Vital Statistics
Richard Thomas Pinson: 1850 – 1913 GRO0731 (Butcher, Ashfield, Sydney, New South Wales)
Mary Agnes McClune: 1846 – 1930
Married: 1867: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Children by Mary Agnes McClune:
Mary Ann Matilda Pinson: 1868 – 1868
Archibald Frederick Pinson: 1869 – 1951 (Married (1) Rosanna Pettit, Petersham, New South Wales, Australia, 1887; (2) Ellen Storm, Newton, New South Wales, Australia, 1929)
Lily Amy Pinson: 1871 – 1873
William James Pinson: 1875 – 1945 (Married Florence Isabella Field, Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia, 1901)
Richard Alfred Pinson: 1877 – 1944 (Married Florrie Osley Davis, Canterbury, New South Wales, Australia, 1906)
Mary Agnes Pinson: 1879 – xxxx
Thomas Henry Pinson: 1881 – 1938 (Married Matilda J. Booth, Petersham, New South Wales, Australia, 1908)
Herbert Joseph Pinson: 1883 – 1917
Walter Pinson: 1885 – 1946 (Married Susan Ann Boss, Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia, 1922)
Pearl Elsie Pinson: 1887 – xxxx (Married Andrew C. Davis, Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia, 1913)
Arthur Ernest Pinson: 1889 – 1960 (Married Ida Harriet Dawes, 1914)
Ruby May Pinson: 1891 – xxxx (Married Charles M. Smith, Burwood, New South Wales, Australia, 1930)
Vera Maud Pinson: 1894 – xxxx (Married Walter C. Dart, Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia, 1916)
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0731
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Richard Thomas Pinson was the second eldest son of Joseph and Elizabeth Pinson. He was born in Redruth in Cornwall in 1850 and was taken out to Australia as a baby. His father was “quarryman” who settled in Pyrmont in (what is now) central Sydney, New South Wales. Joseph and Elizabeth had eleven children including four sons (William James, Richard Thomas, John and Frederick Arthur) and three daughters (Louisa, Sarah and Hannah Amelia) that grew up and married. They contributed handsomely to the gene-pool and their descendants can still be found in New South Wales.
Richard Thomas may have been a bit of a trial for parents. On the 28th April 1864, the Sydney Morning Herald ran the following announcement: “I hereby caution the public not to harbour nor give credit to my son, Richard Pinson, after this date: April 27th, 1864: Joseph Pinson”. If that was not enough, the same paper carried the following item on the 29th January 1867: “To Clergymen: I hereby caution them against marrying my son, Richard Thomas Pinson, as he is under eighteen years of age: Joseph Pinson.” Despite his father’s disapproval, Richard married Mary Agnes McClune later that year and they had a short-lived daughter in 1868. Otherwise, they seem to have had a successful marriage.
Richard and Mary had thirteen children, seven boys and six girls over a period of twenty-five years and only two of them (both girls) died young. The boys all grew to maturity; however one of them, Herbert Joseph did die relatively young and only six actually married. Off these, five had children. Walter Pinson, who married late, appears to have been childless. The lives of the productive sons, Archibald Frederick, William James, Richard Alfred, Thomas Henry and Arthur Ernest Pinson) are discussed elsewhere.
Richard entered into the meat business while still a young man and the first time we hear of him after the birth (and death) of his first child is when he was charged with a colleague with carting meat that was insufficiently covered into the city. He was fined 10s in the “Central Police Court” (Empire: Friday 1st March 1872). Richard seems to have settled down after that and become a respectable “butcher.” He moved around within the then outer suburbs of Sydney and had children that were born, or at least baptized, in Balmain, Marrickville and Petersham. His two youngest daughters (Ruby and Vera Pinson) arrived after the family finally settled down in Ashfield, approximately 15 kilometres west of downtown Sidney. They were born there in 1891 and 1894 respectively.
According to the 1901 census for New South Wales, the family lived at “Carlisle” on George Street in Ashfield. All but two of Richard’s sons followed him into the family business and became “butchers” in their own right. Presumably he taught them the trade and worked with him until they married and struck out on their own. Meanwhile, William James, Richard’s eldest son, became “compositor” for a “printer” and his son Herbert Joseph became “saddler”.
Richard was interest in local politics and he joined his father and brother William in signing a letter of encouragement – desiring Mr. Robert Fowler to run as an “alderman” in Sydney’s Denison Ward in November 1974 (Sydney Morning Herald: Tuesday 24th November 1974). After a considerable break, Richard found time to renew his interest in politics in the late 1880s. This time, he joined a committee of support for the election of a Mr. William Lovel Davis to the “parliamentary” seat of Canterbury, in Sydney (Sydney Morning Herald: Friday 11th February 1887). Whether he was elected or not, I am not sure. On a less promising note around then, Richard may have been the Richard Pinson who appeared in “Newtown Police Court” and was fined 10s for cruelly treating a horse (Evening News: Tuesday 4th June 1889). To be fair, there were other Richard Pinsons around at the time.
Richard’s parents had died in 1880 and 1881. His wife Mary Agnes, however, did not lose her mother until 1889. For several years after her death, Agnes submitted “In Memoriam” notices to the local newspapers (e.g. Evening News: Thursday 26th November 1896). It was the conventional thing to do. Her father died in 1903.
Richard’s eldest son, Archibald, married Rosanna Petit in 1887 while he was still quite young (18). The next to marry was William James in 1901, followed by Richard Alfred in 1906 and Thomas Henry in 1908. Their lives are discussed elsewhere.
Richard Pinson of “Carlisle,” George Street, Ashfield (Canterbury) died in January 1913 and the Sydney Morning Herald received a bundle of letters from grieving relations, brothers, cousins and children informing their friends of the funeral arrangements. He was interred in the Anglican section of “Rookwood Cemetery” in Sydney. His passing was also remembered through a series of “In Memoriam” notices printed in the same newspaper on the appropriate date for several years to come. The “Probate Division of the Supreme Court” duly processed Richard’s Will and the appropriate duty was duly paid (New South Wales Probate Records INX-15-103792: File now at ZO8310).
Richard’s daughter Pearl Elsie married Andrew C. Davis in Marrickville later that same year (1913) and his son Arthur Ernest Pinson married Ida Harriet Dawes the following year (1914). Richard’s widow, Mary Agnes (née McClune) was left as the matriarch of an extended but by then somewhat scattered family. The Electoral Rolls show that when her husband died, she had only two of her sons Walter (who was a “labourer”) and Herbert (who was a “saddler”) living with her. Mary Agnes’s daughter, Vera Maud, who was a “dress-maker” married a “butcher”, Walter William Dart, in St. Clement Church, Marrickville in November 1916. Sadly, Walter died in April 1920; which left Vera a widow at the age of 26 years.
Mary Agnes’s son Walter enrolled in the “Australian Imperial Forces” during the “First World War”. His Attestation papers show that he signed up in February 1917. Walter gave his contact address as “George Street” in Canterbury and Richard Alfred, his elder brother, as his principal contact. He was 5ft and ½ inch in height and weighed 175 lbs. He had a chest measurement of 37 ½ – 41 inches. His complexion was fresh and he had blue eyes and brown hair. When it came to distinguishing features, he had a scar on the right side of his head (temple) and on the right side of his waist (groin). The medics considered him fit for active service. He was given Regimental number #71031 and sent for training. That was, however, the limit of his service.
Walter was sent before another medical board that found that he was deaf in both ears. He was unfit for service and discharged on 6th February 1917. Walter returned to civilian life and took over his father’s butchery business on “George Street” in Canterbury. He married Susan Ann Boss in Marrickville in 1922. He was then thirty-six years old at the time and she was the thirty-two year’s old daughter of a “baker”. They do not seem to have had any children. Walter became a “butcher” in Burwood (New South Wales Electoral Rolls, Sydney: 1935). He died in 1946 (Sydney Morning Herald: 30th November 1946).
Mary Agnes and her son Herbert moved to “Queen Street” in Hurlstone Park in Sydney. Herbert died there in August 1917 and his passing led to a veritable flood of notices of upcoming funeral arrangements from his extended family in the local press. He was buried in the Church of England portion of the Cemetery at “Rookwood” (Sydney Morning Herald: Monday 6th August 1917).
Mary Agnes stayed on in Ashfield and died there in 1930. She made her third son, Richard Alfred, and her “solicitor” executors of a will – which is available on-line. She gave her daughter Ruby £50, linen and other household items; she requested that the family pictures be equitable distributed among her children and asked that the remainder of her goods and chattels be converted to money and divided equally into ten parts and given to her children, Archibald Frederick, Walter, Arthur Ernest, Richards Alfred, Mary Agnes, William, Vera Maud and Ruby May. Pearl Elsie and Thomas Henry also received their share; however, Mary decreed that £40 should be transferred from Pearl to Thomas. Presumably that was to cover some private arrangement between the two. Vera and Mary Agnes (?), being single, were allowed to stay on in her house until it was sold. Meanwhile, Thomas and Richard were given the right of first refusal to buy the land in Bankstown that they were currently occupying to conduct their business. The Will was witnessed and signed in 1921 but was essentially up to date with respect to her children when she died.
Interestingly, Mary Agnes Pinson may have bought 1 acre 2 roods, ¼ perch of land on “Canterbury Road” and “Viola Street” in Canterbury, Parish of Saint George, County of Cumberland which was part of 60 acres originally granted to Richard Calcott 1st January 1810 (NRS-17513-14-150-PA24837: Primary Application Volume 3538: Folio 8: 13th March 1923 – 8th December 1923) in 1923. Alternatively, her daughter Mary Agnes, about whom I know very little, may have bought the land. However, this seems unlikely. She does not seem to have married.
Mary Agnes (“senior”) died on “Queen Street” in South Ashfield on 15th July 1930 and – after the family had duly notified their friends (Sydney Morning Herald: Thursday 17th July 1930) – she too was buried in the Anglican part of “Rookwood Cemetery”. Her Will was processed in the “Supreme Court” in New South Wales and her creditors’ needs were addressed (Sydney Morning Herald: Tuesday 22nd July 1930) and the required duty was duly paid (New South Wales Probate Records INX-15-103791: Pinson, Mary Agnes: Deceased Estates Index: Mary Agnes Pinson). After her death, Mary Agnes’s daughter Ruby May must have felt that she was finally able to marry. She married Charles M. Smith later that same year. She would have been thirty-nine years old.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: John Pinsent: 1782 – 1849
Grandmother: Mary Follett: 1782 – 1859
PARENTS
Father: Joseph Pinsent: 1819 –1881
Mother: Elizabeth Snell: 1824 – 1880
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Ann Pinson: 1809 – 1862
William Pinsent: 1811 – 1879
Elizabeth Pinson: 1814 – xxxx
John Pinsent: 1817 – 1819
Sarah Pinson: 1821 – 1886
John Pinsent: 1823 – 1902
James Pinsent: 1825 – 1886
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
William Pinson: 1845 – 1845
William James Pinson: 1846 – 1899
John Pinson: 1855 – 1919
Frederick Arthur Pinson: 1857 – 1914
Andrew C. Pinson: 1859 – 1862
Henry Charles A. Pinson: 1865 – 1868
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