Vital Statistics
Robert Pinsent: 1661 – 1729 GRO1727 (Soap Boiler, Kelly)
Elizabeth Delve: 1665 – 1729
Married: 1684: Exeter
Children by Elizabeth Delve:
Julian Pinsent: 1686 – xxxx
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1688 – xxxx
John Pinsent: 1690 – 1737 (Soap Boiler, Married Margaret Luscombe)
Mary Pinsent: 1697 – 1711
Sarah Pinsent: 1701 – xxxx
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO1727
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Robert Pinsent was the youngest son of John Pinsent and Philippa (née Wilmeade). He was born at “Knighton” and baptized in Hennock in July 1661. Robert’s father died when he was two years old and left the farm to his elder brother Thomas Pinsent, who was eleven years old. Their mother, Philippa, held the farm “in trust” for Thomas and she married John Soper in 1665. Presumably he ran the farm until Thomas was old enough to take it over.
Robert was fortunate. He was left a “halfendeale” of land in “South Kelly” as a legacy from his grandfather, Thomas Wilmeade, on 27th July 1677 (Wreyland Documents: Cecil Torr, 1910). It too must have been held “in trust” until he came off age. Robert married Elizabeth Delve of Bovey Tracey in Exeter (Exeter Marriage Licenses) in June 1684 and paid the parish rates for “Kelly” from 1686 onward — at least down to the end of the register in 1692 (Hennock “Church Wardens’ Accounts”). Kelly was, in those days, in Hennock, but it is now in Lustleigh.
Robert and Elizabeth had one son, John Pinsent, who was baptized in Lustleigh, and four daughters, Julian, Elizabeth, Mary, and Sarah, who were christened in Hennock. Robert became a “soap boiler” and “salesman” and his son joined him in the business. John married Margaret Luscombe in 1720 (see below). His youngest sister Mary probably died in 1711; however, it is not clear what happened to the others. I fear the worst, as the early years of the eighteenth century were marked by high mortality in the Pinsent family.
Wreyland Documents (Cecil Torr: 1910) shows that: “On 24 February 1719/20 the tenement called South Kelly was brought into settlement on the marriage of John Pinsent, son and heir of Robert Pinsent of South Kelly, with Margaret Luscombe, daughter of Philip Luscombe and grand-daughter of Peter Clarke. And in a fine in Easter term 1720 this property is described as 1 messuage, 3 cottages, 4 gardens, 1 orchard, 15 acres of (arable) land, 5 acres of meadow, 15 acres of pasture, and 50 acres of furze and heath.”
The land transfer must have included “three cottages, and two herb gardens thereunto adjoyning, near the Great Bridge at the south end of the towne of Bovey Tracey” as they were also part of the settlement. In addition to the land, “… Peter Clarke’s silver tankard and his bed performed were included in the settlement, and so also Robert Pinsent’s bed performed and his cider pound and the implements of his trade as a ‘sope boyler’. And there was an agreement that he should transfer his trade to his son John, but that he and his wife should continue to occupy ‘the shopp, the shopp chamber and the entry chamber with (?) the garden next adjoyning to the high way leading from Bovey Tracey to Moretonhampstead, parcel of the premises called South Kelly’.” A “performed” bed was one with all the usual items associated with it. Robert was 57 years old in 1720. Perhaps he felt that his son should get on with the job of making the soap while he sold it out of the shop that, conveniently, fronted onto a main road. Why he would give up his own bed as part of the deal I am not sure! Perhaps it was too big for his new lodgings.
John’s move into “soap boiling” was to prove an important step in the development of the DEVONPORT branch of the family. His son moved the business to Moretonhampstead and from there his descendants went into business and law.
Whether he knew it or not, Robert had inherited what was to become a mine. The grey glittering mineral that showed up in the rocks at Kelly was hematite, an iron oxide that was later to prove useful as an absorbent. Robert’s grandson, Mr. John Pinsent of Moretonhampstead (see elsewhere) certainly knew about it. He sold Kelly in 1785 but took a 21-year lease on a small-scale mining operation at Kelly in 1796.
Although “Kelly” was in Hennock parish, it was in Wreyland Manor and Robert is occasionally mentioned in its Court Rolls. He was assigned to “do the office of tything man” in 1702 and again in 1713, and was “presented” for non-appearance at Court in 1704 and 1705. He was also named foreman of the jury in 1725 (Wreyland Documents: Cecil Torr, 1910). His wife Elizabeth (née Delve) died in July 1729 and he died a few months later. They were both buried in Hennock.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent: 1597 – 1649
Grandmother: Julian Sidstone: xxxx – 1663
Parents
Father: John Pinsent: 1626 – 1663
Mother: Phillipa Wilmeade: 1631 – xxxx
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Helen Pinsent: 1618 – 1618
Joan Pinsent: 1619 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: 1622 – xxxx
Robert Pinsent: 1624 – 1671
John Pinsent: 1626 – 1663 ✔️
Julian Pinsent: 1628 – xxxx
Margaret Pinsent: 1630 – xxxx
Thomas Pinsent: 1633 – 1701
William Pinsent: 1638 – xxxx
Male Siblings (Brothers)
Thomas Pinsent: 1652 – 1711
John Pinsent: 1656 – 1656
John Pinsent: 1659 – xxxx
Robert Pinsent: 1661 – 1727 ✔️
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