Edward Pinsent: 1611 – 1652 DRO0112 (Vicar of Loddiswell)
Amy Bennett: xxxx – xxxx
Married: 1634: Chudleigh, Devon
Children by Amy Bennett:
Florence Pinsent: 1635 – xxxx
Jonas Pinsent: 1637 – xxxx (Married Agnes Wills, xxxx, xxxx, xxxx)
Edward Pinsent: 1640 – xxxx
Thomas Pinsent: 1643 – xxxx
John Pinsent: 1646 – 1705 (Vicar of Coleshill, Berkshire.)
Ellis Pinsent: 1648 – 1672
Amy Pinsent: 1652 – xxxx
Family Branch: Combe
PinsentID: DRO0112
Edward was the second son of Jonas Pinsent, a Devonshire attorney, by his wife Elizabeth. He grew up in Bovey Tracey with four brothers (Jonas, Thomas, Ellis and John) all of whom feature in this database. He also had three sisters (Amy, Elizabeth and Johanna) whose lives are less well documented. Edward’s early schooling was in Devon, but he was sent up to Oxford, when he was seventeen years-old and matriculated at Wadham College in 1629 (Alumnae Oxonienses).
Edward Pinsent married Amy Bennett in Chudleigh in 1634. She was (according to “The Visitations of Devon”) the sole executrix of her brother Robert’s will, so had some social standing. Edward was ordained a priest in Exeter Cathedral in May of 1635 and was appointed a curate in Chudleigh in 1640 (CCED Diocese of Exeter Clerical Tenures). Amy came from an affluent family and Edward’s father (Jonas Pinsent, “senior”) wrote Edward into a complicated land settlement: “in consideration of their marriage and for the better maintenance of them and their male issue, and for L 50 0s 0d paid by Elizabeth Bennett, Amy’s mother” in 1635 (Calendar of Deeds Enrolled: #1681). The properties involved were (1) a messuage in Plymouth, late in the occupation of, and subject to a lease to, Richard Streamer; (2) a messuage in St. Sidwell in Exeter, excepting a lease to John Foster and his daughter Elizabeth, and (3) a messuage, tenement, garden and orchard in Bovey Tracey called “Hill Head” in the occupation of Gregory Wills, and also other small parcels of land including a close of 2.5 acres in the possession of Geffrey Christopher of Plumley. Interestingly, the two attorneys who wrote up the deeds were: John Bennett (presumably a relation of Amy’s), and John Pynsent, of Chudleigh. He was a by now relatively distant relation who was on his way to becoming a “Prothonotary,” or senior official in the Court of Common Pleas.
The couple seem to have stayed on in Chudleigh – or at least they had children baptized there – until 1643, the year Edward was appointed Vicar of Loddiswell. Edward’s elder brother Jonas had married Katherine Langworthy of Hatch Arundell, in Loddiswell in 1634 and also done very well for himself as she came from a wealthy family and was said to be the “heiress of Carswell.” Unfortunately, Katherine died – perhaps in childbirth – the following May.
Nevertheless, the marriage settlement had already been finalized so Jonas’s family retained some influence in Katherine’s home parish long after her death. The Rev. Edward was appointed vicar of Loddiswell in 1643.
Edward’s younger brother, John Pinsent “gent’s” Will was probated in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC Fairfax Vol 207 #22) in 1648. He left 40 shillings to the poor of Bovey Tracey, £5 to his brother Jonas, £2 apiece to his brothers Thomas and Edward, £20 to his brother Ellis and 40 shillings to his sister, Johanna Burchill. He left the rest to his sister Elizabeth. It was a tight knit family!
The Reverend Edward was caught up in the legal turmoil that followed the death of Jeffrey (Geoffrey) Christopher in 1645. Jeffrey had left his “half-brother” (?), Edward’s brother, Jonas, to probate his Will. This did not go down well with the Beare family and Jeffrey’s nephew, Nicholas Beare, objected to Jonas, who he said was: “a stranger in the blood,” acting as executor. One of his points of contention was that he claimed that Jonas had understated the value of his uncle’s estate; particularly his plate, money and goods, and a tenement he held at Sandirke (Sandwich?) in North Bovey. The case made its way to the Court of Chancery (C6/102/21), and features in the discussion of Jonas Pinsent’s life [DRO0107 Combe] (see elsewhere).
Depositions taken at the time show that, although Edward had borrowed 50 pounds from Jeffrey Christoper on 23rd December 1643, he had “repayed all except that mentioned in the bill” by the time the issue came to court. The two brothers’, Edward and Jonas’s, interests were closely intertwined and both paid taxes for land held in Loddiswell in 1647 (Devon Taxes: 1581-1660: Ed. T. L Stoate)
Edward and Amy had five sons and two daughters between 1635 and 1652. Their eldest son, (another Jonas) likely married and moved to Exeter. His life is discussed elsewhere. Unfortunately, what happened to the others is less clear. Edward and Amy’s second and third sons, Edward and Thomas, are completely unaccounted for. However, the fourth, John, is known to have followed his father into the church. He attended Oxford University and obtained a M.A. in 1667.
The Reverend John’ life is discussed here. It got off to a bad start. In 1670, he bought a horse from Richard Beast who claimed that it was under six years and physically sound. John agreed on a price of £20 and arranged to pay Mr. Beast £0 3s 0d a week. However, it was not long before he found out that the horse had problems and that it was clearly more than six years old! John seems to have offered to return the horse and get his money back but Mr. Beast said no and the matter found its way into the Chancery Court (C6/603/42) – which traditionally dealt with issues of equity.
While he was Vicar of Coleshill, in Berkshire, Rev. John came to know Sir George (brother of Sir Roger Pratt, the noted architect) and Lady Margaret Pratt, and he was one of her principal advisers when her husband died in 1673. Sir George was a wealth baronet and Dame Margaret relied on the Rev. John’s advice during probate. They worked well together and, in appreciation of his help, she granted him a sixty-year lease on some property in Great Coxwell that was then in the possession of Edward Giles, in 1674.
Unfortunately, the relationship soured. John seems to have been somewhat injudicious when speaking about their relationship and Dame Margaret sued him in the Court of Chancery (C8/82/30) in 1679. She complained that he made out in public that she had granted him far more land than she had, and that he had taken and refused to return critical documents. She asked the Court for a subpoena, to force him state what land he was claiming, return any documents he might have and justify his claims.
The Reverend John responded by saying that she had allowed him to help her with her finances and had entrusted him with the key to the room where she kept her deeds and documents. He denied that he ever claimed anything other than the property in Great Coxwell she had given him and he quoted from the original indenture:“This indenture made the fifteenth day of December in the year of Our Lord 1674, and in the six and twentieth of the reign of Our Sovereign Lord Charles the Second, by the grace of God of England, Scotland and France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith; between Dame Margaret Pratt of Collshill in, the County of Berkshire, widow, of the one part and John Pinsent, of Collshill aforesaid, clerk, of the other part: witnesseth that the said Dame Margaret Pratt, for and in consideration of the true and faithful service which he, the said John Pinsent, hath performed and done to and for her, the said Dame Margaret and for the encouragement and maintenance of the great labour and pains which the said John Pinsent doth take for the advancement of the true religion and piety, being Vicar of Collshill, aforesaid, and for diverse other good causes and considerations; she, the said Dame Margaret Pratt in this behalf especially moving (?) hath devised, granted and to farm letten, and by these presents doth fully, freely and absolutely, demise, grant and to farm let unto the said John Pinsent all that close of pasture or meadow ground called or known by the name of the Woodcraft, and also one other close of pasture or meadow ground called or known by the name of Ramme Close, and also one other pasture or meadow ground called or known by the name of Ashbed close, and also one other pasture or meadow ground called or known by the name of Haselewood Close – all which said several grounds or closes are situate, lying and being in the in the Parish of Great Coxwell, in the said County of Berkshire, and were late in the tenure holding or occupation of one John Britten, of Coxwell, aforesaid, yeoman, his assignee or assigns, together with all and singular ways, waters, easements, profits, commodities, advantages, emoluments and hereditaments whatsoever to the said premises above mentioned, every or any part thereof, belonging, or in any wise appertaining, excepting and always reserving out of these presents unto the said Dame Margaret Pratt, her heirs and assigns, all and all manner of timber trees …”. The vicar may well have had a bit too much sherry and talked-up his influence, and the extent of her generosity now and again, but she seems to have overreacted.
The two of them made up as Dame Margaret named Rev. John Pinsent of Coleshill as one of her trustees when she signed and sealed her will, in 1697. It seems that her late husband had left the bulk of his estate to his sister’s family, and Margaret had given most of her own estate to her grandson, Thomas Playdell, at the time of his marriage. By her will, she asked that her trustees pay her bills, legacies and annuities out of the rent or sale of the manors of Great and Little Coxwell, and that anything that remaind was to go to her other grandson, George Pratt Webb. In doing so, however, she stipulated that if he should die without male offspring, then the property would revert to Thomas Playdell’s family. Dame Margaret’s daughter Mary Hardwick and her husband, and some of the other trustees, questioned the validity of the will and the issue was brought before the Court of Exchequer (E134-11 Wm3 Mich17).
Reverend John never married. When he died in September 1705 his own Will was proved in the Archdeaconry Court of Oxford. It makes no mention of any family. He “left his property in Coleshill and Great Coxwell to charity, to produce income for apprenticing to handicraft trades poor boys and girls” from those parishes” (Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring concerning Charities: Volume 32, part 1).
The Reverend John’s younger brother (Edward and Amy’s fifth son), Ellis, went up to Oxford, attended New Inn Hall and graduated with a B.A. in 1670-1. (Alumni Oxonienses). Ellis came to the attention of his uncle, Thomas Pinsent of Woodland and when he acquired a 99-year lease of one third of Lower Howton farm in Highweek from Sir William Wyndham in 1670, it was leased on three lives, (himself, his daughter Elizabeth and Ellis Pinsent (the daughter of his sister-in-law, Amy). This Thomas, whose life is discussed elsewhere, was the man who brought a suit against Samuel Segar over their joint management of the land at Lower Howton. Thomas complained that Samuel was taking more than his fair share of the pasture (swheritage.org.uk/records/DD/WY/5/13/83). Ellis appears to have died, unmarried, in Bovey Tracey. The fate of Edward and Amy’s two daughters (Florence and Amy) remains unknown.
A Parliamentary Survey of Loddiswel (Comm. XIIa/5/134-5) taken in 1650, states that Mr. Edward Pinsent was “an able and honest man incumbent there and receives the profit of the vicarage”. Loddiswell was worth £80 0s 0d and was also the mother church of Buckland Tout Saints which was worth a further £5 13s 4d.
Rev. Edward died in Loddiswell in 1652, leaving his wife, Amy, with several young children. She likely moved her family back to Woodland (where Thomas lived) and she owned a property that had a land tax value of £1 10s 0d in 1653. It is not clear when she died.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: Hugh Pinsent: 1540 – 1626
Grandmother: Johanna Woodley: xxxx – xxxx
Parents
Father: Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Mother: Elizabeth Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Peter Pinsent: 1576 – 1597
Rechord Pinsent: 1578 – xxxx
John Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1580 – xxxx
Margaret Pinsent: 1582 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: xxxx – 1584
Thomas Pinsent: 1586 – xxxx
Agnes Pinsent: 1589 – xxxx
Hugh Pinsent: 1591 – xxxx
George Pinsent: 1593 – xxxx
Jane Pinsent: 1594 – xxxx
Matthew Pinsent: 1596 – 1616
Male Siblings (Brothers)
Jonas Pinsent: 1609 – 1658
Edward Pinsent: 1611 – 1652
Thomas Pinsent: 1615 – 1690
Ellis Pinsent: 1619 – 1681
John Pinsent: 1622 – 1648
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