his brothers (John Pinsent, William Pinsent, and Charles Pinsent) he was brought up at “Greenhill,” in Kingsteignton. The farm belonged to their half brother, another Thomas Pinsent, the “draper” from Devonport. Elizabeth Pridham’s boys were children from a second marriage and they moved out before their father died in 1841. John was a “tallow chandler” in London before emigrating to the United States. William became a “mariner” and landed up in Liverpool.and Charles became a “cheese-monger” in London. Their lives are discussed elsewhere.
George followed his brothers up to London and married Elizabeth Leatt – although I am not sure when or where. They had a large family (ten children: four boys and six girls); however, at least three (possibly four) died in infancy (William John, Walter, Amelia and an “unknown” born in 1847) and two others (Thomas James and Emily Jane) died young. London was not a particularly healthy place to be. Nevertheless, their eldest son (George Henry) and at least three of his sisters (Elizabeth Maria, Jessie Caroline and Alice Amy) grew to maturity and married.
London’s water supply was frequently contaminated and there outbreaks of cholera and typhoid were all too common in the City well into the mid-1850s. Their cause was unknown until a medical officer, Dr. John Snow, conducted a land-mark morbidity survey in Soho in 1854. Much of the City’ sewage was discharged into the River Thames untreated and the summer of 1858, which was particularly hot was (not so fondly) remembered as “the year of the big stink”. The City undertook a major restructuring of its sewage disposal system in the 1860s, for which future generations must have been truly thankful.
George and Elizabeth seem to have moved around the City of London quite a bit. Census records show the family living near Lombard Street, in St. Edmund the King and Martyr Parish in 1851; in Spread Eagle Passage in Leadenhall Market in St. Peter’s Parish Cornhill, in 1861, and on Lambeth Street in Whitechapel in 1871. Whitechapel was not exactly the best part of town in those days. It is best remembered for the “Ripper” murders which took place in 1888.The family had moved there by 1863 and were still there in 1881.
George was a “journey man tailor” and his wife Elizabeth helped out as an “assistant tailoress”. Their eldest son, George Henry Pinsent also became a “tailor.” His life is discussed elsewhere. Their other sons, Thomas Charles Pinsent, William John Pinsent and Walter Pinsent never married. Thomas Charles was a “porter” in the marked at Covent Garden in 1861; however, he seems to escaped London as he was a “journeyman fishmonger” in Lewisham when he died, apparently unmarried, in 1868. His younger brothers did not survive that long.
Several of George and Elizabeth’s daughters went into the tailoring business in some form or another. Although Emily Jane Pinsent and Amelia Pinsent died young, the others survived. Elizabeth Maria Pinsent married William John Shubrook (?) May, a widower and fellow “tailor” in 1870, and went on to have a large family of her own in Kensington – which was far more upmarket than Whitechapel! He was presumably related to the man who married Emily Jane’s adopted Aunt, Eleanor Lee Pinsent mentioned above. Life gets complicated.
Elizabeth Maria’s younger sister, Jessie Caroline Pinsent married Frank Wood a “compositor” (presumably in a local printing works) in 1877, and her other sister Alice Amy Pinsent married William George Smith – another widowed “tailor” in West Hampstead, in Essex in 1892. Alice had had two illegitimate daughters before she married Mr. Smith in 1892. Sophia Mary Pinsent was born in Forestgate (West Hampstead) in 1885 and Minnie Florence Amberg Pinsent arrived in West Hampstead in 1890. Minnie could have been an early daughter by her eventual husband, however, the 1901 Census shows that Alice took two “Pinsent” daughters into her marriage. Both survived infancy and grew up and married in their turn.
Alice’s daughter Sophia had some schooling. She was admitted to the “Baker Street School” in Tower Hamlets, in London, in 1890 (London, England, School Admissions and Discharges, 1840-1911). Sophia went on to marry Edgar Thomas Merriday, in September 1902. Minnie Florence, meanwhile, married Albert Abraham Burton, a “general labourer” in West Hampstead in 1915. Before she did so; however, she a had an illegitimate daughter of her own. She had a child called Minnie Pinsent in 1909. The latter probably married Samuel Leslie Prestwick in London in 1928. Life definitely gets complicated.
George’s brother John Pinsent emigrated to America in the 1830s and established his family there; his brother William married in Lancashire but had no sons, and George Pinsent had only the one surviving son – however, he failed to provide male heirs. It is only through their brother Charles Pinsent that his particular line continued on in England. The fact that George’s son, George Henry married his cousin Amelia, tells us that at least these two brothers remained close – or at least they did until Charles committed suicide in 1863.
George and Elizabeth (née Leatt) were living apart when the Census takers came calling in 1881. They erroneously reported that George was a “widowed tailor” living with his, as yet unmarried, daughter, Alice Amy Pinsent in their family home at #40 Lambeth Road, in Whitechapel. Meanwhile, they found his wife, Elizabeth (née Leatt) living with another daughter, Elizabeth Maria and her husband, William May in Peckham Grove, in Camberwell, Surrey. Whether the separation is significant or not, I do not know.
Elizabeth died in Mile End Infirmary in July 1890 and her son, George Henry Pinsent, notified the relevant authorities. He described her as being a “domestic nurse”, and that may explain why she had been living with her daughter’s family in Camberwell (London, England, Deaths & Burials: 1813 – 1980). Social Services were almost non-existent in those days and Elizabeth’s husband, George, was living in the St. George in the East Workhouse on Raine Street, in London by the time the next census was held, in 1891. He was discharged from the Workhouse to the Infirmary and died there in April 1894.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: John Pinsent: 1723 – 1800
Grandmother: Elizabeth Puddicombe: 1719 – 1795
Parents
Father: Thomas Pinsent: 1754 – 1841
Mother: Elizabeth Pridham: 1763 – 1821
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1743 – xxxx
John Pinsent: 1745 – 1804
Mary Pinsent: 1748 – 1749
Mary Pinsent: 1751 – 1773
Thomas Pinsent: 1754 – 1841
Sarah Pinsent: 1759 – 1782
Male Siblings (Brothers)
Thomas Pinsent: 1779 – 1779
Thomas Pinsent: 1782 – 1872
John Pinsent: 1799 – 1870
William Pinsent: 1808 – xxxx
Charles Pinsent: 1812 – 1863
George Pinsent: 1814 – 1894
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