Vital Statistics
Abraham Pinsent: 1787 – 1871: GRO0001 (Agricultural labourer, Chudleigh, Devon)
1. Mary Willmiton: xxxx – xxxx
Married: 1819: Dawlish, Devon
2. Anne Unknown: 1795 – 1870
Married: xxxx: xxxx, xxxx
Children by Anne Unknown:
Joseph Cook Pinsent: 1832 – xxxx
Thomas Pinsent: 1834 – 1917 (Married Mary Gilley, 1868, Newton Abbot, Devon)
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0001
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Abraham Pinson (or Pinsent as he was later known) was the son of Richard Pinson by his wife Elizabeth (née Gregory’s). He was born in Lustleigh, in Devon, in around 1787 but was not baptized until 1794. He came from a Baptist family, which may account for the discrepancy. He was baptized in the local parish church in 1794. Abraham’s apprenticeship, census and death records provide birth dates ranging from 1787 to 1796. He was said to be 84 years old when he died, so I have assigned his birth date to 1787.
Abraham’s father was an “agricultural labourer” who married in 1775 and had ten children (including six boys) in the years that followed. What happened to three of his brothers (Thomas Pinson, William Pinson and Joseph Pinson) is not entirely clear. Thomas may have died in infancy; however William and Joseph were apprenticed out. They either died relatively young or disappeared into the wider population of “Pinsons” in the early 1800s. However, two of Abraham’s brothers (Richard Pinson and Joseph Pinsent) did grow to maturity. Their lives are discussed elsewhere. Abraham had four sisters but only two can be accounted for.
It was common practice for the sons and daughters of labourers in rural parishes to be apprenticed out to local farmers while there were still quite young, and Lustleigh’s “Apprentice Registers” tell us that Abraham was apprenticed out to a Mr. John Cole to work at “East Fursden” in 1801. From there, he went to Mr. John Wills of Lustleigh for a few months in 1804. Presumably both were for agricultural work. The Wills family owned several farms in the area and apprenticed several of Richard’s children.
Abraham “Pinson” appears to have married Mary Willmiton in Dawlish (on the South Coast of Devon) in 1819. They were both “sojourners” in the parish (i.e. visitors), which tells that neither had any particular affiliation with the place. Unfortunately, the records do not say where they were from. They married by banns with both of them signing “by mark”. There was a Mary “Willmington” born in Dalwood in Eastern Devon in 1804. Perhaps she was a youngster who had eloped.
I can find no further mention or Mary so she may have died shortly thereafter. Abraham “Pinsent” reappears sometime later (in the early 1830s) as an “agricultural labourer” living in Chudleigh with his (second?) wife Anne (née Unknown). The transition from “Pinson” to “Pinsent” is easily explicable as Abraham was illiterate and the people around him must have been well aware of the “Pinsent” family. Several branches farmed in the neighbourhood and one owned a brewery in Highweek that supplied beer to at least one of the pubs in Chudleigh!
Chudleigh was Anne’s hometown and she must have seen it ravaged by fire in 1807. Perhaps they landed up there because of the family connection. Abraham and Ann had two sons, Joseph Cook Pinsent and Thomas Pinsent in Chudleigh in January 1832 and July 1834 respectively. I this case there was no delay in their baptism. They were baptized by a dissenting minister in the “Independent Chapel” (England and Wales, Non Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers: Chudleigh Independent: 1711 – 1837: Ancestry.com). Joseph probably died young, so Abraham and Anne only had Thomas with them when the Census takers made their rounds in 1841. The family had moved to Culver Street and taken in a lodger by the time they returned in 1851. Thomas had moved out by 1861; however, Abraham and Anne were still there and they still had a lodger with them. Thomas was later to return to the parish (see elsewhere).
Abraham was called to provide evidence in case of “common assault” brought before the magistrates at Chudleigh Petty Sessions in August 1866. Apparently, he witness an argument between one of his neighbours, Elizabeth Godbeer and her brother, Mr. James Godbeer, who was visiting from Torquay. Apparantly, Mr. Godbeer had an on-going dispute with his sister and her husband over their right of access to property in Chudleigh that he owned. He claimed that she used foul language and, without any provocation, struck him in the face with a lock. Abraham agreed. However, The magistrates saw it as a domestic matter and they were happy to dismiss the case (Western Times: Friday 31st August 1966).
Anne Pinsent died in Chudleigh in 1870 and Abraham Pinsent of Culver Street, Chudleigh followed a year later, dying, apparently at the age of 84 years, in 1871.
Family Tree
PARENTS
Father: Richard Pinson: 1745 – 1825
Mother: Elizabeth Gregory: 1748 – 1837
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
Thomas Pinson: 1776 – xxxx
Richard Pinson: 1778 – 1868
John Pinson: 1782 – 1849
William Pinson: 1784 – xxxx
Joseph Pinson: 1788 – xxxx
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