Author: Administrator

John Pinsent

Vital Statistics

John Pinsent: 1823 – 1902 GRO0511 (Agricultural Labourer, Bovey Tracey, Devon)

Elizabeth Loveys*: 1817 – 1884
Married: 1850: Bovey Tracey, Devon

Children by Elizabeth Loveys:

Emily Pinsent: 1850 – 1857
John Pinsent: 1852 – 1917 (Married Ann Paddon, Newton Abbot, Devon, 1874)
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1854 – xxxx (Married John William Abbott, Whitefield Chapel, London, 1874)
Anne Pinsent: 1856 – 1857
Anne Pinsent: 1858 – xxxx (Married James Grant Hannaford Hill, Bovey Tracey, Devon, 1873)
William Pinsent: 1860 – 1936 (Married Lydia Florence Warren, Woolwich, Kent, 1892)
Laura Emily Pinsent: 1863 – 1868

* Elizabeth’s illegitimate child: Jane Ann Mead Pinsent: 1845 – 1914

Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0511

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John Pinsent, or “Pinson” as he was probably first known, was the third surviving son of John Pinsent and Mary Follett. His father was a farm “labourer” who had married a girl from the nearby parish of Hennock. John was born in Ilsington Parish and apprenticed out while he was still a young boy. According to the 1841 census, he was one of ten “servants”  in Mr. John Wills’ household at Compton Village, in Marldon Parish.

Being a servant in a rich household must have had its temptations and John (“junior”) developed sticky fingers. I do not know what the particular offense was; but he was charged, convicted and sentenced to three months imprisonment for larceny in January 1847 (Court, Land and Probate: England and Wales Criminal Registers: 1791-1892: Devon: Ancestry.com).

By the time he married Elizabeth Loveys in Bovey Tracey, in 1850, John was back to being an “agricultural labourer.” It must have been difficult for servants with a criminal record to find employment. Elizabeth was a “gentleman’s servant” and they were fortunate enough to lived with her employer, a Mr Joseph Steer, in his house on Fore Street in Bovey Tracey. The following year’s census shows that they were then lodging with Mr Steer – who was a 74 year-old “unmarried landed proprietor.” They had two children, Jane (aged six) and Emily (aged four months). The former, who was also referred to as Jane Ann Mead “Pinsent” seems to have been Elizabeth’s illegitimate daughter.

Joseph Steer was a compassionate man who must have been short of relatives of his own and fond of Jane and when he died the following year he left her the house, called “Bridge End Cottage”, and five pounds in investments. Her mother, Elizabeth, had control of the money and access to the property until such time as Jane daughter came off-age in around 1866 (Devon Record Office Will: IRW-S-1389: Joseph Steer: 1852). One would have thought that John and Elizabeth would have welcomed the bequest and their good fortune, and happily lived there with their daughter. However, they both seem to have pushed their luck. They became well-known defendants in local courts.

In August 1854, John and Elizabeth were sued in the “County Court” in Newton Abbot for refusing to pay 7s to a carrier who had taken a larger hamper of goods (items bequeathed by the late Joseph Steer) to Miss Christopher in Heavitree, near Exeter. The hamper contained broken “jelly glasses, a wax doll case and picture frames” when it arrived and John and Elizabeth blamed the carrier. They counter-sued for their loss and injury (Western Times: Saturday 26th August 1854). It is not clear what happened. I assume the goods left Bovey Tracey in good order.

Mr. Steer had purchased a consignment of beer from “Pinsent’s Brewery” in Newton Bushell (Highweek parish) just before he died and the executors of his estate, of whom Elizabeth was one (for some reason) refused to pay for it. John Ball Pinsent, (a member of the DEVONPORT branch of the family) took them to court to recover the cost of 17 gallons of beer (6d per gallon) in September 1854. Mr. W. M. Praed, Esq., the magistrate in the “County Court” thus found himself adjudicating the case of “Pinsent v Pinsent”. Elizabeth demurely stated that she had been a lowly servant of Mr. Steer and she had made the order on his behalf. He was now dead, of course. Her husband knew nothing about it and, what ever the brewers thought, he should not be expected to pay for it. His Lordship must have felt that he was in no position to say otherwise (Western Times: Saturday 23rd September 1854). I would have thought the estate would have been liable. There are no prizes given for guessing who drank the beer.

John was back in court in March 1856 charged with receiving “six pecks” (12 imperial gallons) of “chaff and bran” that Thomas Ware had stolen from his employer, Allen Searell. Thomas was a “wagoner,” who was seen by a “servant” at the “Union Inn” in Bovey Tracey handing John a half-full bag of chaff after feeding his horses. The local constable made the arrest. John was given a good character reference by an “Innkeeper” at Chudleigh Knighton but to no avail. Property theft was very much discouraged in those days and both the miscreants were both sentenced to ten weeks imprisonment (Western Times: Saturday 1st March 1856).

Elizabeth’s behaviour also left much to be desired: She was brought up at the Guildhall in Exeter in May 1856 on a warrant issued in Bovey Tracey alleging that she obtained goods from a “shoemaker” under falls pretenses. However, “the prisoner having just been confined and still labouring under great anxiety of mind, Mr. Bickell applied to the Bench, on those grounds, to be allowed to withdraw the warrant: The Bench acceded to the request” (Exeter Flying Post: Thursday 1st May 1856). Her daughter Anne Pinsent had been born on the 4th April and she seems to have been arguing postpartum depression! Sadly, Anne only lived for ten months.

John and Elizabeth had two sons and five daughters between 1850 and 1863; however, three of the girls died. The other two, Elizabeth and a second Anne and the two boys John Pinsent and William Pinsent lived to marry.

John seems to have tried out as a quarryman in Berry Pomeroy in the late 1850s; however it was a bad move. One of the fuses he set while working for Mr. Moysey at his limestone quarry at Longcombe in November 1860 misfired and he made the rudimentarly mistake of attempting to clear the charge before it was properly extinguished. The gunpowder ignited and he was thrown a considerable distance by the blast. None of his bones were broken but he was bruised and burnt and there were fears that he might loose his eyesight (Totnes Weekly Times: 17th November 1860). Whether he did or not, I am not sure. His wife Elizabeth and their four children, John, Elizabeth, Ann and William were living in Berry Pomeroy when the census was taken at the following year. However, John was back in Bovey Tracey. He was lodging on Hind Street with John Morgan, a pottery worker from Staffordshire. John was down in the books as being an “agricultural labourer;” however, he may have been working in one of the local potteries. Presumably he kept at least some of his sight.

The census records show that Elizabeth’s daughter Jane Ann Mead (Pinsent) – who technically still owned “Bridge End Cottage” was a “servant” living with George Churchward and his family at “Rewes Farm” in Stoke Gabriel. The cottage may have been sold at some point and the building replaced by a tenement block (known as “Bridge Cottages”) specifically built for clay works employees (Malcolm Billinge-2018-boveytraceyhistory.org.uk.)

What happened to Jane in the years that followed I do not know. She MAY have married in St. Mary’s Church in Lambeth, South London in 1866. However, if she did, she lied about her parentage. This Jane Pinsent told her husband that her father was William Pinsent and he was a “cider merchant”. I cannot place him. Perhaps they are “Vincents”.

John and Elizabeth’s two elder surviving children John Pinsent and Elizabeth Pinsent both married in 1874. Elizabeth did very well for herself. She went up to London and she was employed at the “Enrollment Office” in Chancery Lane when she married John William Abbot, the son of “Policeman” in “Whitfield Chapel” that April. Her brother John married Ann Paddon at the “Registry Office” in Newton Abbot a couple of months later. His life is described elsewhere. Their sister Anne married James Grant Hannaford Hill of Stoke Gabriel in Bovey Tracey, in October 1876 and their brother William became a “baker” and “confectioner.” He married Lydia Florence Warren in Woolwich, Kent in 1890. His life is also described elsewhere.

John and Elizabeth were back together by 1881. That year’s census shows that their children had moved out by then, and they were living with a lodger near the “end of Bridge Street” in Bovey Tracey. Perhaps this was one of the tenement buildings. Elizabeth was living on Station Road in Chudleigh when she died in February 1884.

I do not know if John was still working in 1883, however, there was a John Pinsent who “had been working on The Severn Tunnel” near Bristol who felt able to give another “labourer”, John Steer, an alibi that enabled him to get out of a charge of ferreting for rabbits in Bovey Tracey that November (Western Times: 21st November 1883). This could have been John, or perhaps it was his son, another John – but he was in Lancashire in 1881 and may still have been living there.

John Pinsent “senior” was a “pauper” in the “Liskeard Union Workhouse” in Liskeard, in Cornwall when the census takers made their rounds in 1901. He was said to be a 79 year-old widower, who had been born in Ilsington and spent his life as a “general labourer.” He died the following July and was buried in Liskeard (FindaGrave.com).

Family Tree

GRANDPARENTS

Grandfather: Richard Pinson: 1745 – 1825
Grandmother: Elizabeth Gregory: 1748 – 1837

PARENTS

Father: John Pinsent: 1782 – 1849
Mother: Mary Follett: 1782 – 1859

FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)

Thomas Pinson: 1776 – xxxx
Richard Pinson: 1778 – 1868
Elizabeth Pinson: 1780 – xxxx
William Pinson: 1784 – xxxx
Mary Pinson: 1786 – 1873
Joseph Pinson: 1788 – xxxx
Abraham Pinson: 1787 – 1871
Rachael Pinson: 1796 – xxxx
Loyalty Pinson: 1799 – xxxx

MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)

William Pinsent: 1811 – 1879
John Pinsent: 1817 – 1819
Joseph Pinson: 1819 – 1881
James Pinsent: 1825 – 1886
Samuel Pinson: 1828 – 1833
Thomas Pinson: 1830 – 1832

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John Pinsent

Vital Statistics

Birth: 1817
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: 1819

Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0923

Family Tree

GRANDPARENTS

Grandfather: Richard Pinson: 1745 – 1825
Grandmother: Elizabeth Gregory: 1748 – 1837

PARENTS

Father: John Pinsent: 1782 – 1849
Mother: Mary Follett: 1782 – 1859

FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)

Thomas Pinson: 1776 – xxxx
Richard Pinson: 1778 – 1868
Elizabeth Pinson: 1780 – xxxx
William Pinson: 1784 – xxxx
Mary Pinson: 1786 – 1873
Joseph Pinson: 1788 – xxxx
Abraham Pinson: 1787 – 1871
Rachael Pinson: 1796 – xxxx
Loyalty Pinson: 1799 – xxxx

MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)

William Pinsent: 1811 – 1879
John Pinsent: 1817 – 1819
Joseph Pinson: 1819 – 1881
John Pinsent: 1823 – 1902
James Pinsent: 1825 – 1886
Samuel Pinson: 1828 – 1833
Thomas Pinson: 1830 – 1832

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John Pinsent

Vital Statistics

John Pinson: 1782 – 1849: GRO0506 (Agricultural Labourer, Lustleigh and Ilsington, Devon)

Mary Follett: 1782 – 1859
Married: 1808: Hennock, Devon

Children by Mary Follett:

Ann Pinson: 1809 – 1862
William Pinsent: 1811 – 1879 (Married 1) Sarah Eales, 1832, Stoke Damerel, Devon; 2) Harriet Morgan, 1840, Dursley, Gloucestershire (?))
Elizabeth Pinson: 1814 – xxxx (Married James Hext, Ilsington, Devon, 1835)
John Pinsent: 1817 – 1819
Joseph Pinson: 1819 – 1881 (Married Elizabeth Snell, 1843, Ilsington, Devon)
Sarah Pinson: 1821 – 1886 (Married John Horwills, 1846, Newton Abbot)
John Pinsent: 1823 – 1902 (Married Elizabeth Loveys, 1850, Bovey Tracey, Devon)
James Pinsent: 1825 – 1886 (Married Elizabeth Ann Unknown, xxxx, xxxx)
Samuel Pinson: 1828 – 1833
Thomas Pinson: 1830 – 1832

Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0506

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John Pinson was the third son of Richard Pinson by his wife Elizabeth (née Gregory). He was born in Lustleigh, where his father was an “agricultural labourer” in 1782. Richard and Elizabeth had ten children (six boys and four girls). Five of the boys and three of the girls were apprenticed out in their youth; however, only two of the boys (John Pinson and Abraham Pinson) and two of the girls (Mary and Loyalty) can be shown to have married.

John Pinson was apprenticed to a local farmer, Mr. Thomas Avery, to work at “Higher Combe” farm on Mapstone Hill above the Wray brook in 1791. He would have been eight or nine years old at the time (Lustleigh Apprenticeship Records: Devon Records Office). It seems to have been normal practice for young children of both sexes to be apprenticed out in those days, and several of John’s brothers and sisters were allocated out in a similar manner. Local farmers were expected to take them – sometimes at the insistence of the Parish “Guardians”. John was fortunate. His parents lived at “Mapstone” and he was close to home. The children served their masters for seven years or longer, according to a the terms of an agreed contract.

After serving his time, John Pinson moved to Kingsteignton to work in a mill and he claimed to be a “miller” when he married Mary Follett, in Hennock in October 1808. He had had some education and he signed the register “John Pinsent,” which shows that he had adopted the spelling used by the local landowner, Charles Pinsent at Pitt Farm. His wife Mary (née Follett) signed “by mark”.  From here on in, most of the English family became “Pinsents.” However, some of John’s Australian descendants held onto the “Pinson” spelling.

John and Mary had their first child Ann Pinsent in Hennock, but they soon moved to the nearby parish of Ilsington and they had the remainder of their family (another nine children) there. They were born between 1809 and 1832. Perhaps surprisingly, they only lost three of them young; the others seem to have grown to maturity and married.

The 1841 Census shows that John was an “agricultural labourer” living with his wife at “Birchanger Vale” in Ilsington. By then, they were both were over sixty and their children had all left home. They had either married or they were still apprenticed out. John died at nearby “Bagtor Vale” in 1849. When the next census was taken, in 1851, Mary was a “widow and pauper” lodging with John Heath, a “labourer,” and his family on Fore Street in Bovey Tracey.  Eventually, though, she she seems to have moved in with her third-youngest (surviving) son, John Pinsent. She was living with him at “Bridge Cottage” in Bovey Tracey when she died in 1859.

John and Mary (née Follett’s) eldest son, William Pinsent seems to have married twice. He probably had an early marriage to Sarah Eales in Plymouth in 1832 and, through her, became the progenitor of the AUSTRALIA branch of the family (see elsewhere). He definitely married Harriet Morgan – around 1840  – and built up  the BRISTOL branch through her. William Pinsent’s life and times are discussed elsewhere.

John and Mary’s second son, John Pinsent, died young; however, their third, Joseph Pinson married Elizabeth Snell in Ilsington in 1843.  They started their family in Devon but emigrated to Australia in 1850 and had a large family there. Joseph and Elizabeth went by the name “Pinson” and they established a major sub-branch of the family utilizing the name. Clearly, it had not completely dropped out of usage. Joseph’s life is also discussed elsewhere.

Another son called John Pinsent stayed closer to home. He married Elizabeth Loveys in Bovey Tracey in 1850. John and Mary’s fifth son, James Pinsent also stayed on in Devon. He married a girl called Elizabeth Ann (surname unknown); however, I am not sure when or where.  Their lives are described elsewhere.

As for their daughters, Elizabeth was apprenticed to a Highweek farmer in 1824 – at the age of ten. She seems to have returned to Ilsington and married James Hext, of Pinchaford in 1835.  Her younger sister, Sarah, married John Horwills, a “domestic servant” in 1846. It was a chapel service held in Newton Abbot, which reminds us that, although the family was nominally Anglican, it had a streak of non-conformity in it that can also be seen in the life of her uncle Abraham. The third and eldest of the three sisters, Ann, seems to have remained unmarried. She died in Ilsington in 1862.

The “Poor Laws” in place in the early 1800s decreed that (with some exceptions) the needs of the needy were to be met by his or her parish of birth. Needless to say, some ratepayers were reluctant to support their own poor, let alone outsiders and they kept an eye open for suspect recipients. The parish elders appointed “Guardians” who held “Settlement Examinations” to see if a potential claimant was eligible and if not they were quite happy to ship them back to their “home” parish. In 1835, the Chudleigh “Guardians” held an examination to see if they were responsible for John and Mary’s eldest daughter, Ann Pinsent. They found that she was born in Ilsington and had been apprenticed to Mr. Read Palk in that parish when she was twelve years old. Five or six years later, she ran away and agreed to work for a Mr. Beal of Shaldon in St. Nicholas Parish near Exeter. She stayed with him for ten months and then moved back to Ilsington for a few more. Apparently, she then drifted around for a while and eventually landed up in Christow (sic).  Presumably she them moved to Chudleigh (Chudleigh Settlement Examination: Exeter City Record Office).  Ann would have been around twenty-six years old at the time of the examination. She never married. She died in Chudleigh in 1862 and her sister Elizabeth, registered her death – signing the register “by mark”.

Family Tree

GRANDPARENTS

Grandfather: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Grandmother: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx

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
Abraham Pinson: 1787 – 1871

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John Pinsent

Vital Statistics

John Pinsent: 1852 – 1917 GRO0494 (Agricultural, clay-pit and district road worker, Bovey Tracey and Chudleigh)

Ann Paddon: 1849 – 1922
Married: 1874: Newton Abbot, Devon

Children by Ann Paddon:

Laura Ann Pinsent*: 1874 – 1940 (Married Charles Heath, Newton Abbot, Devon, 1900)
Wallace Pinsent: 1877 – 1955 (Married Emily Caroline Redstone, Bovey Tracey, Devon, 1899)
Ada Pinsent**: 1880 – 1959
Albert John Pinsent: 1882 – 1928 (Married Hilda Maude Brimblecombe, Newton Abbot, Devon, 1912)
Florence Annie Pinsent: 1885 – 1918
Lily Blanche Pinsent***: 1887 – 1949 (Married John Henry Pettyjohn, Newton Abbot, Devon, 1911)
Beatrice May Pinsent: 1894 – 1894

* Laura’s illegitimate children:

Sydney John Pinsent: 1891 – 1968 (Married Beatrice Mary Drew, Tiverton, Devon, 1919)
Reginald Pinsent: 1894 – 1894
Ernest Reginald Pinsent: 1895 – 1896
William Leonard Pinsent: 1897 – 1898

** Ada’s illegitimate child: William Henry Pinsent: 1900 – 1965 (Married Olive May Perry, Totnes, Devon, 1928).

*** Lily’s illegitimate child: Albert George Pinsent: 1907 – 1976 (Married Bessie Edith Froom, Newton Abbot, Devon, 1927).

Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0494

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John Pinsent was the eldest son of John Pinsent of Ilsington, by his wife Elizabeth Loveys. He was born in Bovey Tracey and grew up there with two (surviving) sisters (Elizabeth Pinsent and Anne Pinsent) and one surviving brother (William Pinsent). His father was an “agricultural labourer” at a time during the industrial revolution when cheap agricultural imports were readily available and farm work was hard to find. Like many of his contemporaries he morphed into a thief, a “general labourer” and a “clay pit worker,” or more specifically a “clay-cutter”.

The 1861 census records shows that John Pinsent “junior” (as he was) was a “scholar” living with his mother and his siblings in Berry Pomeroy, while his father who was still nominally an “agricultural labourer” was lodging with a “potter” in Bovey Tracey. Presumably he learnt about work in the local coal and clay pits while living there. Where John “junior” was a decade later (1871), I do not know; however, he remained in the area and married Ann Paddon, in Newton Abbot in 1874.

Their first two children, Laura and Wallace, were born in Bovey Tracey in 1874 and 1877 respectively but their next, his daughter Ada, was born in Lancashire in 1880. John and Ann must have moved up there looking for work. The following year’s census shows that he was a “labourer” living on “Bawdlands Road” in Clitheroe (Burnley) in Lancashire, and that is where she was born. How long the family stayed up north I do not know, but the family was back in Bovey Tracey for the birth (or at least baptism) of John and Ann’s next  child, Albert, in 1882. John was an (undefined) “labourer” when his daughter Florence was born in Bickington, in Devon in 1885 and also when his daughter Lily Blanche arrived in Ilsington in 1887. They got around.

John Pinsent was lodging with Samuel Doddridge, the keeper of the “Star Inn” in Ilsington when the 1891 census was taken. His wife, Ann, and her children Laura, Wallace, Ada, Albert, Florence and Blanche were, meanwhile, living at “Coldeast” in Ilsington. There was a brick and pottery-clay works there and Laura (17) and Wallace (14) had already been put to work there. Their younger siblings were for the most part still “scholars”. John had fallen foul of the magistrates at “Ashburton Petty Sessions” the previous year. They had fined “John Pinsent, miner, (10s) for being drunk at Coldeast” (Western Times: Saturday 18th October 1890. He pleaded guilty for a change (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Friday 24th October 1890).

It was not the only trouble the family had while living at “Coldeast”. In November 1901, Sydney Doddridge (14), one of the sons of the “publican” at the “Star Inn” where John had lodged, was remanded at “Ashburton Police Court” with an “attempted offense under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, on Ada Pinsent, 11 years of age.” Several people, including Ada’s mother and the local doctor gave evidence and Sydney was committed for trial at the ensuing “quarter sessions” (Western Times: Friday 6th November 1901). The case was heard in December. Needless to say, the prisoner denied the charge and produced witnesses to prove that he was nowhere near the site of the alleged incident when it occurred. Somewhat bizarrely, Ada’s father argued for and not against Sydney. He was a friend of the prisoner’s father! The jury returned a verdict of “Not Guilty” (Western Times: Monday 7th December 1891. One has to wonder what was going on in the family in those days. Whatever it was, John and Ann did get back together again.

Beatrice Mary was born in Bovey Tracey in 1894. “Willie” Pinsent, the supposed “brother” of Wallace, who was one of the chief mourners when their sister Florence died in 1918 (Western Times: Friday 22nd March 1918) is a bit of an enigma. However, my best guess is that he was Ada’s illegitimate son, William Henry Pinsent. If so, he would have been one of Florence’s nephews – not one of her brothers although he would have been brought up as one.

Ann and John were living at “#16 South View” in Bovey Tracey with some of their children and grandchildren when the census-takers came round in 1901. John was, by then, unquestionably a “brick-works labourer” and his son Albert was a “labourer, coal-slacker.”  In other words, he separated clay waste from the coal fines they used to fire the kilns. Interestingly, the household also included two of John’s grandsons, Sydney Pinsent, aged 9 and William Pinsent who was 1 year old. They were illegitimate sons of John’s daughters Laura and Ada, respectively.

John seems to have developed an interest in showing birds – in imitation of Mr. William Swain Pinsent – of the DEVONPORT Branch of the family  – the head of the local brewery who was so successful in this endeavour (see elsewhere). John received his share of attention, albeit at more local shows – such as the “Bovey Tracey Fanciers” show in December 1903, when he came in second for his “cock, any other variety” and third for his “ditto hen or pullet” (Western Times: Tuesday 29th December 1903).

The census data shows that John and Ann were living on Woodway Street in Chudleigh in 1911. They claimed to have been married for forty years and had nine children – of which eight were still living. John and his son Albert were then both “district council road-workers” and Florence “(Florrie”) and Blanche were in “domestic service.” Once again, the household included two grandsons; this time they were (“Willie”) William Pinsent (mentioned above) and George Pinsent, the son of John’s daughter, Lily Blanche. Their lives are discussed elsewhere. John died in the “Workhouse Infirmary” in Chudleigh in 1917 and his funeral at the Congregational Church was well attended by his extended family (South Devon Weekly Express: Friday 23rd March 1917)!

His widow, Ann stayed on in Woodway Street in Chudleigh and was still living there when the census takers returned in 1921. She was living with her daughter Ada, and with her daughter Lily Blanche’s son, Albert George Pinsent. He was nearly fourteen years sold and still at school. Ann died on Woodway Street in 1922 and her funeral was also well attended (South Devon Weekly Express: Friday 31st March 1922).

The lives of John and Ann’s sons Wallace and Albert are described elsewhere. However, the life of their likely spurious third “son” William is less certain unless he is, in fact, William Henry Pinsent. If so, his life is discussed elsewhere! John and Ann had five daughters and all but one, Beatrice May Pinsent, lived to maturity. They either worked in the potteries or “in service”.

There must have been a steady influx of single young men and women into the potteries in those days – with somewhat inevitable results. Three of John’s four daughters had a total of six illegitimate children between 1891 and 1907! They were fortunate in having their own home to go to. The vicar Bovey Tracey, The Rev. C. L. Courtenay, and three Sisters of the Anglican “Order of St. John the Baptist, Clewer” had opened a home for “fallen women” known as the Devon “House of Mercy” in Bovey Tracey in 1861 (boveytraceyhistory.org.uk). It was an acknowledgement of the social disruption caused by the rapid development of the clay industry in and around Bovey Tracey in the nineteenth century, and a feature of the local landscape through to the late 1930s. None of John’s daughters landed up there, as well they might.

John and Ann’s eldest daughter, Laura Ann Pinsent had no less than four illegitimate sons! She was a “lathe-treader” at one of the potteries in “Coldeast” in Ilsington when she had her first, Sydney John Pinsent, in 1891. He grew up and married and his life is discussed elsewhere. Laura had her second child, Reginald Pinsent in February 1894; however, he died less than one month later. Laura claimed to have been assaulted (grabbed by the throat) by Thomas Brearley a “labourer” during an altercation that occurred in the street on Boxing day that year. He claimed he had just bumped into Laura “a young charwoman” in the dark but the magistrates at Newton Petty Sessions were not convinced, and he was fined 15 shillings (Western Daily Mercury: Wednesday 9th January 1895). Laura’s third son, Ernest Reginald Pinsent arrived in August but again died young – in May 1896. Her youngest child, William Leonard Pinsent, was born in April 1897 and died in May 1898. How well Laura knew any of the fathers, and whether Reginald and Ernest Reginald shared a common father, I do not know.

In January 1896, Laura applied to the “Parish Guardians” in Bovey Tracey for coffin and funeral expenses for her third illegitimate child. (Exeter Flying Post: Saturday 16th May 1896). The parish elders were, needless to say, not impressed. When the “Guardians” looked into it, they discovered that “there was no destitution in the Pinsent household, the total income of which was L 100 and her statements about Dr. Steward were quite untrue”. Laura was back at work as an “earthenware pottery worker” and several of her siblings were by then working, but it seems unlikely that the household income at “#16 Southview” came anywhere near  to that amount. The “Rev. T. Hale said the family formerly lived at Ilsington, and they were notoriously given to telling lies. The woman showed signs of imbecility Mr. Clemas: There is not a particle of imbecility about her now: Mr. W. H. Heath: If she’s an imbecile there are a lot of others about (laughter)” (East and South Devon Advertiser: Saturday 16th May 1896.

Mr. W. H. Heath may have had cause to regret that remark as Laura eventually settled down and married Charles Heath, a local “labourer,” in the Newton Abbot “Registry Office” in June 1900. Perhaps the vicar of Bovey Tracey was not too keen on them having  a church wedding. Charles was the son of Mr. Francis Heath. How he was related (if at all) to Mr. W. H. Heath, I do not know.

Laura’s son, Sydney John was brought up by Mr. Heath as his son. The Census records show that the family was living in Chudleigh Knighton in 1911. They also show that Charles and Laura had been married for eleven years and had had six children in addition to Sydney. Charles and Sydney were both “brickyard labourers”. Sydney John Pinsent was Laura’s only surviving illegitimate child. He went on to marry and his life is discussed elsewhere.

Laura’s younger sister Ada presumably recovered from the “attempted assault” on her person in 1891. She went on to work at one or other of the potteries and had an illegitimate son of her own (William Henry Pinsent) in 1900. She was a “cutter and brusher” at the time. When the Census takers called at “#16 South View” in 1901, they found that John and Ann Pinsent were living with their son Albert, their daughters Ada, Florence (“Flora”) and Blanche and their illegitimate grandsons Sydney and William. They made no effort to sort out who actually belonged to whom. Why Sydney was living with his grandfather not his mother and his newly acquired stepfather, I do not know. William went on to marry and have children. His life is discussed elsewhere.

Ada never married. She was a “general domestic servant” working for a George Harvey, a farmer at Thorn in Moretonhampstead in 1911. However, she was probably back in Chudleigh in the late teens and twenties. “Mrs. Pinsent and Ada” sent a floral tribute when one of their neighbours on Woodway Street died in 1920 (South Devon Weekly Express: Friday 15th October 1920) and she seems to have been home looking after her mother and her sister Lily’s son Albert George when the census was taken the following year. Ada was one of roughly 130 inmates of a care-home at “Beech House” in South Molton when the England and Wales wartime Register was compiled in 1939. She died there of influenza in April 1959.

The 1911 Census also shows that Ada’s younger sister Florence Annie Pinsent was at home with her father and mother, her brother Albert and sister Blanche, and two of her illegitimate nephews William (“Willie”) who was eleven and George who was four years old. They lived in a four-room house on Woodway Street in Chudleigh. Florence (“Florrie”) and Blanche were both “in domestic service”. Florence died in March 1918 without having married. Among those in attendance were her purported brothers Wallace and “Willie” (likely her illegitimate nephew), her sister Ada and her two sister’s in law. She was buried at the Congregation Church in Chudleigh (Western Times: March 22nd 1918).

Lily Blanche was the youngest of John and Ann’s surviving children. She was born in 1887 when her elder sister Laura would have been thirteen years old. She went in “domestic service” on leaving school and had her own illegitimate son, Albert George Pinsent, while living with her parents in 1907. Albert George grew up with his grandparents and eventually married Bessie Edith Froom in Newton Abbot in 1927. His life is described elsewhere. Lily Blanche was a “domestic servant” at Upton House on Fore Street in Chudleigh when the census takers made their rounds in 1911. However, she was still living with her parents on Woodway Street. She married John Henry Pettyjohn, an “agricultural labourer”, in December 1911.

John and Anne (née Paddon’s) daughters had six illegitimate sons between them. Three of them (Sydney John, William Henry Pinsent and Albert George Pinsent) married and had children of their own. Their lives are discussed elsewhere. Note that their “Y” chromosomes will differ markedly from those of their Pinsent forbears and their modern-day descendants will come with a very mixed genetic profile.

Family Tree

GRANDPARENTS

Grandfather: John Pinsent: 1782 – 1849
Grandmother: Mary Follett: 1782 – 1859

PARENTS

Father: John Pinsent: 1823 – 1902
Mother: Elizabeth Loveys: 1817 – 1884

FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)

Ann Pinson: 1809 – 1862
William Pinsent: 1811 – 1879
Elizabeth Pinson: 1814 – xxxx
John Pinsent: 1817 – 1819
Joseph Pinson: 1819 – 1881
Sarah Pinson: 1821 – 1886
James Pinsent: 1825 – 1886
Samuel Pinson: 1828 – 1833
Thomas Pinson: 1830 – 1832

MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)

William Pinsent: 1860 – 1936

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James Pinsent

Vital Statistics

James Pinsent: 1825 – 1886 GRO0924 (Royal Marine and Licensed Victualler, Plymouth, Devon)

Elizabeth Ann Perkins: 1831 – xxxx
Married: 1852: Newton Abbot, Devon

Children by Elizabeth Ann Perkins:

Frederick James Pinsent: 1857 – 1873
Elizabeth Ann Pinsent: 1860 – 1881
Alice Maud Pinsent: 1869 – 1949 (Married Alfred Edwin Parnall, Devonport, Devon, 1886)

Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0924

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James Pinsent was the youngest surviving son of John Pinsent by his wife, Mary (née Follett). He was born in Ilsington in Devon, where his father was an “agricultural labourer,” in 1825. He had three brothers and three sisters and, like them, he was probably apprenticed out while still a young boy. Census records show that James was one of four “servants” in the household of a local “yeoman,” Samuel Lambshead, in 1841. He would have been fifteen years old at the time. How long he remained with Mr. Lambshead is uncertain. It is worth noting that his son (?) Samuel may well have been the “yeoman” who married James’s niece Laura Emily Pinsent in Ilsington Wesleyan Chapel in Ilsington in 1875. Their marriage certificate is on view at the “House of Marbles” museum in Bovey Tracey. Samuel was born in 1847 and would have been around while James was “in service”.

James is notably absent from the 1851 Census. He may well have been abroad with the “Royal Marines”. However, he was back the following year as he married Elizabeth Perkins, in the “Chapel” in Wolborough (Newton Abbot) in March 1852. The venue may be a nod to the independent leanings of the Pinson family; however the ceremony was performed according to the “rites of the established church”. Both parties signed the register “by mark”, which tells us that they were illiterate.

They couple had three children. Their first-born child, Frederick James Pinsent, was born in East Stonehouse (Devonport) in 1857 and their second, Elizabeth Ann Pinsent was born while James was stationed in Eccleshall Barlow, in Yorkshire in 1860. The following year’s census shows that James “Pinson” (sic) was a “Private” in the “Royal Marines” living with his wife Elizabeth on Burgess Street in Sheffield. The entry tells that he, like his brother Joseph, had not fully made the transition from “Pinson” to “Pinsent”. What the marines were doing in an inland town I do not know! The couple had their third child, another daughter, Alice Maude Pinsent back in East Stonehouse, the “Royal Marines” garrison town, in 1869.

James’s tour of duty (men normally signed on for a number of years unless there were extenuating circumstances such as war – or they agreed to an extension) must have ended around 1870 and he elected to leave. The census the following year shows that James Pinsent was a 45 years old “Greenwich Pensioner” living on George Street in East Stonehouse with his wife and their three children.

Sadly, their son, Frederick James died while still a teenager, in 1873, and the next batch of census takers found James living with his wife, their two daughters and an unmarried niece (Elizabeth Jessie Perkins) on Pembroke Street in Stoke Damerel, Devonport when they returned in 1881. Their daughter, Elizabeth Ann was reported to be a “domestic servant” aged twenty years old.  Sadly, she died unmarried later that year. She was said to be a “dress-maker” when she died.

At some point, probably in the 1870s, James acquired the license for the “George Inn” in Devonport. In 1877, he testified at the inquest of William Wood, one of his patrons, who had committed suicide by cutting his throat. According to James, Mr. Wood – despite what other people may have said – not drunk when he left his inn (Western Morning News: Thursday 18th October 1877).

James later ran the “Turks Head,” an Inn on Prospect Row (which is close to Mount Wise Park and the Mayflower Marina) in Devonport. According to Eyre’s Plymouth Directory (1885) he was a “Naval Pensioner” as well as a “licensed victualler.” It is the ambition of many soldiers, sailors and marines to run a pub. James actually achieved it. However, he died in August 1886. The records of the “Principal Registry” show that administration of his estate, which was valued at £70., was granted to his widow Elizabeth Pinsent the following month (PCC Wills and Administration Summaries). It is not clear when she died.

Alice Maud had better luck than her siblings. She married Alfred Edwin Parnall, a “gunnery instructor” on “H.M.S. Adelaide” in St. Mary’s Parish Church, Devonport in September 1886.

Family Tree

GRANDPARENTS

Grandfather: Richard Pinson: 1745 – 1825
Grandmother: Elizabeth Gregory: 1748 – 1837

PARENTS

Father: John Pinsent: 1782 – 1849
Mother: Mary Follett: 1782 – 1859

FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)

Thomas Pinson: 1776 – xxxx
Richard Pinson: 1778 – 1868
Elizabeth Pinson: 1780 – xxxx
William Pinson: 1784 – xxxx
Mary Pinson: 1786 – 1873
Joseph Pinson: 1788 – xxxx
Abraham Pinson: 1787 – 1871
Rachael Pinson: 1796 – xxxx
Loyalty Pinson: 1799 – xxxx

MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)

William Pinsent: 1811 – 1879 
John Pinsent: 1817 – 1819
Joseph Pinson: 1819 – 1881
John Pinsent: 1823 – 1902
Samuel Pinson: 1828 – 1833
Thomas Pinson: 1830 – 1832

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Ivor Henry Pinsent

Vital Statistics

Birth: 1934
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: 1934

Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0442

Family Tree

GRANDPARENTS

Grandfather: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Grandmother: Ada Pinsent: 1874 – 1903

PARENTS

Father: William Henry Pinsent: 1900 – 1965
Mother: Olive May Pinsent: 1899 – 1995

MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)

Dennis William Pinsent: 1929 – 2005
Roy Arthur Pinsent: 1934 – 2023
Ivor Henry Pinsent: 1934 – 1934

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Hilary John Silvanus Pinsent

Vital Statistics

Hilary John Silvanus Pinsent: 1924 – 2019 GRO0423 Bristol (Aircraft Design Engineer, Hamilton, Ohio, United States of America)

1. Wife (GRO1452)
Married: 1948: Hayes, Middlesex

Children by Wife (GRO1452):

Son (GRO0054)

2. Wife (GRO2010) 
Married: 1973: Hamilton, Ohio, United States of America

Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0423

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Hilary John Silvanus Pinsent was the eldest son of John Thomas Pinsent and his wife Annie Violet (née Keenor). He was born in Bideford in North Devon. His father was an electrician who moved around to find work and the family settled in Torquay when he was two years old. Hilary’s brother, Robert Peter Derek Pinsent was born there in 1926.

Sadly, the marriage seems to have fallen apart shortly thereafter, and John went up to London to look for work, while Annie stayed on in Torquay to looked after the children. She had to apply to the magistrates for a maintenance order in 1928 (Wednesday Morning News: Tuesday 24th July 1928). The magistrates hoped that they would get back together again; however, there is no indication that they ever did. 

When the Pre-War Register was compiled in 1939, Annie was living on Windemere Road in Torquay with her younger son, Robert. She was a “daily cook” and he was a school boy. The “one other” person who’s name was redacted was probably Hilary. He was to become an “Aeronautical Engineer,” and the following year he was awarded a “Society of British Aircraft Constructors and the Royal Aeronautical Society” scholarship (The Aeroplane: Volume 59: p53: 1940). It must have been an exciting time to be working in the industry.

The Electoral rolls show that Annie Violet moved up to London after the war and she was living with her two sons, Robert and Hilary at #28 Shakespeare Avenue in the borough of Southall, Hayes in 1947. Her sons both married the following year. Hilary Pinsent was an “aircraft technician” when he married and later Electoral Rolls (1954) show that Wife (GRO1452) was a “nurse” working at Middlesex Hospital, on Mortimer Street in St. Marylebone. The couple lived on Bourne Avenue in Hayes, in Middlesex in 1949, and they were still there in 1953. 

The couple decided to emigrate and a ship’s manifest shows that they left England for New York in the Cunard Ship “Queen Mary” on 3rd June 1954. They gave their last address in England as 33 Bond Street in Ealing, London, and gave settling in Canada as their intention. A New York Passenger and Crew List (FindmyPast] show that their first stop was to be the Ford Hotel in Toronto, Ontario. They had six pieces of luggage with them – and a dog! Wife (GRO1452) may well have been pregnant at the time as she had their son sometime in 1955.

Hilary’s mother, Annie Violet went out to see them and meet her grandson in 1956. The passenger lists show that she arrived in New York on the “Queen Elizabeth” on 15th May 1956 and tell us that she was in transit to 12 Minnie Avenue, Downsview, Toronto. It was a short visit. She arrived back in Southampton on the “Queen Mary” on 26th June that year. Annie said she was a “cook supervisor” returning to 28 Shakespeare Avenue in Hayes, Middlesex. 

I am not sure whether the couple divorced, or if Wife (GRO1452) died – there was a woman of that name who died in Montreal on 2nd January 2009 (Montreal Gazette: 14th January 2009) and this could be her if she reverted to using her maiden name. Regardless, we know that Hilary crossed over to the United States at some point and settled in Ohio. He married Wife (GRO2010) while he was living in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1973. His son seems to have followed him down as he married there the following year. The United States directories show that, Hilary J. Pinsent was living on Willfleet Drive in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the early 1990s, so he presumably stayed on there. 

Hilary J. S. Pinsent, of Sharonville, Ohio, died at Hollywood, Florida on 12th March 2019. His obituary was placed in the Cincinnati Enquirer and other papers on 15th March 2019.  

Family Tree

GRANDPARENTS

Grandfather: Alfred John Pinsent: 1869 – 1939
Grandmother: Rosina Train: 1865 – 1947

PARENTS

Father:  John Thomas Pinsent: 1896 – 1958
Mother: Annie Violet Keenor: 1899 – 1989

FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)

Vera Effie Pinsent: 1895 – 1895
Robert Cecil Pinsent: 1898 – 1920
Amy Rose Pinsent: 1900 – 1973
Margery Rosina Pinsent: 1907 – 1998

MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)

Robert Peter Derek Pinsent: 1926 – 2005 

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