Vital Statistics
William Pinsent: 1808 – xxxx GRO1045 (Mariner, Newton Abbot, Devon and Liverpool, Lancashire)
Margaret Sayle: 1807 – 1875
Married: 1835: Liverpool
Children by Margaret Sayle:
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1837 – 1847
Family Branch: Devonport
Family Summary: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO1045
William Pinsent was the second son of Thomas Pinsent of “Greenhill” in Kingsteignton by his second wife, Elizabeth Pridham. He was born in Newton Abbot in 1808 and was brought up at “Greenhill.” However, the farm belonged to his half-brother, Thomas Pinsent — the draper from Devonport – so he left before his father died in 1841 and Thomas “junior” took control. None of Elizabeth Pridham’s children stayed on in Devon. William’s sister Maria married young and went out to Australia. His brother John (eventually) emigrated to America and his brothers Charles and George Pinsent both headed for London.
Newton Abbot had, historically, been a major centre for recruitment for the Newfoundland cod fishery (“Soe Longe as there comes noe women”: W. G. Handcock: 1989) and it was fairly common to see the surplus sons of Devonshire gentlemen take to the sea in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. They either joined the Royal Navy or served aboard commercial vessels involved in the fishery.
One of William’s half-sisters, Anna Thomasin Crout Pinsent had married Joseph Pinsent (a local “farmer” and a “ships’-broker”) in 1799 and, although she died later that year, he would have heard tell about Joseph’s brothers, William Pinsent (in Port de Grave, in Newfoundland) and John Pinsent (in London) as they were successful “merchants” and “ship owners” during the Napoleonic wars. Their fishing fleet was subject to attack, so they held “Letters of Marque” that allowed them to arm one of their ships and attack French, Spanish and American vessels in return. The excitement was, of course, over by the 1820s, but it is not hard to see why William, like many other younger sons of Newton Abbot merchants and farmers, would take to the sea and become a sailor.
I do not know much about William; however, “Mr. William Pinsent, of Newton Abbot” married Margaret Sayle, in St. James’s Church, Walton on the Hill, near Toxeth Park, Liverpool on 9th December 1835 (Liverpool Mercury, 18th December 1835). William was a “mariner” (Liverpool C. of E. Marriages and Banns: 1813-1921: Ancestry.com). What he was doing in Lancashire and what sort of “mariner” he was is not clear.
William and Margaret (née Sayle) must had a daughter, Elizabeth Pinsent born in Liverpool in 1837 and baptized in St. Peter’s Parish Church in Liverpool. William was, by then, a “dock policeman.” The 1841 Census tells us that Margaret and her daughter still lived in Toxeth. It also says that she was “independent” which probably means that she was a widow by then. Margaret Pinsent (née Sayle), “widow” married a shoemaker, John Bradley, in Liverpool the following year. Whether William had died on land or at sea, I do not know. Once again, I have yet to find the record.
Margaret’s daughter, Elizabeth Pinsent, died in Liverpool in 1847 and Mr. Bradley reported her death to the authorities.
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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