Vital Statistics
Benjamin Pinsent: 1808 – xxxx GRO1294 (Carpenter, London, Middlesex)
1. Sophia Hewett: 1808 – 1831
Married: 1827: London, Middlesex
Children by Sophia Hewett: 1808 – 1831
Sophia Emily Pinsent: 1828 – xxxx (Married Stephen Heney, 1852, London, Middlesex)
2. Myra Burgoyne: 1815 – 1869
Married: 1832: London, Middlesex
Children by Myra Burgoyne:
Samuel Benjamin Pinsent: 1833 – xxxx (Married Mary Ann York, 1854, London, Middlesex)
James Pinsent: 1837 – 1912 (Married Sarah Savage, 1858, London, Middlesex)
Joseph Pinsent: 1840 – 1841
Esther Pinsent: 1843 – xxxx
Edward Brand Pinsent: 1845 – 1846
George Henry Pinsent: 1847 – 1849
John Pinsent: 1850 – 1856
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1853 – 1853
Family Branch: Tiverton
PinsentID: GRO1294
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Benjamin Pinsent was the eldest of the two surviving sons of Benjamin Pinsent by his wife Esther (née Best). The latter was a “carpenter” from Tiverton in Devon who had settled in Holborn, in London, in the early 1790s. Benjamin and Esther had eleven children over twenty-two years but only four of their daughters and two of their sons (Benjamin and his younger brother William Pinsent) reached maturity. They both became “wood-workers”. Benjamin became a “carpenter” and/or “cabinet maker” (like his father) and William, whose life is described elsewhere, became a “coachbuilder”.
Benjamin married Sophia Hewett in St. Pancras Old Church, in London, in 1827 and they had a daughter, Sophia Emily Pinsent the following year. She grew up, became a “domestic servant” and married a “butcher” in Bloomsbury in 1852. Sophia’s mother (Sophia, née Hewett) died when she was only three years old, in 1831 – whether through infection or in childbirth is not clear.
Benjamin remarried shortly afterwards. He married Myra Burgoyne in St. Pancras Old Church in 1832. They had eight children (six boys and another two girls) in the years that followed. However, only his two eldest sons, Samuel Benjamin Pinsent and James Pinsent – who were born in St. Luke’s parish in Islington, can be shown to have grown to adulthood and married. It is not clear what happened to the others but death from infection doubtless accounts for most of them. His brother William and his wife, Mary Ann (nee Bright) suffered similar losses.
There were all-too-frequent outbreaks of cholera and typhoid in London in the first half of the nineteenth century. The cause only came to light in 1854 when a City doctor, John Snow, studied the morbidity returns for the parish of Soho and realized that a drinking-water pump on Broad Street must be producing contaminated water and responsible for the spread of the disease. The city’s sewage had been allowed to flow downhill into the Thames for centuries – which might have been fine in Tudor times but recent population grown made that mode of disposal not only untenable but unbearable. The summer in 1858 was particularly hot and, for many years thereafter it was (not so fondly) remembered as “the year of the big stink”. The City fathers finally succumbed to public pressure and had one of their engineer’s (Joseph Bazalgette) design an integrated system for collecting and pumping the city’s sewage and release it into the Thames well below the point where it would back-up to London on the in-coming tide. It took several years to complete but it was worth it as the health (and smell) of the city improved considerably.
Benjamin was a prisoner at the “Cold Bath Fields House of Correction” in St. James’ Clerkenwell at the time of the 1841 Census. What he had done to get there and how long he was in for, I am not sure. However, he may well have had financial problems, as it was a difficult time for artisans. It was hard for them to compete with factory production from the north of England. Benjamin’s wife, Myra, would have had to look after their three sons (Samuel Benjamin, James and Joseph) while he was incarcerated.
Benjamin and Myra moved to a disreputable part of Clerkenwell in the mid-1840s. Their timing could hardly have been worse and the five children they had after their three eldest boys (mentioned above) all died young. The family moved from Cock Court to Frying Pan Alley in around 1853 and lived there until at least 1857. They are missing from the 1851 Census records – perhaps because some of the records taken that year are extremely faint and in many cases unreadable; or perhaps because the district was hard to survey and they were overlooked. Clerkenwell had seen better days! By the mid 1800s, much of it was a densely packed warren of tall houses separated by narrow-alleyways. The houses were inhabited by the families of artisans and day-workers who were trying to make a living competing with cheap industrial products. According to on-line sources, “Frying Pan Alley” was so-named after a frying pan used as a hanging sign for a hardware shop fell and flattened a passerby. Fanciful or not, it is worth noting the Benjamin was a “cabinet-maker” and Myra’s father was a “blacksmith”.
Benjamin’s son, Samuel Benjamin, was a twenty-one year old “general dealer” when he married Mary Ann York (who was aged nineteen years) in the parish of St. John, Clerkenwell, on 14th August 1854. They both lived at 6 Frying Pan Alley and they signed the register “by mark”. Samuel Benjamin’s father (Benjamin) witnessed the marriage and signed the register with his own hand. Samuel Benjamin’s half sister, Sophia Emily Heney also acted as a witness and signed “by mark”. The family seems to have struggled since moving into the area and their education had suffered.
Benjamin and “Maria” reappear in the 1861 Census records. Oddly, Benjamin now claims to be an “engineer” (of what type is unspecified) born in Devonshire (sic). By then, he was living on Rose Alley with his wife “Maria” (sic) who was reported to be “blind”. They were still there when Myra died in April 1869. As an interesting complication, there were two reports of her death filed at the General Records Office. “Catherine Connor” signed one report and “Catherine Pinsent” signed the other. Who she or they were, I am not sure. Rose Alley was not much of an upgrade from Frying Pan Alley. A survey of London in 1861 found that a single water closet in Rose Alley serviced 118 people. To make matters worse; the water was only available intermittently (Survey of London: Vol. 46: South and East Clerkenwell: Philip Temple, Editor).
I can find no record of Benjamin’s death. It is not clear what happened to his eldest son, Samuel Benjamin Pinsent and his wife Mary Ann. They cannot be found in the next census and they drop out of sight. They had no children that I am aware of. Samuel Benjamin’s brother Joseph Pinsent also disappears without trace; so it seems to have been left to their brother James to carry the family forward. He married Sarah Savage in St. Pancras in 1858.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent: 1738 – 1825
Grandmother: Anne Wright: 1740 – 1815
PARENTS
Father: Benjamin Pinsent: 1776 – 1819
Mother: Esther Best: 1773 – 1868
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
James Pinsent: 1769 – 1833
Mary Pinsent: 1771 – xxxx
Dorothy Pinsent: xxxx – 1590
Benjamin Pinsent: 1776 – 1819
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1776 – xxxx
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
Samuel Benjamin Pinsent: 1794 – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1795 – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1799 – xxxx
Benjamin Pinsent: 1805 – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1812 – 1893
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