Vital Statistics
Thomas Pinsent: 1834 – 1917 GRO0834 (Printer & Compositor, Torquay, Devon)
Mary Ann Gilley: 1839 – 1895
Married: 1868: Newton Abbot, Devon
Children by Mary Ann Gilley:
Alfred John Pinsent: 1869 – 1939 (Married Rosina Train, 1893, Epping, Essex)
William Thomas Pinsent: 1870 – 1871
Frederick William Pinsent: 1872 – 1912
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0834
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Thomas Pinsent was the only (surviving) son of Abraham Pinsent by his wife, Anne (surname unknown). He was born in Chudleigh in 1834 and baptized in its Independent Chapel.
Thomas was living at home with his parents in 1851 but likely left to join the army shortly thereafter. He was based at Chatham and was considered the best shot in the garrison and he won first prize in a shooting contest held there in February 1859 (Morning Herald (London): Tuesday 8th February 1859). Thomas was a “Corporal” in the “2nd Battalion of the 17th Regiment of Foot” – which was based at Shorncliffe Camp, near Folkestone in Kent when the census was taken in 1861. The regiment also served in Dublin and Curragh (County Kildare) in Ireland (National Archives: WO/12/3487).
Thomas left the army some time in the 1860s and took up a job with a “printer” in West Teignmouth in Devon, which had been a growing community since the arrival of the railway. Thomas married Mary Ann Gilley, the daughter of a “deceased labourer” in Newton Abbot in May 1868 and they had three sons. Alfred John Pinsent Pinsent (the eldest) was born in Chudleigh, where his parents still lived, in 1869. Alfred’s brother William Thomas Pinsent was born there the following year – a matter of days before his grandmother died.
Thomas and Mary Ann moved to Torquay shortly afterwards. It was fast becoming a fashionable holiday destination for middle class “merchants” who, with the coming of the railway, were only to eager to abandon their smoky Midland cities for Devon’s relatively pristine southern shores. Thomas and Mary Ann were living on Cavern Road in Torquay when their second son died in 1871- a few days after his grandfather – and when their third, Frederick William Pinsent, was born in 1872 – a few days. The family was still living there when the census-takers made their rounds in 1881. By then, Thomas was “a printer-compositor” and his wife was a “dressmaker” – as well as being a housewife. Their two sons were, of course, “scholars.”
Thomas and his family had moved to Hill Park Terrace in Paignton by 1891. The census that year shows that Alfred John Pinsent had followed his father into the printing business. He was a twenty-two years old “printer’s compositor”. The household included a resident “domestic cook,” Anne Train, who came from Hennock. She had her daughter, Rosina Train, a twenty-five years old “dressmaker” living with her and, true to script, Alfred John and Rosina married in 1893 (see elsewhere). Why they were in Epping in Essex when they did so, I have no idea!
Mary Ann (née Gilley) died in October 1895 and Thomas moved in with his son Alfred John and his then relatively recently acquired wife Rosina. He was with their growing family at Rosemont in Tormoham, in Torquay in 1901 and also, according to census data in 1911. Thomas Pinsent, a “letter press print worker” died in Torquay in 1917.
To the best of my knowledge, Thomas and Mary Anne’s third son, Frederick William Pinsent never married. According to the census records, he was living with his parents in Torquay in 1881 but had moved out by 1891. It is not entirely clear what happened to him; however, he likely took to the sea and became an “Able Seaman” in the “Merchant Service” based in Southampton.
I suspect that Frederick was a member of the crew of the Ship “Conquest” in 1899 when it lost its propeller (and thus means of propulsion) off the Shetland Islands thirteen days out from Quebec with a load of timber. Evidently, the “S.S. Benwick” tried to come to its aid, but the vessels lost touch with each other after three cables broke in bad weather. The “Conquest” was driven to the northeast and the crew abandoned ship when its supplies ran low after more than a month adrift. It headed for Norway in two lifeboats. The first lifeboat, which held Captain Garrod and F. W. Pinsent, was found at sea and its crew was landed at Christiansund on 21st November 1899. The Norwegians sent out a lifeboat to look for the second (Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette: Wednesday 22nd November 1899). Presumably they found it.
Frederick seems to have decided that he had had enough of Atlantic gales and that ships heading for Australia were fundamentally safer. He seems to have crewed on a number of White Star Line ships carrying immigrants out there in the early 1900s (Melbourne and Sydney). He went out on the “S.S. Tropic” in 1905, the “S.S. Medic” in 1906, the “Afric” in 1907 and 1908 and “Suevic” in 1909 (New South Wales, Unassisted Immigrant Passenger Lists: 1826 – 1922). He was not on the “S.S. Titanic” in 1912.
The census taken the previous years tells us that Frederick was “a seaman” lodging with a “marine fireman” and his family on Paton Street, in Kirkdale in Liverpool, in Lancashire in 1911. However, he was a “dock labourer” the following year when injured by a falling bale of hay. Unfortunately, it fractured his spine and he died in hospital in January 1912.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Richard Pinson: 1745 – 1825
Grandmother: Elizabeth Gregory: 1748 – 1837
PARENTS
Father: Abraham Pinsent: 1787 – 1871
Mother: Anne Unknown: 1795 – 1870
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Thomas Pinson: 1776 – xxxx
Richard Pinson: 1778 – 1868
Elizabeth Pinson: 1780 – xxxx
John Pinson: 1782 – 1849
William Pinson: 1784 – xxxx
Mary Pinson: 1786 – 1873
Joseph Pinson: 1788 – xxxx
Rachael Pinson: 1796 – xxxx
Loyalty Pinson: 1799 – xxxx
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
Joseph Cook Pinsent: 1832 – xxxx
Thomas Pinsent: 1834 – 1917
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