Vital Statistics
Frederick Henry Davison Pinsent: 1852 – 1902 GRO0331 (Purser, Pacific & Orient Company, Southampton, Hampshire)
1. Helena Maud Robins: 1856 – 1884
Married: London, Middlesex: 1878
Children by Helena Maud Robins:
Frederick Henry Joseph Pinsent: 1879 – 1879
2. Margaret Ellen Sharpe: 1861 – 1948
Married: Madras, India: 1900
Family Branch: India
PinsentID: GRO0331
References
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Frederick Henry Davison was the third and youngest son of Henry John Pinsent by his wife, Charlotte Best (née Sharpe). He was born in Highgate in north London, where his father worked as a “purser” for the “Pacific & Orient Company” before it relocated to Southampton. Frederick may have had a twin brother Henry George Pinsent who died at birth. However, his name has been scratched out of the original birth record and replaced by “Frederick Henry Davison Pinsent.” He does not appear anywhere else and I suspect the name was entered in error. Frederick and his elder brothers and younger sisters grew up in Portswood, in Stoneham, near Southampton.
Frederick and his brother Charles were educated at the “P. & O. Co. High School” in Southampton, and we find Frederick playing cricket against the “Polygon House Club” in 1867 (Hampshire Advertiser: Saturday 25th May 1867). How good he was is hard to say. However, he played for the school later in the summer with somewhat indifferent results (Hampshire Advertiser: Saturday 15th June 1867). Frederick passed one early round (age less that 16 years) of the “Cambridge Local Examination Board” exams in February 1869. He came out in Class III on the “general list” (Hampshire Advertiser: Saturday 29th February 1869).
Frederick joined the “P. & O. Co.” as a “clerk“ after leaving school and then, like his father before him, became a “ship’s purser”. He was the man responsible for a ship’s stores and accounts. It would have been quite a challenge on a nineteenth century ocean liner. Frederick was active in England and in India in the 1870s; however, he was also assigned to ships on route out to Australia. It is hard to document his precise travels as he would have been listed on crew rather than passenger manifests. However, we find that a Mr. F. Pinsent left Southampton heading for Bombay in January 1870. He was scheduled to take “the overland route” as the Suez Canal was (presumably) not yet fully operational. He must have boarded the “S. S. Rangoon” in the Red Sea as he arrived in Bombay in early March (Homeward Mail from India, China and the East, Saturday 15th January & Saturday 5th March 1870). We also know that Mr. F. H. D. Pinsent was “purser” on the “R. M. S. (Royal Mail Ship) Bangalore” when it arrived in Adelaide in South Australia on 10th October 1876 (South Australian Register: Wednesday 11th October 1876).
Frederick married Helena Maud Robins, the daughter of a “solicitor” in Kensington, in London in April 1878 (Weekly News (London): Saturday 4th May 1878). They had a short-lived son, Frederick Henry Joseph Pinsent at the end of March in 1879 (Pall Mall Gazette: Saturday 29th March 1879) but he died of “convulsions” in August the same year. His grandmother, Charlotte Best Pinsent, notified the relevant authorities.
Mrs. Fred. Pinsent left Southampton on the “S. S. Pekin” bound for India in October 1880 (Hampshire Advertiser: Saturday 16th October 1880). Frederick was either still working as a “purser” in England or on the high-seas somewhere. The Electoral Registers show that Frederick was in England, living on Anley Road, just off the Shepherd’s Bush Road in Hammersmith, in 1881.
Frederick was still in England in early 1884. However, his wife, Helena Maud (“Nellie”) Pinsent was in Madras (current day Chennai in Tamil Nadu on the southeast coast of India) when she died in March of that year (Morning Post: Thursday 3rd April 1884). F. H. D. Pinsent left London on 16th April bound for Calcutta on the “S. S. Pekin” (Homeward Mail from India, China and the East: Tuesday 13th May 1884), presumably to see to her estate.
Frederick H. D. Pinsent left the “P. & O. Co.” sometime in the 1880s. However, he stayed on in Madras and, with his brother Charles, became an active member of the the Freemasons. Frederick was “Wor. Master Elect of Lodge Pitt Macdonald” in Vepery in December 1885 (Madras Weekly Mail: Wednesday 26th December 1885) and he attended several of functions there the following year. Vepery is in what is now Chennai in Tamil Nadu. Frederick may have joined the Free Masons in England as he made payments to the “United Grand Lodge of England” in 1888 while a member of the “Pitt-Macdonald Lodge” (United, Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers 1751-1921). On making the payments, he described himself as being an (unspecified) “merchant”. Frederick’s brother “Brother Charles Pinsent” was installed as “Worshipful Master” of “Lodge Perfect Unanimity No. 150” in February 1887 and Frederick was elected a “Junior Warden” of the lodge at the same time (Hampshire Advertiser: Saturday 19th February 1887). It was his turn to be “Worshipful Master” in 1889 (Madras Weekly Mail: Wednesday 16th January 1889). He graduated to “Most Wise Sovereign” of the Vepery lodge in 1890 (Madras Weekly Mail: Wednesday 23rd 1890). The Masons certainly knew how to select titles.
In 1890, Frederick was the “local agent” who helped link the ship “S. S. Clan McArthur” to the mainland telephone exchange so that for the first time (in Madras at least) there was ship-to-shore telephone communication. The methods and procedures used to accomplish this were described in considerable detailed in an article published in the “Manufacturer and Inventor”: (Saturday September 20th 1890). Evidently, “the experiment was highly successful and, if sufficient encouragement is held out by the Port and Harbour Trust authorities and the merchants, it is intended to fix a cable to each of the buoys of the harbour. The desk instrument being in a portable case, there is not the slightest difficulty in supplying the steamers as they come in”. It is unlikely the “Madras Harbour Board Trust” objected. Frederick’s brother, Charles was its “secretary.” According to the some later minutes of the “Harbour Trust”, its “clerk” read a letter “from Mr. F. H. D. Pinsent, dated 21st March, in reply to telephonic inquiry quoting rates for Damuda coal and enclosing copies of certificates” (Madras Weekly Mail: Thursday 27th April 1893). The ships were steam operated by then and the price of coal was highly relevant!
Frederick kept up his connection with the “Masons” and rose up through the ranks. By 1896, he was “Recorder” of the “Coromandel Chapter Rose Croix” chapter in Vepery (Madras Weekly Mail: Thursday 9th April 1896). Frederick H. D. Pinsent seems to have paid his Freemason lodge dues of 2/6d at “Moore Lodge” in Bangalore, a city in south central India in September 1897. At that time, he was a “secretary” visiting from Lodge 150 in Madras. Perhaps he was there for health reasons.
Frederick returned to England on the “P. & O. Co.” vessel “S.S. Peshawur”, arriving in London on 27th April 1892 (Homeward Mail: 26th April 1892) and he returned to Madras traveling (2nd Class) on “P. &. O. Co.” ship “S. S. Chusan” which left London on 29th September 1892 (UK, Outward Passenger Lists: 1890-1960). On the latter trip, he was described as being a “railway employee” (aged 40). However, he was the “Manager” of the “Connemara Hotel” in Egmore, in Madras, by July 1899. Frederick was called as a witness when the case against Capt. Murison, R.A.M.C. was aired in the local “Police Court.” Evidently, the unfortunate Captain had slit his own throat with a razor in a botched attempt at suicide while staying at the hotel, which is – of course – a crime. Frederick had the misfortune of having to deal with the incident. “His Worship remarked that if he sent the accused to Jail during the present hot weather it might probably impair his health, especially as he was still in a weak condition. The offense committed, however, was a grave one and it was regrettable that a man of the accused’s position should have given way to temptation in the manner he had done. His Worship knew nothing as to what induced accused to do the deed, and he was of opinion that the ends of justice would be met if a fine of Re. 300 were imposed.” I doubt if the episode did much to mollify the troubled Captain (Madras Weekly Mail: Thursday 6th July 1899).
Frederick married for a second time in June 1900. He married Margaret Ellen Sharpe who was the daughter of a “line engraver” in Madras. There is nothing to suggest that they had children. Mr. and Mrs. F. H. D. Pinsent returned to London via Bombay on the “S. S. Caledonia” on 16th November 1901 (Homeward Mail from India, China and the East: Saturday 30th November 1901). They were heading for Frederick’s mother Charlotte’s house in Kensington.
Sadly for Charlotte, both her sons died shortly after returning from India. Frederick Henry Davison Pinsent died in London in May 1902 and Charles Powell Tronson Pinsent died there in May 1904. Frederick’s widow, Margaret Ellen (née Sharpe) probated his estate, which was valued at £222. She then married another “line-engraver”, Frank Willis, in Woolwich in September 1904. Mrs. Charlotte Best Pinsent died a month later; her unmarried daughter, Mary Louisa Pinsent probated her estate.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Henry Pinsent: 1769 – 1854
Grandmother: Joanna Wogan: 1772 – 1848
PARENTS
Father: Henry John Pinsent: 1812 – 1894
Mother: Charlotte Best Sharpe: 1819 – 1904
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Mary Ann Pinsent: 1802 – xxxx
Henrietta Pinsent: 1803 – 1806
Eliza Pinsent: 1805 – 1839
Henrietta Pinsent: 1806 – xxxx
Joanna Pinsent: 1808 – xxxx
Emma Pinsent: 1811 – xxxx
Henry John Pinsent: 1812 – 1894 ✔️
George Pinsent: 1814 – 1838
Emma Pinsent: 1817 – xxxx
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
William Henry Pinsent: 1845 – 1895
Charles Powell Tronson Pinsent: 1849 – 1904
Frederick Henry Davison Pinsent: 1852 – 1902 ✔️
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