Vital Statistics
Robert Hedley Vicars Pinsent: 1862 – 1888 GRO1142 (Clerk, Registrar General’s Office, New Zealand).
Family Branch: Hennock
PinsentID: GRO1142
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Robert Hedley Vicars Pinsent was the eldest surviving son of (Sir) Robert John Pinsent by his first wife, Anna Brown Cooke. He was born and baptized in St. John’s Newfoundland in 1862 and he was educated both there and also in England.
Anna Brown Pinsent and a nurse took three of her children Lucy (7), Kate (6) and “baby” Willie to England, in 1864. Why she left her son Robert Hedley (2) behind I am not sure. Perhaps she feared the “terrible twos” would upset the sensibilities of her English relations. While she was in England she wrote a diary – part of which is in my possession. In it she describes daily happenings; she complains about the cost of living and talks about Sunday church services, family visits and outings, and letters from home. She was clearly missing her husband and her son (Hedley) and enjoyed letters from home: August 17th, “… read NFL letters, good news only Master Hedley opened the door of my bird cage and let it out”. Boys will be boys. The following day: August 18th, “We left Torquay … at Newton, dear Lucy (Lucretia Maude Pinsent) and Tom (probably Pynsent) got out and changed for Ivy Bridge … took a train for Woolwich … where my Aunt Mrs. Col. Collington lived… Darling Hedley’s Birthday”: … It is worth noting here that Robert Hedley Vicars was almost invariably referred to as “Hedley.”
Anna and her husband had eight children in all (five boys and three girls) between 1857 and 1867 but only three of the boys (Charles, Hedley and Arthur) survived and only one of them (Charles) married and had children. He had a daughter that died in infancy.
Sadly, Anna’s marriage to Robert John did not last. According to testimony given in Her Majesty’s Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes in London, Anna was in London with Charles Mesham in December 1867 and she failed to return to her family. Robert John Pinsent initiated divorce proceedings the following year and, as discussed elsewhere, their divorce was finalized in 1870. This allowed Anna to remarry – not Mr. Mesham (who was already married) but John Lee Statham (a London “dentist”). They married in St. Marylebone Parish Church in April 1870.
Anna’s school-age children were living in Bristol at the time. The 1871 Census tells us that Hedley V. Pynsent (sic) was a scholar at Ebernezer House School at Cotham Park, Westbury on Trym, Bristol. He was eight years old and one of thirteen young boys aged between 5 and 12. The Census also tells us that his older sisters L. Maude A. Pinsent [14] and Catherine L. Pinsent [12] were living at “#2 Mearncliffe Villa C. P., Westbury on Trym, Bristol” with Ann Keddle (a.k.a. Keddell) [66] the sister of their cousin Thomas Pynsent, of Pitt in Hennock and (later) Northam in North Devon. His extraordinary life is discussed elsewhere. It comes with an explanation for the Pynsent name! Ann Keddle was a surgeon’s widow who set up a small school with her unmarried daughters, Anne P. [37] and Ellen M. [35] Keddle; both of whom were born in Keynsham, in Somerset. The sisters were “teaching at home” and L. Maude and Catherine L. Pinsent were listed amongst their “scholars”. Both were correctly described in the Census as being “British Subjects born in Newfoundland”.
Robert John Pinsent remarried two years later and started a second family with Emily Hetty Sabine (née Homfray). They had seven children between 1873 and 1889; Robert John had to simultaneously juggle the needs of his two families.
Hedley was not a particularly engaged student and his father was unquestionably exasperated when he received his school report while on a visit to London in January 1878. He wrote of his frustrations to his (second) wife, Emily, who was at her family home in Bintry in Norfolk: “From the school report of Hedley I received today I am inclined to think that one six pence more spent in an attempt at his education will be money thrown away” (Letter: Robert John Pinsent to Emily Pinsent: 14th January 1878). She must have tried to settle him down as in his next letter he discusses possibly sending him to “Institution Piquet” near Paris. The problem, as he saw it, was that Hedley, who was now around sixteen years old, was by no means ready to be recommended for employment with “one of his mercantile friends” – even if they should offer. Whether Hedley was actually sent to France, I do not know. Presumably he returned to Newfoundland. However, he did not stay there.
Hedley Vicars Pinsent joined the “North West Mounted Police” in Calgary, Alberta but I do not know when. However, some of his later medical records are still preserved in Canada’s “National Archives”. Evidently, Constable H. V. Pinsent served as an “assistant quartermaster” in Calgary until he contracted tuberculosis. He stayed on doing light duties for a while but was invalided out of the service in January 1885. Presumably he headed home to Newfoundland.
In the meantime, Hedley’s aunt (Mary Elizabeth Pinsent) had married a “clergyman”, Rev. Joseph Hatch, in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1882. What she was doing there I have no idea but it is worth noting that her brother Charles Speare Pinsent was to marry Blanche Brown the following year. She was, the sister of a “Mining Engineer” (Douglas James Brown) who was then based in New Zealand – so the family had connections there.
Hedley must have gone out to New Zealand shortly after his return from Western Canada. Perhaps he went out because the climate was thought to be more favourable for his condition. He joined the “Government Survey Office” in Nelson, and spent a couple of years as a “Clerk in the Registrar’s Office.” Sadly, his tuberculosis returned and he left Auckland for Sydney on “S.S. Wairarapa” on 25th April 1887 (NSW Unassisted Immigration Lists). From there, he traveled to London on “R.M.S Orizaba” in May 1887 (The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser: Saturday 14th May 1887). Presumably he was on his way back to Newfoundland.
Robert Hedley Vicars Pinsent died at his father’s home at “Hillsbro,” in St. John’s in February 1888 (Twillingate Sun: Saturday 24th March 1888). The newspaper tell us that he was 25 years-old and unmarried, and that he died “after a lingering illness.” Notice of his death was forwarded to the New Zealand press – which suggests that he still had friends and/or relatives out there (New Zealand Herald: 30th April 1888).
Hedley made his will a few weeks before he died. He appointed his father as his executor and he left him his limited estate, excepting only £200 that he gave to his sister “Kitty” (Louisa Catherine Pinsent) – who was to marry George Shea in St. John’s a few months later (Newfoundland Wills (1830-1962).
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: Robert John Pinsent: 1798 – 1876
Grandmother: Louisa Broom Williams: 1808 – 1882
Parents
Father: Robert John Pinsent: 1834 – 1893
Mother: Anna Brown Cooke: 1837 – 1882
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Mary Speare Pinsent: 1833 – 1833
Robert John Pinsent: 1834 – 1893 ✔️
Thomas Williams Pinsent: 1837 – 1890
Charles Speare Pinsent: 1838 – 1914
Louisa Williams Pinsent: 1841 – 1921
Mary Elizabeth Pinsent: 1844 – xxxx
William Burton Pinsent: 1846 – 1846
Male Siblings (Brothers, half-brothers)
John Cooke Pinsent: 1861 – 1861
Robert Hedley Vicars Pinsent: 1862 – 1888 ✔️
William Satterly Splatt Pinsent: 1864 – 1865
Charles Augustus Maxwell Pinsent: 1866 – 1910
Arthur Newman Pinsent: 1867 – 1946
Robert John Ferrier Homfray Pinsent: 1874 – 1899
Francis Wingfield Homfray Pinsent: 1875 – 1948
Guy Homfray Pinsent: 1889 – 1972
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