Vital Statistics
Birth: 1844
Marriage: 1872
Spouse: Sarah Green
Death: 1937
Family Branch: Bovey Tracey
PinsentID: GRO0340
George Pinsent was the illegitimate son of Mary (née Mugford) and Samuel Tapper of Bovey Tracey, so his chromosomes must have been very different from that of his great grandfather – the Thomas Pinsent who married Jane Glanville in 1772. Neither his father nor his mother carried Pinsent genes.
George was born in 1847. He was three years old when his mother died and he joined his legitimate siblings in the Union Workhouse in Newton Abbot. George was living there when the Census was taken in 1851. The parish Guardians, in their wisdom, later arranged for him to be apprenticed to a young farmer, Andrew Heyward, as a “farm labourer.” Thus he was living at Bowden Farm in North Bovey when the census takers caught up with him in 1861.
The late 1800s were a particularly bad time to be a “farm worker” and, at some point, George moved back to Bovey Tracey and took a job in one of the potteries. He became a “printer at a pottery.” He was boarding with a widow, Sarah Horrell, and her family on Hill Street when the census takers next found him, in 1871. He married Sarah (née Green) in Newton Abbot the following year. Their marriage certificate confirms that his father was, indeed, Samuel Tapper.
Sarah was considerably older than her husband and she had previously been married to a Mr. Horrell. So George and Sarah had two of Sarah’s children, Alfred and Sarah Horrell, living with them on the High Street when the 1881 census was taken. It shows that Sarah, the younger of the two, was a “pupil teacher” aged 15 years. Both of the children had moved on by 1891. Presumably they married and moved out. George and Sarah then moved to Mary Street, in Bovey Tracey, at that was where they were living in 1901. The census shows that George was still “painting earthenware” in one of the potteries. He retired at some point during the next decade and he had become a “jobbing gardener” by the time the 1911 census was taken. By then, his household included another of Sarah (née Green’s) daughters, Mary Emma Charman (née Horrell). Her husband had died in London and she had returned to Devon.
George had no children of his own to look after – or educate – and his wife’s children were fully grown, so he resented paying for public education. In August 1904, he attended a meeting of like-minded parishioners in the Baptist Chapel schoolroom and committed to “resist” this secular charge (East and South Devon Advertiser: Saturday 27th August 1904). He later told the Newton Magistrates that “his only reason for not paying the rate was because he did not believe in the Act. It was contrary to his own conscience and to the teachings of the Bible. He refused to pay voluntarily then or at any other time” (East and South Devon Advertiser: Saturday 24th September 1904). True to his word, he was one of several “passive resisters” who were brought up before the Magistrates at “Newton Abbot Petty Sessions” in March 1909 for persistent refusal to pay “the educational portion of the poor rate” (South Devon Weekly Express: Thursday 25th March 1909). According to one of them, “they wanted proper control and management of the money they paid.” Clearly, the chairman was not impressed. He ordered a warrant forcing them to “cover the whole lot” (East and South Devon Advertiser: Saturday 27th March 1909).
George, nevertheless, felt responsible for his wife’s daughter Mary Emma (née Horrell). Unfortunately, she was an alcoholic and difficult to deal with: At “Newton Petty Sessions”: “Mary Emma Charman, Bovey Tracey, was charged with being drunk and disorderly there on April 5th. P.C. Ellis said he found her sitting on a doorstep drunk. She used very bad language. — Defendant expressed her sorrow, and was fined 12s or seven days. George Pinsent, the defendant’s step-father, made application to the Bench that he might not be molested by her in future. He said she came from London nine years ago in ill-health, and he had treated her as he would one of his own children, if he had any. His patience had now become exhausted through her drinking habits, and he did not want her there anymore. The magistrates informed him that there was no obligation upon him to maintain her. It was a very hard case. If she interfered with him he could call on the police. Mr. Pinsent: I will do one thing more I will pay the fine for her (Western Times: Wednesday 7th April 1915). How that worked out I do not know.
Sarah died in 1916. The Western Times (Tuesday 27th June 1916) notes: “The funeral of Mrs. G. Pinsent who died at Bovey last week, at the advanced age of 82, took place on Saturday. The service was taken by the Rev. F. Taverdar, both in the chapel and at the graveside. The Husband (Mr. G. Pinsent), Mrs. Gaylor and Mrs. Charman (daughters), Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Heath, many other friends also attending”.
George stayed on in Bovey Tracey after Sarah died. He seems to have reconciled with Emma as they were living together at #91 Mary Street in Bovey Tracey when the 1921 census was taken. He was still described as a “jobbing gardener” and she had “home duties” to perform. George was living in one of the parish Almshouses (#3 Croker Almshouses, Mary Street), in Bovey Tracey when he died, aged 92 years, in April 1937. He had had a long run.
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