Vital Statistics
James Walter Pinsent: 1861 – 1948 GRO0462 (District Insurance Manager, London Area, England)
Hannah Brooks: 1861 – 1937
Married: 1882: London, Middlesex
Children by Hannah Brooks:
Florence Ada Pinsent: 1883 – 1957 (Married Richard Wilfred Lloyd, 1910, London, Middlesex)
Edith Hannah Pinsent: 1885 – 1887
Ruby Hannah Pinsent: 1892 – 1959 (Married Harold Randolph Mortlock, 1915, Edmonton, Middlesex)
Family Branch: Tiverton
PinsentID: GRO0462
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James Walter was the eldest surviving son of James Pinsent by his wife, Sarah (née Savage). He was born in St. Luke’s parish in Finsbury in north London as the second of thirteen children born over a span of twenty-five years. Their survival rate was good – certainly better than in previous generations – and eight (including James Walter) grew up to become adults who married. James Walter and his immediate siblings (Sarah Lydia, Joseph Benjamin, Louisa Mary and William John) grew up on Church Row and received their early education in St. Luke’s parish.
James was a “green-grocer and “fruit salesman” and he later, in around 1878, moved his family to a “green grocer’s shop” in Witchampton Street in St. Leonard’s parish in Islington. James Walter, a nineteen-year-old “insurance collector” when the census takers dropped by the shop in 1881. Oddly, they wrote his name down as “Thomas”; which is obviously wrong. James did well at school and he was an “insurance agent” who lived next door to his father, on Woodville Road, in the late 1880s (Kelly’s Highbury, Stoke Newington Stamford Hill and Clapton Directory: 1888-1889).
James Walter Pinsent married Hannah Brooks, who was the daughter of a deceased “merchant” from Kent, in West Hackney, in 1882. They had three daughters. Unfortunately, the second, Edith Hannah, died of whooping cough at the age of two while at her grandfather James’s home on Woodville Road. The other two girls grew up and married. Florence Ada, the eldest, married Richard Wilfred Lloyd, a railway clerk, in Hackney in 1910. Her younger sister, Ruby Hannah married Harold Randolph Mortlock, a sergeant in the army, in Edmonton, in Middlesex in 1915.
James Walter had moved to a house on Mildmay Road, in Islington, in the Highbury area of London (London England Electoral Register: 1891) by 1891. The census that year tells us that he was a “general insurance agent” who was living in Ilsington with his wife and his daughter Florence. The family had moved to Church Road in nearby North Hackney by 1894, and to Riversdale Road in East Highbury by 1899 (London, England, Electoral Registers). According to the census takers, James was living there with his wife and his two daughters in 1901. Florence was a seventeen-year old “milliner”. Ruby was still at school. James was now an “insurance agent” employed by the “Liverpool, Victoria Legal, Friendly Society.” He attended their annual dinner in 1899 (West Ham and South Essex Mail: Saturday 11th March 1899).
In July, 1897, James had an interesting but doubtless upsetting brush with the law. Apparently, he was canvassing (for what I do not know) and talking to some women on Gray’s Inn Road when a man rushed past followed by another in hot pursuit. After a few minutes, one of them – William Sharpe, a carpenter and joiner of Collingson Street, Southwark Bridge Road – came back. James asked him what had happened and the man glared at him and said “I have lost my watch chain, but I know the man who has got it.” Mr. Sharpe followed James when he went to Holborn Town Hall to catch a bus and had him arrested! They went to Clerkenwell Police Station where Mr. Sharpe insisted on pressing charges. After what must have been a trying four hours, James was released on bail. The Clerkenwell County Court Magistrate summarily dismissed the case the following day and gave judgment against Mr. Sharpe for “the amount claimed, with costs” (Islington Gazette: Friday 30th July 1897).
The family appears to have been constantly on the move. It was living on the Allerton Road in Stoke Newington by 1907. While he was there, he wrote a letter to the editor of the Herne Bay Press supporting a recently made suggestion that the bandstand known as the “East Cliff Pavilion” would receive considerably more custom if it did something to improve its weather-proofing (Herne Bay Press: Saturday 8th June 1907). He thought that windows that could be removed in the summer might help!
The couple lived in a seven-roomed house in Colberg Place, in Stamford, Hackney. in 1911 (Census data). James Walter had, by then, been promoted to a “district manager” for the “Liverpool Victoria Legal Society and Liverpool Assurance Corporation.” The census tells us that James Walter and Hannah been married for 29 years, and they had had three daughters, two of whom were said to be still living. Interestingly, the census has him down as a “widower”!
He was in still married! His wife Hannah (née Brooks) was in Kent. She turns up as the “head of household” of a seven-room house at “St. Mildred’s”, Beacon Hill Parade, on Herne Hill, at Blean in Kent. Her entry shows that she, at least, knew she was still married and that she had been for twenty years! Hannah was living with her as-yet-unmarried daughter (Ruby Hannah).
James and Hannah were to retire to “St. Mildred’s” which seems rather large for a retirement home, so perhaps Hannah had inherited it? In fact, the family nearly lost the place in April 1908 when some burning cinders from a fire that Walter had set blew through a window and set the drawing room windowpanes alight! Fortunately he and some friends were able to get it under control (Herne Hill Press: Saturday 25th April 1908). In the post-war years, James and Hannah seem to have split their time between London and Herne Hill. They would spend the winter in the city and the summer at “St. Mildred’s.” James and his friends were protective of their neighbourhood, and they strongly opposed having to pay for a new road when it was proposed the following year (Herne Bay Press: Saturday 9th January 1909). They probably feared unrestrained development in the area.
A local directory tells us that James Pinsent was an “insurance agent” and that he could be found on Stroud Green Road in Barnet (Kelly’s Directory: 1912). This was probably his office address. The “British Trade Union Membership” Records – (which are listed in the Victoria Gazette) – confirm that James Walter Pinsent of 121 Stroud Green Road N.4 was an “insurance agent” and show that he was the Hornsey-based “Liverpool Victoria Employers Union Regional Manager” responsible for the Hornsey – Enfield – Edmonton – New Southgate etc. area from 1915 to at least 1919 (Findmypast).
James Walter and Hannah were back together – living on Amberley Road in Wood Green, in London when their younger daughter, Ruby Hannah, married in 1915. The ceremony took place at Winchmore Hill Wesleyan Church. The bridegroom, we are told, was attired in khaki – it was a war-time wedding after all (Herne Bay Press: Saturday 24th July 1915). James and Hannah seem to have split their time between Amberley Street and St. Mildred’s until at least 1932.
The two of them were living at “Thurldred” in Herne Hill (St. Mildred’s) when the census takers called in 1921. He, nevertheless, was still employed by the “Victoria Friendly Society” at their office in Holborn, in London. Hannah was with him, employed doing “house duties” and his married daughter Florence Ada, and her husband, Richard Wilfred Lloyd were also in residence. Richard was a “railway clerk” employed by the “Great Northern Railway”, at Kings Cross in London. James Walter’s grandson, James Richard Pinsent Lloyd was also living with the family. He was still at school.
In 1924, James and Hannah hired a cook-general to help out in both places (Herne Bay Press: Saturday 27th September 1924). They also mentioned both addresses when they announced their “golden wedding” in 1932 (Herne Bay Press: Saturday 17th September 1932).
Hannah died in Herne Bay in 1937. According to the local paper, Mr. and Mrs. Pinsent had arrived in Herne Bay in 1901, and and taken up residence on the East Cliff before it was fully developed. They split their time between Herne Bay and London until James Walter retired eleven years ago and they had, since then, been permanent residents actively involved in the local community (Herne Bay Press: Saturday 31st July 1937). Her estate was valued at £476. Her husband, James Walter, who was by then a a “retired insurance manager,” was granted probate (Calendar of Probate and Letters of Administration).
James went to live with is daughter Florence Ada Lloyd, at “Amberley” on Chase Road in Southgate and he was with her family when the War-time Register was compiled in 1939. James was still living with her when he died, at the age of 86 years, in 1948 (Herne Bay Press: Saturday 14th February 1948). His estate was valued at £3,847. Florence was his executrix and received probate (England & Wales, National Probate Calendar, 1858-1966) and presumably inherited the house. Her sister seems to have inherited “St. Mildred’s”. They placed an “In Memoriam” notice in the 4th February 1949 edition of the Herne Bay Press.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: John Pinsent: 1799 – 1878
Grandmother: Susanna Morrish: 1799 – 1875
PARENTS
Father: James Pinsent: 1837 – 1912
Mother: Sarah Savage: 1839 – 1914
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Joseph Pinsent: 1830 – 1840
Mary Pinsent: 1833 – xxxx
John L. Pinsent: 1833 – xxxx
Susan Morrish Pinsent: 1836 – 1889
William Pinsent: 1837 – 1881
James Pinsent: 1839 – 1905
Melissa Pinsent: 1841 – xxxx
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
George James Pinsent: 1859 – 1860
James Walter Pinsent: 1861 – 1948
Joseph Benjamin Pinsent: 1865 – 1897
William John Pinsent: 1869 – 1918
Thomas Henry Pinsent: 1873 – 1910
Albert Hibbard Pinsent: 1878 – 1878
Edward Charles Pinsent: 1878 – 1878
George Hibbard Pinsent: 1879 – 1953
Alexander Sidney Pinsent: 1884 – 1911
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