Author: Administrator

Jonas Pinsent

Jonas Pinsent: 1645 – xxxx DRO0110

1) Mary Whittyer: xxxx – 1689
Married: 1688: Exeter, Devon 

2) Phillipa Weekes: xxxx – 1726
Married: 1690: Exeter, Devon

Family Branch: Combe
PinsentID: DRO0110

Jonas Pinsent is inferred to be one of the (at least) two sons of Jonas Pinsent of Bovey Tracey by his second wife, Grace (née Langdon). I have yet to find his baptismal record and I know very little about his early life, However, he was probably born in around 1645. There was a Jonas baptized in Bovey Tracey in 1650, however, the parish register clearly shows that his father was John. Perhaps this is a mistake. Documentary evidence shows that our Jonas had brother, Richard, who may have been a few year’s younger.

Jonas and Richard’s grandfather, Richard Langdon “late of Bigbury” died in around 1660. He was a wealthy man who appointed John Aishford and Richard Luke to be his executors, to manage his estate and act as guardians to his two young grandsons until they came “off age.” The will is missing; however, Olive Moger’s review of Exeter’s Ecclesiastical Court documents shows that the boys reached maturity in the early 1670s and that they then sued their grandfather’s executors, for “subtraction of legacy.” The date is unclear; however it was said to be a few years after their mother died (Moger Abstracts: Dean and Chapter Bundles: Series I & II). 

Richard Langdon had stated that: “I bequeath to said Grace Pinsent, Jonas Pinsent and Richard Pinsent, her sons, all my lands and tenements in Bigbury called outer Hexdowne, from my death …” however, because they were minors there were terms and conditions attached. Grace and Jonas were to have all the household and plough stuff in the first instance, but the executors were to have the tillage rights for ten years. Grace and Jonas were to have the household goods and plough stuff until Jonas reached the age of twenty-one years, which, the documents suggest, occurred around the time that Grace died “four years ago” (1666 – by construction). Richard would then get the land in Bigbury and the tillage rights.

It was a significant case as Grace had valued her father’s estate at L.1,000. It is not clear but Richard’s land probably went to Richard as Jonas would likely have inherited their father’s estate in Bovey Tracey when he came “off age.”.  

The executors for their part claimed that the money had been dispersed over time and that they had no more to give! They provided an inventory, and a list of costs incurred between 1660 and 1666. These include large and small sums paid to maintain Outer Hexdowne and for the education and welfare of the two boys, such as: “To Mr. Waltham for schooling and diet of Mrs. Pinsent’s sons: £25.” Another item reads: “Sent to him at Oxford Midsummer 1664 and other sums to him Mich. 1666.” This almost certainly refers to the Richard, who matriculated at University College in Oxford, aged 17, in 1664 (Alumni Oxonienses: Vol 4). 

There were also the executors own (doubtless reasonable) expenses, and the cost of Grace’s funeral and her heriot (£13s 4d) to be taken into consideration. The executors made begrudging acknowledgement “For money found in Mrs. Grace Pinsent’s trunk after her death, £27” but they felt they could not account for “Goods which Mrs. Grace Pinsent and Mr. Jonas Pinsent carried away from Hexdowne to his house in Bovey Tracey.” The boys would have lived and grown up on Henstreete with their parents and Jonas would, logically, have inherited his father’s estate, including the family home on Henstreete (subject to his mother’s widow’s rights), in 1658. As he was a minor, it would have been held for him “in trust” until he reached maturity.

Jonas was to become a wealthy man and, when testifying in Chancery in 1693, (C5/106/53-24865. Pinsent v Battishill) he admitted to controlling land in Bovey Tracey including “Henstreete” (value £50 per annum); “Hore’s” tenement (£30 per annum); “Hart’s” tenement (£30 per annum) and lesser properties in Bovey Tracey, and also land in Dartmouth (£20 per annum). Interestingly, there is no mention of Will’s tenement. 

The Dartmouth property may have been the one his father had testified about in 1658, shortly before he died (see elsewhere). He had admitted to being present at the signing and sealing of documents concerning a deal made between Walter Diamond, Alexander Colens and two of his relatives, William and Tristam Langdon regarding a tenement and garden in Clifton, Dartmouth (C21/B87/33). He said that his father retained the documents.

Jonas, “being a single man and minding to travel into France and other places beyond the seas” in the early 1670s, was persuaded to ask his uncle (Thomas Pynsent of Woodland) “with whose daughter (viz) Elizabeth …. your executor had designed to marry as soon as he returned” to look after his estate. He signed over his lands to his uncle and agreed that, should he die while abroad, the properties were to pass to Thomas and then to his (Thomas’s) daughter – his cousin, Elizabeth. Jonas then gave his uncle all the relevant documents. Crucially, he seems to have forgot to retain or lost the counterpart of the transfer document, so he was later to have no prove of the terms of the agreement! 

How long he was away for and where he went is unclear; however, he was away too long for Elizabeth, she married John Battishill in Woodland in 1672. Perhaps the family had given him us as dead by then and his uncle rather liked running his estate. When the prodigal nephew did return he found that his uncle Thomas and another trustee, William Dyer were unwilling to surrender the land ownership documents and the deed that gave them control of his estate. They, rather weakly, claimed they Jonas had either given them, or they had purchased the properties. They even agreed to pay his debts – which then amounted to around £300 0s 0d, if he would drop his claim. The issue came to a head after Thomas died 1691. 

It is not clear what Jonas was up to in the late 1670s and 1680s. However, he seems to have settled in Ashburton. Nevertheless, it was Jonas Pinsent “of Woodland” who married a widow, Mary Whittyer, in Exeter, in 1688. Whether this was his first marriage, I do not know. She died the following year, and he appears to have tried again; it was likely this Jonas who married Philippa Weekes in 1690. 

Thomas Pinsent died in 1690 and three years later, Jonas Pinsent “of Ashburton” sued his brother-in-law John Battishill and his wife Elizabeth and others for the return of some of his documents. Why he took so long, I do not know. He had probably recovered the ownership documents by then but he may well have been concerned about the clause in the transfer document that referred to “Elizabeth and her heirs” eventually inheriting his property! Jonas asked the Chancery Court to issue a subpoena and force John Battishill and his wife to explain themselves and return his documents (C5/106/53). 

Jonas Pinsent seems to have recovered his property, as Jonas “of Henstreet, in Bovey Tracey,” took Thomas Hart, gent., his wife, Anne and their son, John, to court in 1691 over their disputed ownership of Hart’s tenement. Jonas claimed that he purchased the property from the Harts in 1675 for £155 0s 0d. The issue was whether Thomas Hart had previously sold the property to John Berryman – or had sold it to him sometime later and backdated the deeds so as to establish his ownership. Once again, Jonas sought clarification through the High Court of Chancery (C2/CHAS/P1/62-26131).

I do not know when Jonas died but it was probably after 1701 as the Woodland Deeds show that a Jonas Pinsent, along with Worthington Brice, John Mawry and Mary and Joan Tothill, signed a deed that year by which William Cullinge bought fifty acres of land in Woodland. William Cullinge was probably a relation by marriage. He had married Jonas’s aunt Elizabeth Pinsent in 1650. However, as noted below, there were other Jonas’s around and one of them could have signed the document. 

A case in Chancery in 1702 (C6/409/22) suggests that Jonas Pinsent “of Ashburton” gent., and Samuel and/or Abraham Lure were sureties for a bond of £50 (penal amount £100) borrowed from Samuel Cabell in 1689. After Samuel Cabell died, his executors focused on the Lures when trying to recover the money as “Jonas Pinsent had been in prison for debt for some time.” Samuel Lure deposed that: “they believe that Jonas Pinsent was in prison but do not believe he is insolvent. They say that Jonas had a considerable estate and could easily have paid the debt before he got into his current predicament. They believe he is in prison to avoid and defraud his creditors and not because he was sued by Samual Cabell”. Is this our Jonas?

There were at least three cousins named Jonas around at that time. One was the son of the Rev. Edward Pinsent of Loddiswell who was born in 1637. His mother moved to Woodland after his father died, and he could, of course, be the Jonas referred to with respect to the Woodland document mentioned above; however, I believe he lived in Exeter. Another Jonas was the son of Ellis Pinsent, an Exeter merchant, who was born in 1657 and served in the army in Ireland before returning to deal with his father’s estate (C6/373/10). He was busy trying to sort out his father’s estate in the 1690s, so perhaps he was the one who got into financial trouble. Life gets complicated and there is still some unraveling to do. Their lives are discussed elsewhere.

Jonas’s widow, Philippa, appears to have died in 1726. There is nothing to suggest that he ever had children. What happened to his land is unclear. Some of it may have passed to the Battishill family!

Family Tree

Grandparents

Father: Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Mother: Elizabeth Unknown: xxxx – xxxx

Parents

Father: Jonas Pinsent: 1609 – 1658
Mother: Grace Langdon: xxxx – 1670

Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)

Jonas Pinsent: 1609 – 1658
Edward Pinsent: 1611 – 1652
Amy Pinsent: 1613 – 1615
Thomas Pinsent: 1615 – 1690
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1616 – 1693
Ellis Pinsent: 1619 – 1681
John Pinsent: 1622 – 1648
Johanna Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx

Male Siblings (Brothers)

Jonas Pinsent: 1649 – xxxx
Richard Pinsent: 1642 – xxxx

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Johanna Pinsent

Vital Statistics

Birth: N/A
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: Nicholas Burchill
Death: N/A

Family Branch: Combe
PinsentID: DRO0141

Family Tree

Grandparents

Grandfather: Hugh Pinsent: 1540 – 1626
Grandmother: Johanna Woodley: xxxx – xxxx

Parents

Father: Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Mother: Elizabeth Unknown: xxxx – xxxx

Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)

Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Peter Pinsent: 1576 – 1597
Rechord Pinsent: 1578 – xxxx
John Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1580 – xxxx
Margaret Pinsent: 1582 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: xxxx – 1584
Thomas Pinsent: 1586 – xxxx
Agnes Pinsent: 1589 – xxxx
Hugh Pinsent: 1591 – xxxx
George Pinsent: 1593 – xxxx
Jane Pinsent: 1594 – xxxx
Matthew Pinsent: 1596 – 1616

Male Siblings (Brothers)

Jonas Pinsent: 1609 – 1658
Edward Pinsent: 1611 – 1652
Thomas Pinsent: 1615 – 1690
Ellis Pinsent: 1619 – 1681
John Pinsent: 1622 – 1648

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John Pinsent

Vital Statistics

Birth: 1622
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: 1648

Family Branch: Combe
PinsentID: DRO0140

Family Tree

Grandparents

Grandfather: Hugh Pinsent: 1540 – 1626
Grandmother: Johanna Woodley: xxxx – xxxx

Parents

Father: Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Mother: Elizabeth Unknown: xxxx – xxxx

Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)

Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Peter Pinsent: 1576 – 1597
Rechord Pinsent: 1578 – xxxx
John Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1580 – xxxx
Margaret Pinsent: 1582 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: xxxx – 1584
Thomas Pinsent: 1586 – xxxx
Agnes Pinsent: 1589 – xxxx
Hugh Pinsent: 1591 – xxxx
George Pinsent: 1593 – xxxx
Jane Pinsent: 1594 – xxxx
Matthew Pinsent: 1596 – 1616

Male Siblings (Brothers)

Jonas Pinsent: 1609 – 1658
Edward Pinsent: 1611 – 1652
Thomas Pinsent: 1615 – 1690
Ellis Pinsent: 1619 – 1681
John Pinsent: 1622 – 1648

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Ellis Pinsent

Ellis Pinsent: 1619 – 1691 DRO0135 (Merchant in the City of Exeter, Devon)

Joan Felling: xxxx – xxxx
Married: 1651: Exeter, Devon

Children by Joan Felling:

Elizabeth Pinsent: 1652 – xxxx (Married Walter Ingram, St. Petrock, Exeter, Devon, 1683)
Mary Pinsent: 1655 – xxxx (Married John Whitborough, St. Petrock, Exeter, Devon, 1685)
Jonas Pinsent: 1657 – xxxx

Family Branch: Combe
PinsentID: DRO0135

Ellis was the fourth surviving son of Jonas Pinsent, by his wife, Elizabeth. Jonas was a rich lawyer and Ellis grew up on “Henstreet” in Bovey Tracey with four brothers – John, who died unmarried as a young man, Jonas, who stayed on in Bovey Tracey, Thomas who moved to Woodland parish and Edward, who became the vicar of Loddiswell. Their lives are discussed elsewhere. Ellis also had three sisters, Amy who died in infancy, Elizabeth and Johanna. 

Jonas Pinsent (senior) was an attorney who served on the Court of King’s Bench, at Westminster and appeared on the Western Circuit. He seems to have spent much of his own time in court as well! – either as a complainant or a defendant dealing with his own legal matters – many of which were still resolved when he died in 1637. His eldest son and principal heir, Jonas, was left to deal with the fallout! 

Ellis was a younger son and his father had him apprenticed to a merchant in Exeter instead of sending him up to university. Ellis moved to St. Petrock Parish, and was there in time to sign the, then near obligatory, “Protestation Return”. This showed his acceptance of the, then current, format of the Protestant Church in England. He seems to have been apprenticed to a Richard Cullinge in around 1646. Richard may well have been related to the William Cullinge who was to marry Ellis’s sister, Elizabeth, in Woodland in 1650 (The Roll of Freemen in Exeter (1266-1762).

Ellis himself married Joan Felling in St. Mary Arches parish, in Exeter, in 1651. They had three children (Elizabeth, Mary and Jonas) baptized in the nearby parish of St. Petrock. Ellis completed his apprenticeship but he seems to have continued to work with his erstwhile master, Richard “Cullen”, who had interests in Ireland. The Calendar of State Papers relating to Ireland: (Adventurer’s for Land: 1642-1659) refers to an assignment of goods that Ellis Pinsent “of Exeter, Mercer” made to William Hawkins of London of the “share which he has by assignment for Richard Cullen and which has fallen in the Co. Down …” in 1653. What else he did, I am not sure; however, he must have been good at it as Ellis and his wife paid 15s 6d in Pole Tax in 1660, and the Hearth Tax Returns for 1671 show that they had a house with five hearths.

In 1669, Sir Peter Fortsecue, bart. made a claim in Chancery against Ellis on the grounds that a few years previously he had stood as surety for a £300 loan that had now failed (C6/194/49). What that was about, I am not sure. However, around then we also find that “Elizeus Pinsent “of Exeter, merch, where he has lived for 25 years, aged 44” witnessed the inventory of an account of the goods of Bartholomew Pridham (Dean and Chapter Bundle 182: Moger Abstracts: Series II). If the dates are right, the inventory was taken in 1663, and he had been in Exeter since around 1638.

Later on in life, Ellis was sued by two London merchants, Thomas Blackmore and John Bollers. They claimed that he was in a partnership and thus had some responsibility for the debts of another Exeter trader, John Whitborough, who declared bankruptcy, in 1688. They told the court that John Whitborough owed them £3,000. In his Chancery deposition, Mr. Blackmore also claimed that John had transferred his land at Storridge, in Dunsford, and his shop and goods, which were worth £2,000, to Ellis – who just happened to be his father-in-law – to avoid payment. Moreover, he said that Ellis received £500 owing on debts to John Whitborough, and there had probably been several illegal side-deals made between John and his other creditors that were, of course, detrimental to the recovery of their debt. Thomas complained that Ellis had refused to give him any documents regarding the matter, and he asked the court to call for an accounting. Awkwardly, Ellis died while the case was still going on and it was left to his eldest son (yet another Jonas) to prove his father’s will and satisfy their demands. 

The latter Jonas told the court that he had spent the past four years in the Army in Ireland, and had returned when he heard of his father’s death. He said that he found that his sister, Mary, and his brother-in-law, John Whitborough, living in Ellis’s house and said they had taken possession of his father’s assets. Jonas acknowledged that John Whitborough had transferred his land in Storridge to his father. however, he knew nothing of his father’s financial dealings and was having a great deal of difficulty getting his brother-in-law to account for his father’s estate which, he thought, should have been of considerable value (C6/373/10). 

R. Dymock, in his history of St. Petrock Parish (Devon Assoc. Trans. XIV (1882), p482), describes a monument that was visible in the chancel of the church. He refers to a large stone floor slab with several intermingled inscriptions on it, including the following: 

“Here lyeth the body of Mary Whitborough, grandchild to Mr. Ellis Pinsent. Here lyeth ye body of Mr. Ellis Pinsent, mercer, who died ye — day of July 1691. Also, ye body of Thomas Inglett son of Giles Inglett of Chudleigh, gent. Here lyeth the body of Ellis Whitborough, grandson to Mr. Ellis Pinsent, died 30th Jan. 1700. There was, in the middle of this description, a shield bearing the arms of the Pinsent family: “gules, a chevron engrailed between three etoiles of 6 points, argent”. 

The presence of the coat of arms harks back to Ellis’s great grandfather, John Pinsent of Combe in Bovey Tracey and reflects his somewhat distant link to the “Pynsent” family and the Somerset and Wiltshire baronetcy. Ellis’s will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (147 Vere) in September 1691. He left his son, Jonas, two houses, one in Exeter then inhabited by Ezekiel Steed and one at Compson, in the parish of Hole. He also left him his property at Storridge in Dunsford – which was subject to an annual payment of £12 a year to Ellis’s daughter Mary Whitborough. This money was to be for her use only, and not that of her husband, John Whitborough who, having declared bankruptcy in 1688, Ellis must have thought could no longer be trusted with money! The will became a bone of contention between the two families and John Whitborough sued Jonas Pinsent in the Court of Chancery a few years later, in 1694 (C5/285-95). 

I do not know what happened to Ellis’s wife, Joan; however, we know that his daughter Elizabeth married Walter Ingram, of Plymouth, in November 1683. His son, another Jonas, may have died in St. Thomas the Apostle parish, near Exeter, in May 1709. However, there are other possible candidates so that is less clear. There is nothing to suggest that this Jonas ever married or had children. Sadly, he is yet another loose end.  

Family Tree

Grandparents

Grandfather: Hugh Pinsent: 1540 – 1626
Grandmother: Johanna Woodley: xxxx – xxxx

Parents

Father: Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Mother: Elizabeth Unknown: xxxx – xxxx

Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)

Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Peter Pinsent: 1576 – 1597
Rechord Pinsent: 1578 – xxxx
John Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1580 – xxxx
Margaret Pinsent: 1582 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: xxxx – 1584
Thomas Pinsent: 1586 – xxxx
Agnes Pinsent: 1589 – xxxx
Hugh Pinsent: 1591 – xxxx
George Pinsent: 1593 – xxxx
Jane Pinsent: 1594 – xxxx
Matthew Pinsent: 1596 – 1616

Male Siblings (Brothers)

Jonas Pinsent: 1609 – 1658
Edward Pinsent: 1611 – 1652
Thomas Pinsent: 1615 – 1690
Ellis Pinsent: 1619 – 1681
John Pinsent: 1622 – 1648

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Elizabeth Pinsent

Vital Statistics

Birth: 1616
Marriage: 1650, Woodland, Devon
Spouse: William Collings
Death: 1693

Family Branch: Combe
PinsentID: DRO0134

Family Tree

Grandparents

Grandfather: Hugh Pinsent: 1540 – 1626
Grandmother: Johanna Woodley: xxxx – xxxx

Parents

Father: Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Mother: Elizabeth Unknown: xxxx – xxxx

Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)

Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Peter Pinsent: 1576 – 1597
Rechord Pinsent: 1578 – xxxx
John Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1580 – xxxx
Margaret Pinsent: 1582 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: xxxx – 1584
Thomas Pinsent: 1586 – xxxx
Agnes Pinsent: 1589 – xxxx
Hugh Pinsent: 1591 – xxxx
George Pinsent: 1593 – xxxx
Jane Pinsent: 1594 – xxxx
Matthew Pinsent: 1596 – 1616

Male Siblings (Brothers)

Jonas Pinsent: 1609 – 1658
Edward Pinsent: 1611 – 1652
Thomas Pinsent: 1615 – 1690
Ellis Pinsent: 1619 – 1681
John Pinsent: 1622 – 1648

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Thomas Pinsent

Thomas Pinsent: 1615 – 1690 DRO0130 (Gentleman of Woodland)

1) Thomasine Smerdon: xxxx – xxxx
Married: 1641: Exeter, Devon 

Children by Thomasine Smerdon: 

Elizabeth Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx (Married John Battishill, Woodland, Devon 1672.)

2) Joanna Berry: xxxx – 1688
Married: 1663: Woodland, Devon

Family Branch: Combe
PinsentID: DRO0130

Thomas was the third son of Jonas Pinsent of Bovey Tracey by his wife Elizabeth. He grew up with four brothers – John, who died while still a young man, Jonas, who stayed on in Bovey Tracey, Edward, who became vicar of Loddiswell and Ellis, who became a merchant in Exeter.  

Thomas moved to Woodland parish near Ashburton, approximately five miles to the southwest of Bovey Tracey, while still a young man. According to the Rev. H. R. Evans who wrote an article on Woodland for the “Transactions of the Devonshire Association (Vol XCII)” in 1960, “for over fifty years in the 17th Century the Pinsents lived at Higher Lake and took a leading part in parochial affairs.” He was right about that, although some of his other observations have not withstood the test of time. Rev. H. R. Evans was probably right in saying that Thomas Pinsent arrived in Woodland “soon after 1631” and that he married Thomasine Smerdon, of Bickington, in Exeter, in 1641. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, but I do not know where or when.

Thomasine must have died as her husband remarried. He married Joanna Berry of Halwell in Woodland Parish Church in 1663. Joanna was said to be an heiress in her own right. He was 48 years old. I do not know her age and I am not aware of them having had children. Elizabeth seems to have been Thomas’s only child. 

A survey taken in Woodland in 1653 (Woodland Deeds) shows that Thomas’ land was valued (for taxable purposes?) at £10 and his personal goods at 10s. Interesting, the survey also found that his brother-in-law, William Cullinge’s properties were valued at £9 and £15 respectively. William Cullinge had married Thomas’s sister Elizabeth (not his daughter – as the Rev. Evans had surmised) – in 1650. The same survey shows that there was a widow, Amy Pinsent, with property in the parish valued at £1 10s 0d. She was the Reverend Edward Pinsent’s widow – and thus Thomas’s sister-in-law. Her husband had died in Loddiswell in 1652. The Rev. Evans was correct in saying that the family was well represented in the parish! 

In 1661, Thomas Pinsent witnessed the signing of a deed by force of which William Venning resigned the trusteeship granted to him by an earlier deed, dated April 1658, by which William Cullinge bought the freehold and manorial rights of his dwelling, in Woodland, from Sir Richard Chivaton, Lord Mayor of London, and John Potless, Esquire, of Sherdon Hall, Suffolk. Thomas’s sister Elizabeth had clearly married a rich man.  

Sometime the late 1690s or early 1670s, Thomas’s nephew Jonas – the son of his brother Jonas “being a single man and minding to travel into France and other places beyond the seas” was persuaded to ask his uncle “with whose daughter (viz) Elizabeth …. your executor had designed to marry as soon as he returned,” to look after his estate (C5/106/53). He handed him the documents that establishing his right to Henstreete (valued at £50 per annum), Hore’s (£30 per annum) and Hart’s (£30 per annum) and other smaller properties in Bovey Tracey and Dartmouth and took off for the Continent. However, before he did so, he signed a document that stated that, should he die while abroad, the properties were to pass to Thomas and then to his cousin (Thomas’s) daughter, Elizabeth and her heirs. Unfortunately, he seems to have failed to keep or he lost his counterpart copy. What could possibly go wrong!

It is not clear how committed Jonas was to marrying Elizabeth, or she him; however, she married John Battishill in Woodland in 1672. I do not know when Jonas returned but many years later, in 1693, he felt it necessary to sue John and Elizabeth in the Court of Chancery (C5/106/53) for the return of some of his documents. Jonas said that when he got back from his travels his uncle Thomas refused to return them! The issue was, presumably, thrashed out in the lower courts. Nevertheless, after Thomas’s death in 1690, Jonas may have done so to prevent “Elizabeth and her heirs” inheriting his lands as laid out in his original transfer document. Jonas’s life is discussed elsewhere.

Thomas not only controlled Jonas’s properties while he was away, but he acquired Higher Lake farm in Woodland in 1671 (Moulton’s Catalogue of Deeds) and it was his principal residence until he died in 1690. He may have previously held a lease on the property. Thomas also leased other land. The Somerset Archives hold several documents relating to property controlled by Nicholas Wadham between 1654 and 1697. These refer to Thomas’s leasehold interest in a property called Howton “otherwise Houghton,” in Highweek (Somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/). The property also features in a case in Chancery that Thomas launched against Samuel Segar “gent.” the same year (C5/69/69).

Between them, the documents show that Thomas acquired a 99-year lease of one twelfth part of Howton based on three lives – his own, that of his daughter Elizabeth and of one John Prowse, in 1659. A few years later – in 1664, he obtained an additional third part of Howton from Sir John Strangeways on his own life and those of Joane Berry and his daughter Elizabeth. Not content with that, he went on to acquire another third from Sir William Wyndham on the lives of himself, his daughter Elizabeth and Ellis Pinsent (the son of his sister-in-law, Amy) in 1670. (swheritage.org.uk/records/DD/WY/5/13/83).

The Chancery dispute came about because Thomas, who leased 9/12th of the property in 1671, felt that Samuel Segar – who held the rest “floods the area with horses, cattle, oxen and takes more that he should.” He wanted to subdivide the property but Samuel refused to consider it, because Thomas was only a partial leaseholder (C6/69/69) and had no authority to do so. Thomas was later to write to John Wyndham at Salisbury, concerning the heriots required (a one-off payment to the lord of the manor) when of one of the tenants of the manor of Howton died in 1686. Thomas’s partial lease of Howton stayed in the family and passed to his daughter Elizabeth and her family after his death. Her son, Mr. Pinsent Battishill, still held a third of it in 1705. 

Thomas Pynsent of Woodland, “gent.” held other properties as well. In 1683, he and his wife Johan, (daughter and co-heir of Edward Berry, deceased and co-heir of John Berry, deceased, both late of Harberton), and John Battishill of Engsdon, Ilsington, and his wife Elizabeth (daughter of Thomas Pynsent) were party to a “release in fee” of several properties in Hallwell and Harberton valued at £400 (DRO: 48/14/80/3).

A note taken from the parish deeds describes how, in 1687, a lady named Margaret accused Thomas of wanting to place his daughter in her pew – this would have been a sensitive issue at the time as life in Woodland would have been centred around the church and seating denoted status. The note seems to suggest that Thomas’s daughter Elizabeth had returned home to live with her father, who was one of the “four men” of the parish (elected or appointed to deal with issues arising in the village). He was a church warden in 1672 and also in 1690, the year he died. 

There is a large stone slab on the wall of the church at Woodland that reads “In Memoriam Thomae Pynsent de Lake Gen Qvi obit Decimo Tertio die Maii Anno Domini 1690: Aetalis Suae 75.” It also shows his coat of arms in black and white. Interestingly, the etoiles, or mullets, have six points. The prothonotary has five – see elsewhere].

Family Tree

Grandparents

Grandfather: Hugh Pinsent: 1540 – 1626
Grandmother:Johanna Woodley: xxxx – xxxx

Parents

Father: Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Mother: Elizabeth Unknown: xxxx – xxxx

Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)

Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Peter Pinsent: 1576 – 1597
Rechord Pinsent: 1578 – xxxx
John Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1580 – xxxx
Margaret Pinsent: 1582 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: xxxx – 1584
Thomas Pinsent: 1586 – xxxx
Agnes Pinsent: 1589 – xxxx
Hugh Pinsent: 1591 – xxxx
George Pinsent: 1593 – xxxx
Jane Pinsent: 1594 – xxxx
Matthew Pinsent: 1596 – 1616

Male Siblings (Brothers)

Jonas Pinsent: 1609 – 1658
Edward Pinsent: 1611 – 1652
Thomas Pinsent: 1615 – 1690
Ellis Pinsent: 1619 – 1681
John Pinsent: 1622 – 1648

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Amy Pinsent

Vital Statistics

Birth: 1613
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: 1615

Family Branch: Combe
PinsentID: DRO0129

Family Tree

Grandparents

Grandfather: Hugh Pinsent: 1540 – 1626
Grandmother: Johanna Woodley: xxxx – xxxx

Parents

Father: Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Mother: Elizabeth Unknown: xxxx – xxxx

Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)

Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Peter Pinsent: 1576 – 1597
Rechord Pinsent: 1578 – xxxx
John Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1580 – xxxx
Margaret Pinsent: 1582 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: xxxx – 1584
Thomas Pinsent: 1586 – xxxx
Agnes Pinsent: 1589 – xxxx
Hugh Pinsent: 1591 – xxxx
George Pinsent: 1593 – xxxx
Jane Pinsent: 1594 – xxxx
Matthew Pinsent: 1596 – 1616

Male Siblings (Brothers)

Jonas Pinsent: 1609 – 1658
Edward Pinsent: 1611 – 1652
Thomas Pinsent: 1615 – 1690
Ellis Pinsent: 1619 – 1681
John Pinsent: 1622 – 1648

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Edward Pinsent

Edward Pinsent: 1611 – 1652 DRO0112 (Vicar of Loddiswell)

Amy Bennett: xxxx – xxxx
Married: 1634: Chudleigh, Devon

Children by Amy Bennett: 

Florence Pinsent: 1635 – xxxx 
Jonas Pinsent: 1637 – xxxx (Married Agnes Wills, xxxx, xxxx, xxxx)
Edward Pinsent: 1640 – xxxx
Thomas Pinsent: 1643 – xxxx
John Pinsent: 1646 – 1705 (Vicar of Coleshill, Berkshire.)  
Ellis Pinsent: 1648 – 1672
Amy Pinsent: 1652 – xxxx

Family Branch: Combe
PinsentID: DRO0112

Edward was the second son of Jonas Pinsent, a Devonshire attorney, by his wife Elizabeth. He grew up in Bovey Tracey with four brothers (Jonas, Thomas, Ellis and John) all of whom feature in this database. He also had three sisters (Amy, Elizabeth and Johanna) whose lives are less well documented. Edward’s early schooling was in Devon, but he was sent up to Oxford, when he was seventeen years-old and matriculated at Wadham College in 1629 (Alumnae Oxonienses).

Edward Pinsent married Amy Bennett in Chudleigh in 1634. She was (according to “The Visitations of Devon”) the sole executrix of her brother Robert’s will, so had some social standing. Edward was ordained a priest in Exeter Cathedral in May of 1635 and was appointed a curate in Chudleigh in 1640 (CCED Diocese of Exeter Clerical Tenures). Amy came from an affluent family and Edward’s father (Jonas Pinsent, “senior”) wrote Edward into a complicated land settlement: “in consideration of their marriage and for the better maintenance of them and their male issue, and for L 50 0s 0d paid by Elizabeth Bennett, Amy’s mother” in 1635 (Calendar of Deeds Enrolled: #1681). The properties  involved were  (1) a messuage in Plymouth, late in the occupation of, and subject to a lease to, Richard Streamer; (2) a messuage in St. Sidwell in Exeter, excepting a lease to John Foster and his daughter Elizabeth, and (3) a messuage, tenement, garden and orchard in Bovey Tracey called “Hill Head” in the occupation of Gregory Wills, and also other small parcels of land including a close of 2.5 acres in the possession of Geffrey Christopher of Plumley. Interestingly, the two attorneys who wrote up the deeds were: John Bennett (presumably a relation of Amy’s), and John Pynsent, of Chudleigh. He was a by now relatively distant relation who was on his way to becoming a “Prothonotary,” or senior official in the Court of Common Pleas. 

The couple seem to have stayed on in Chudleigh – or at least they had children baptized there – until 1643, the year Edward was appointed Vicar of Loddiswell. Edward’s elder brother Jonas had married Katherine Langworthy of Hatch Arundell, in Loddiswell in 1634 and also done very well for himself as she came from a wealthy family and was said to be the “heiress of Carswell.” Unfortunately, Katherine died – perhaps in childbirth – the following May.

Nevertheless, the marriage settlement had already been finalized so Jonas’s family retained some influence in Katherine’s home parish long after her death. The Rev. Edward was appointed vicar of Loddiswell in 1643.

Edward’s younger brother, John Pinsent “gent’s” Will was probated in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC Fairfax Vol 207 #22) in 1648. He left 40 shillings to the poor of Bovey Tracey, £5 to his brother Jonas, £2 apiece to his brothers Thomas and Edward, £20 to his brother Ellis and 40 shillings to his sister, Johanna Burchill. He left the rest to his sister Elizabeth. It was a tight knit family! 

The Reverend Edward was caught up in the legal turmoil that followed the death of Jeffrey (Geoffrey) Christopher in 1645. Jeffrey had left his “half-brother” (?), Edward’s brother, Jonas, to probate his Will. This did not go down well with the Beare family and Jeffrey’s nephew, Nicholas Beare, objected to Jonas, who he said was: “a stranger in the blood,” acting as executor. One of his points of contention was that he claimed that Jonas had understated the value of his uncle’s estate; particularly his plate, money and goods, and a tenement he held at Sandirke (Sandwich?) in North Bovey. The case made its way to the Court of Chancery (C6/102/21), and features in the discussion of Jonas Pinsent’s life [DRO0107 Combe] (see elsewhere). 

Depositions taken at the time show that, although Edward had borrowed 50 pounds from Jeffrey Christoper on 23rd December 1643, he had “repayed all except that mentioned in the bill” by the time the issue came to court. The two brothers’, Edward and Jonas’s, interests were closely intertwined and both paid taxes for land held in Loddiswell in 1647 (Devon Taxes: 1581-1660: Ed. T. L Stoate) 

Edward and Amy had five sons and two daughters between 1635 and 1652. Their eldest son, (another Jonas) likely married and moved to Exeter. His life is discussed elsewhere. Unfortunately, what happened to the others is less clear. Edward and Amy’s second and third sons, Edward and Thomas, are completely unaccounted for. However, the fourth, John, is known to have followed his father into the church. He attended Oxford University and obtained a M.A. in 1667. 

The Reverend John’ life is discussed here. It got off to a bad start. In 1670, he bought a horse from Richard Beast who claimed that it was under six years and physically sound. John agreed on a price of £20 and arranged to pay Mr. Beast £0 3s 0d a week. However, it was not long before he found out that the horse had problems and that it was clearly more than six years old! John seems to have offered to return the horse and get his money back but Mr. Beast said no and the matter found its way into the Chancery Court (C6/603/42) – which traditionally dealt with issues of equity.   

While he was Vicar of Coleshill, in Berkshire, Rev. John came to know Sir George (brother of Sir Roger Pratt, the noted architect) and Lady Margaret Pratt, and he was one of her principal advisers when her husband died in 1673. Sir George was a wealth baronet and Dame Margaret relied on the Rev. John’s advice during probate. They worked well together and, in appreciation of his help, she granted him a sixty-year lease on some property in Great Coxwell that was then in the possession of Edward Giles, in 1674.

Unfortunately, the relationship soured. John seems to have been somewhat injudicious when speaking about their relationship and Dame Margaret sued him in the Court of Chancery (C8/82/30) in 1679. She complained that he made out in public that she had granted him far more land than she had, and that he had taken and refused to return critical documents. She asked the Court for a subpoena, to force him state what land he was claiming, return any documents he might have and justify his claims. 

The Reverend John responded by saying that she had allowed him to help her with her finances and had entrusted him with the key to the room where she kept her deeds and documents. He denied that he ever claimed anything other than the property in Great Coxwell she had given him and he quoted from the original indenture:“This indenture made the fifteenth day of December in the year of Our Lord 1674, and in the six and twentieth of the reign of  Our Sovereign Lord Charles the Second, by the grace of God of England, Scotland and France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith; between Dame Margaret Pratt of Collshill in, the County of Berkshire, widow, of the one part and John Pinsent, of Collshill aforesaid, clerk, of the other part: witnesseth that the said Dame Margaret Pratt, for and in consideration of the true and faithful service which he, the said John Pinsent, hath performed and done to and for her, the said Dame Margaret and for the encouragement and maintenance of  the great labour and pains which the said John Pinsent doth take for the advancement of the true religion and piety, being Vicar of Collshill, aforesaid, and for diverse other good causes and considerations; she, the said Dame Margaret Pratt in this behalf especially moving (?) hath devised, granted and to farm letten, and by these presents doth fully, freely and absolutely, demise, grant and to farm let unto the said John Pinsent all that close of pasture or meadow ground called or known by the name of the Woodcraft, and also one other close of pasture or meadow ground called or known by the name of Ramme Close, and also one other pasture or meadow ground called or known by the name of Ashbed close, and also one other pasture or meadow ground called or known by the name of Haselewood Close – all which said several grounds or closes are situate, lying and being in the in the Parish of Great Coxwell, in the said County of Berkshire, and were late in the tenure holding or occupation of one John Britten, of Coxwell, aforesaid, yeoman, his assignee or assigns, together with all and singular ways, waters, easements, profits, commodities, advantages, emoluments and hereditaments whatsoever to the said premises above mentioned, every or any part thereof, belonging, or in any wise appertaining, excepting and always reserving out of these presents unto the said Dame Margaret Pratt, her heirs and assigns, all and all manner of timber trees …”. The vicar may well have had a bit too much sherry and talked-up his influence, and the extent of her generosity now and again, but she seems to have overreacted. 

The two of them made up as Dame Margaret named Rev. John Pinsent of Coleshill as one of her trustees when she signed and sealed her will, in 1697. It seems that her late husband had left the bulk of his estate to his sister’s family, and Margaret had given most of her own estate to her grandson, Thomas Playdell, at the time of his marriage. By her will, she asked that her trustees pay her bills, legacies and annuities out of the rent or sale of the manors of Great and Little Coxwell, and that anything that remaind was to go to her other grandson, George Pratt Webb. In doing so, however, she stipulated that if he should die without male offspring, then the property would revert to Thomas Playdell’s family. Dame Margaret’s daughter Mary Hardwick and her husband, and some of the other trustees, questioned the validity of the will and the issue was brought before the Court of Exchequer (E134-11 Wm3 Mich17). 

Reverend John never married. When he died in September 1705 his own Will was proved in the Archdeaconry Court of Oxford. It makes no mention of any family. He “left his property in Coleshill and Great Coxwell to charity, to produce income for apprenticing to handicraft trades poor boys and girls” from those parishes” (Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring concerning Charities: Volume 32, part 1).

The Reverend John’s younger brother (Edward and Amy’s fifth son), Ellis, went up to Oxford, attended New Inn Hall and graduated with a B.A. in 1670-1. (Alumni Oxonienses). Ellis came to the attention of his uncle, Thomas Pinsent of Woodland and when he acquired a 99-year lease of one third of Lower Howton farm in Highweek from Sir William Wyndham in 1670, it was leased on three lives, (himself, his daughter Elizabeth and Ellis Pinsent (the daughter of his sister-in-law, Amy). This Thomas, whose life is discussed elsewhere, was the man who brought a suit against Samuel Segar over their joint management of the land at Lower Howton. Thomas complained that Samuel was taking more than his fair share of the pasture (swheritage.org.uk/records/DD/WY/5/13/83). Ellis appears to have died, unmarried, in Bovey Tracey. The fate of Edward and Amy’s two daughters (Florence and Amy) remains unknown. 

A Parliamentary Survey of Loddiswel (Comm. XIIa/5/134-5) taken in 1650, states that Mr. Edward Pinsent was “an able and honest man incumbent there and receives the profit of the vicarage”. Loddiswell was worth £80 0s 0d and was also the mother church of Buckland Tout Saints which was worth a further £5 13s 4d.

Rev. Edward died in Loddiswell in 1652, leaving his wife, Amy, with several young children. She likely moved her family back to Woodland (where Thomas lived) and she owned a property that had a land tax value of £1 10s 0d in 1653. It is not clear when she died.

Family Tree

Grandparents

Grandfather: Hugh Pinsent: 1540 – 1626
Grandmother: Johanna Woodley: xxxx – xxxx

Parents

Father: Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Mother: Elizabeth Unknown: xxxx – xxxx

Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)

Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Peter Pinsent: 1576 – 1597
Rechord Pinsent: 1578 – xxxx
John Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1580 – xxxx
Margaret Pinsent: 1582 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: xxxx – 1584
Thomas Pinsent: 1586 – xxxx
Agnes Pinsent: 1589 – xxxx
Hugh Pinsent: 1591 – xxxx
George Pinsent: 1593 – xxxx
Jane Pinsent: 1594 – xxxx
Matthew Pinsent: 1596 – 1616

Male Siblings (Brothers)

Jonas Pinsent: 1609 – 1658
Edward Pinsent: 1611 – 1652
Thomas Pinsent: 1615 – 1690
Ellis Pinsent: 1619 – 1681
John Pinsent: 1622 – 1648

Please use the above links to explore this branch of the family tree. The default “Next” and “Previous” links below may lead to other unrelated branches.