Vital Statistics
John Arthur Pinsent: 1869 – 1930 GRO0515
Harriet Hunt: 1868 – 1933
Married: 1891: Leicester, Leicestershire
Children by Harriet Hunt*:
Ethel May Pinsent: 1892 – xxxx
Horace Pinsent: 1893 – 1913
*Harriet’s illegitimate child: Ernest “Pinsent”: 1889 – 1966
Family Branch: Tiverton
PinsentID: GRO0515
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John Arthur was the third of John Pinsent and Elizabeth (née Johnson’s) five family-producing sons. He was born in Leicester where his father was a “finisher” in the shoe trade. John Arthur joined his father in the same business after leaving school; however, as his father also ran a shop on the Birstall Road in the 1870s and took over the management of the “Sir Robert Peel” beer house in the 1880s, he doubtless learned those trades too. He was also to run a beer house.
When he was thirteen years old, John Arthur had his pocketknife stolen while at the public baths in Leicester. This led to a twelve years-old lad, Arthur Potterton, being charged with stealing it. He claimed he found it on the floor and intended to try and find it’s owner. The Magistrate was not convinced but he did admit that “the boy had shown considerable ingenuity in his defense” (Hinckley News: Saturday 4th August 1883). John got his knife back and Arthur was discharged in to his father care to “administer the necessary correction” (Leicester Chronicle: Saturday 4th August 1883). I leave that to your imagination.
John Arthur Pinsent married Harriet Hunt in Leicester in 1891. She was a “reeler” – presumably in one of the textile industries. They had two children, a daughter Ethel May in 1892, and a son Horace Pinsent, in 1893. They were probably a Methodist family, and Ethel took part in a tea and concert put on by the young ladies of the church (chapel) in 1911 (Leicester Daily Post: Tuesday 14th November 1911). She was later to become a “hosiery machinist ” and marry Alfred Ladkin, an “engineer,” in 1918. Her brother Horace Pinsent never married. He committed suicide in 1913.
Harriet (née Hunt) seems to have brought an illegitimate son into the marriage. Ernest “Pinsent” was born in 1889, two years before John Arthur and Harriet married. He could have been John Arthur’s child. Certainly, he took the Pinsent name. He married and had children (see elsewhere) but as he had no surviving sons, his male line did not extend very far.
Leicester’s Electoral Registers show that John Arthur was living on Burley Road in 1905, so he had taken on the role of publican at the “King’s Head” hostelry by then. The 1911 Census (and Wright’s Directory) show him living at the “King’s Head” with Harriett and their two unmarried children, May and Horace Pinsent. Their third child, his “son” Ernest had married Mabel Braimridge the previous year (1910) and had moved to Hull Street. He was a “hotel barman,” at the time. The “King’s Head” would not have qualified as a hotel, so he was probably working for someone else. The family was living in Archdeacon Lane by 1913.
John Arthur’s son Horace took his own life in 1913 after being jilted by a girlfriend. It created quite a sensation and the tragic affair was described in graphic detail in the National press. The story even made it into at least one newspaper in New Zealand (New Zealand Herald: 14th June 1913)!
Horace (who was an “engineer’s apprentice” aged 19) had, apparently, quarreled with his girlfriend Ada White and she had threatened to leave him. Nothing unusual there; however Horace took it very badly. He wrote a suicide note and took a revolver from a draw in his father’s bedroom and went on a date “walking out” with her on the London Road. She reiterated that she wanted to end their relationship – ostensibly because “he was too good for her” – and when questioned later she said that he started to act oddly. She started to run away but he followed and grabbed her shoulder and drew the gun and fired. The first bullet grazed her cheek and passed through her hat. The sound drew the attention of a passing cyclist, Herbert Hytch, who immediately stopped and dismounted to come to her assistance. Horace felt threatened and fired at him too, this time inflicting a serious wound to his neck. He fired two more shots more or less at random and then ran off towards town. However, he did not go far. He stopped and put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
A passing motorist took Mr. Hytch to the infirmary. Ada was taken to a local residence (doubtless for a cup of tea) and she was then taken down to the “Central Police Station” for questioning (Leicester Daily Post: Thursday 24th April 1913).
Horace’s father told the Coroner at the inquest that he “did not think that the girl was fit company for his son” – “he had suspicions about her character” but he had thought that Horace would come to his senses and “give her up” of his own accord. She had a reputation for being a flirt, and their quarrel had started when Horace found her talking to a man in a local bar. His jealously got the better of him. He finally realized that she had being lying to him and he decided that if he could not have her, then nobody should. He wrote suicide notes or letters to his family and to the foreman where he worked. He asked the latter to send his tools to his father. They letters were shown at the inquest made it clear that Horace intended to kill the girl and take his own life. He even asked that they be buried together (Melton Mowbray Mercury and Oakham and Uppingham News: Thursday 1st May 1913). Not much change of that! Despite the evidence of “intent” the jury felt that “the evidence was insufficient as to the state of his mind” (Leicester Evening Mail: Thursday 24th and Saturday 26th April 1913; Birmingham Daily Gazette: Saturday 26th April 1913).
According to Horace’s brother Ernest Pinsent, Horace was an “engineer’s patternmaker” at the Eclipse Foundry in Graham Street and a “very steady, intelligent young fellow and (he) was a teetotaler. He had been going out regularly with this girl, Ada Smith, for about six months” (Leicester Chronicle: Saturday 26th April 1913). Ada testified that she wanted to break off their relationship because she was not in his social class: “I could not find the clothes to match him” and that when he heard this, he threatened to kill then both. She had said “Don’t talk silly! Think about your friends, what will they say?”
Horace was buried in Welford Road Cemetery on 29th April (Leicester Evening Mail: Tuesday 29th April 1913). His funeral did not go well as a four-year old child who was watching the funeral procession was, unfortunately, knocked over and injured by a man on a motor bike (Hinckley Echo: Wednesday 30th April 1913). The following July, Horace’s father, John Arthur Pinsent was brought up at the “Borough Police Court” for selling liquor in the “King’s Head” after hours (at 11.07 p.m.). His lawyer argued in mitigation that he was under considerable stress at the time as his son had recently been buried in a common grave and he had just received permission from the Home Secretary to move the body to another grave. He had been too busy discussing arrangements for re-interment to notice the time. The prosecuting Police Inspector admitted that, “taking into consideration position of the house and the class of customers, the premises were well conducted”. Nevertheless, he was fined 40s and costs (Leicester Daily Post: Thursday 17th July 1913).
John Arthur was living with his son Ernest and his family when the census takers came to Archdeacon Lane in 1921. He was said to be a “licensed victualler working on his own account but then out of business”. He had previously lived on Burley Lane. Harriet was helping out with “house duties” which freed Ernest’s wife up to work as a “hosiery machinist” for “N. Corah and Sons, Hosiery Manufacturers.” Harriet’s grandchildren were at school.
Kelly’s Directory shows that John Arthur was, once again, a “beer retailer” in 1925. John Arthur and Harriet were living on Causeway Lane (next to the hospital). An item in the Falkirk Herald in 1927 (14th April 1927), shows that John Arthur was, once again, brought up in Court. This time, it was for the unpardonable sin of confining songbirds (linnets and goldfinches) in cages that were deemed too small for them to stretch their wings. There was no television in those days and Sports Bars had yet to be invented, so they were probably there to brighten up his new hostelry – the “Sir Charles Napier Inn”. In order to show that his birds were happy, John Arthur brought one of them with him. It sang on cue and so entertained their lordships that they dropped the case – presumably after telling him to find bigger cages. The Act that he had been charged under had only recently been passed and, according to his Lawyer, “it only appears in one text book published this morning” (Leicester Evening Mail: Friday 9th April 1926). Their Lordships let it go at that.
The electoral rolls show that John Arthur and Harriet continued to live on Causeway Lane until a least 1930, the year he died. Harriet then went to live with her son Ernest Pinsent. She died on Archdeacon Lane in 1933.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent: 1795 – 1860
Grandmother: Hannah Johnson: 1800 – 1871
PARENTS
Father: John Pinsent: 1836 – 1899
Mother: Elizabeth Johnson: 1837 – 1909
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Fanny Pinsent: 1820 – 1880
William Pinsent: 1822 – xxxx
Thomas Pinsent: 1824 – 1831
Caroline Pinsent: 1825 – 1864
James Pinsent: 1831 – 1902
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1833 – 1833
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1833 – xxxx
Henry Pinsent: 1838 – 1846
George Pinsent: 1839 – 1857
Charles Pinsent: 1842 – 1882
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
Thomas Johnson Pinsent: 1856 – 1925
John Henry Pinsent: 1858 – 1861
George Pinsent: 1861 – 1932
John Arthur Pinsent: 1869 – 1930
Henry Pinsent: 1871 – 1939
William Horace Pinsent: 1874 – 1876
Horace Pinsent: 1879 – 1949
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