a history
Birth: 1791
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: 1831
Family Branch: Bovey Tracey
PinsentID: GRO1596
Jane had an illegitimate son: Thomas Pinsent: 1806 – 1839.
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Birth: 1782
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: N/A
Family Branch: Bovey Tracey
PinsentID: GRO1595
Grandfather: Unknown
Grandmother: Unknown
Father: Thomas Pinsent: 1738 – 1818
Mother: Jane Glanville: 1757 – 1827
Thomas Pinsent: 1773 – 1799
Unknown Pinsent: 1782 – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1786 – xxxx
Samuel Pinsent: 1793 – 1798
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Birth: 1886
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: 1889
Family Branch: Bovey Tracey
PinsentID: GRO0847
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent: 1806 – 1839
Grandmother: Mary Mugford: 1808 – 1850
Father: Samuel Pinsent: 1839 – 1912
Mother: Sarah Jane West: 1946 – 1931
John Pinsent: 1831 – 1908
Sarah Jane Pinsent: 1832 – 1916
Mary Ann Pinsent: 1834 – 1850
Thomas Pinsent: 1835 – 1884
William Pinsent: 1837 – xxxx
William Abraham West Pinsent: 1872 – 1958
Samuel George Caleb Pinsent: 1875 – 1951
Thomas Charles Pinsent: 1886 – 1889
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Birth: 1773
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: 1799
Family Branch: Bovey Tracey
PinsentID: GRO1594
Grandfather: Unknown
Grandmother: Unknown
Father: Thomas Pinsent: 1738 – 1818
Mother: Jane Glanville: 1757 – 1827
Thomas Pinsent: 1773 – 1799
Unknown Pinsent: 1782 – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1786 – xxxx
Samuel Pinsent: 1793 – 1798
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Thomas Pinsent: 1738 – 1818 GRO1296 (Agricultural labourer, Bovey Tracey, Devon)
Jane Glanville: 1757 – 1827
Married: 1772: Bovey Tracey, Devon
Children by Jane Glanville:
Thomas Pinsent: 1773 – 1799
Unknown Pinsent: 1782 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: 1784 – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1786 – xxxx
Jane Pinsent: 1788 – xxxx
Jane Pinsent: 1791 – 1831 *
Samuel Pinsent: 1793 – 1798
* Illegitimate son: Thomas Pinsent: 1806 – 1839
Family Branch: Bovey Tracey
PinsentID: GRO1296
Thomas Pinsent “aged 80 years” died in Bovey Tracey in December 1818. That being the case, he was probably born in 1738. Unfortunately, there is a break in the Bovey Tracey birth records between 1739 and 1755, and I have not yet identified his parents.
Thomas appears to have married Jane Glanville, “by banns”, in Bovey Tracey on 21st April 1772 (Devon Banns and Marriages: 2160A/PR/1/3: Findmypast.). They were both “of this parish.” Thomas signed the register but Jane only left her “mark”. The marriage seems a bit of a miss-match – as Thomas (based on his reported age at death) was 34 years old and Jane, (based on hers) was only 15 years old.
The couple may have had at least seven children over the next twenty-five years. However, with the possible exception of their first son, Thomas, born in 1773, there is not a lot known about any of them and it is difficult from the state of the parish registers to confirm that they even belong to a single family. The two children that are relevant to this story; however, are Thomas Pinsent and Jane Pinsent. Thomas “senior” lived to be an old man – he died in 1818 and his wife, Jane died also lived to a good age. She was 70 years old when she died in 1827.
Thomas Pinsent (“junior”) was probably the 24 years old “able-seaman” in the Royal Navy who served on H.M.S. Captain and reported sick with vertigo on 20th July 1797 (ADM 101/93/2A/3: H.M.S. Captain 27th May – 1797 to 1st December, 1797: Cadiz Bay: Medical Journal of James Farquhar: Ship’s Surgeon). Vertigo on a ship-of-the-line in Nelson’s day would have been a serious complaint indeed!
H.M.S. Captain was Horatio Nelson’s ship when the British fought the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent in February 1797. That was the famous occasion when Nelson, seeing an opportunity, took his ship out of the designated line of battle and attacked a group of Spanish ships that were then in trouble. He led a boarding party that captured the “San Nicholas” and then used it to board and capture the “San Josef” which had become entangled with it (“Nelson’s Bridge”). He took four ships as prizes and accepted the surrender of several Spanish officers. Hardly suprisingly, he was promoted to “Rear Admiral” a few days later. H.M.S. Captain was badly damaged during the attack and it did not able to return to active service until after a refit. It sailed for the Mediterranean on 6th May 1797 (www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_horatio_nelson.htm). I do not know for sure that Thomas Pinsent was aboard during the battle; however, he was definitely aboard after the refit.
According to James Farquhar’s diary, H.M.S. Captain was employed in the English Channel from September 1798 to May 1799. It was on patrol duty on 13th March when, sadly: “this afternoon the fore topmast went over the side when we were in chase, by which unfortunate accident two of the seamen were thrown over board and drowned, James Bourne able seaman, and Thomas Pincent able seaman”. Thomas never married, and left no descendants.
One of Thomas’s sisters (?) is entered in the Bovey Tracey parish register as: “daughter of Thomas and Jane Pinsent baptized 13th February 1791.” She could be the Jane Pinsent apprenticed to William Hellier in 1799 (Devon Records Office: Bovey Tracey Apprenticeship Records) who likely died in 1831, aged 40 years. However, I think it was “Jane Pinsent, daughter of Thomas and Jane baptized in Bovey Tracey” in November 1788 who was apprenticed. Either way, we seem to be dealing with one of Thomas and Jane’s daughters.
The latter Jane (born in 1788) appears to have had an illegitimate son, Thomas, in February 1806. Other than that, there is not much known about her, except than that she was likely still unmarried and living in the “town” of Bovey Tracey when she died, aged 40 years, in 1831. It is through her son that the “BOVEY TRACEY” branch of the family continues down to modern times.
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Thomas Pinsent: 1806 – 1839 GRO0840 (Agricultural labourer, Bovey Tracey, Devon)
Mary Mugford: 1808 – 1850
Married: 1830: Bovey Tracey, Devon
Children by Mary Mugford:
John Pinsent: 1831 – 1908 (Married Frances Elizabeth Bennett, Plymouth, Devon, 1852)
Sarah Jane Pinsent: 1832 – 1916
Mary Ann Pinsent: 1834 – 1850
Thomas Pinsent: 1835 – 1884 (Married Elizabeth Ann West, Plymouth Devon, 1882)
William Pinsent: 1837 – xxxx
Samuel Pinsent: 1839 – 1912 (Married Sarah Jane West, Plymouth Devon).
Family Branch: Bovey Tracey
PinsentID: GRO0840
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Thomas Pinsent was the “base child” that Jane Pinsent had baptized in Bovey Tracey in February 1806. Thus, he was an illegitimate grandson of Thomas Pinsent and Jane Glanville. The “BOVEY TRACEY” Branch continues on through this Thomas – with the interesting twist that Pinsent family “Y” Chromosome DNA has switched from the paternal to the maternal line.
Thomas grew up in Bovey Tracey and married Mary Mugford “by banns” in September 1830. Thomas signed the register – indicating that he had had some education; however, Mary only made her “mark” (Devon Banns and Marriages: Findmypast). In the years that followed, Thomas and Mary had six children. We know of the first four from the parish register; however, the other two were born after the Central Government started collecting vital statistics and their births are also recorded in the Central Government files. The latter show that Thomas was a “farm labourer”. He died a few days after his youngest son, Samuel Pinsent, was born in 1839.
Mary Pinsent (née Mugford) had had six children. However, her eldest son, John Pinsent, was living with a local farmer, James Cox, at Higher Combe Farm when the Census was taken in 1841; so he was no longer at home. He had already been apprenticed. Mary and her other five children, meanwhile, were living on the Northwest side of Main Street in Bovey Tracey.
Mary never remarried. However, she seems to have had a common-law relationship with Samuel Tapper and they had an illegitimate son, George Pinsent in 1844. She had another, Francis Pinsent, three years later but he died the same year. Mary was pregnant again in 1850. However, she died of “consumption” (probably tuberculosis) during “labour” before the child was born and it died with her.
When Mary died, her three younger (legitimate) children Mary Ann, William and Samuel Pinsent, and her illegitimate son by George Tapper (George Pinsent) were sent to the “Union Workhouse” in Newton Abbot and one of them, Mary Ann Pinsent died there a few days later. She had probably also been suffering from tuberculosis. I do not know what happened to her sister, Sarah Jane Pinsent. She probably died young. William, Samuel Pinsent and their half-brother George Pinsent were still in the Workhouse when the census-takers made their rounds in 1851.
Although Mary’s eldest son John Pinsent had been apprenticed to a local farmer in 1841, he was lodging with a Mr. Webber and his family and working in one of the potteries when the Census takers next made their rounds in 1851. He was twenty years old by then. His brother Thomas was a sixteen-years old “agricultural labourer” working for a Mr. and Mrs. Palmer at Higher Woolley Farm in Bovey Tracey that year – they both avoided that fate of living in the Workhouse.
John Pinsent married the following year (1852). His life, and that of his youngest brother Samuel Pinsent – who became an “upholsterer” in Plymouth – are discussed elsewhere. The lives of John’s brothers, Thomas, William and George are discussed below as they left no descendants.
It is worth noting that there was another John Pinsent living in Bovey Tracey in the early 1850s. He had married a local girl, Elizabeth Loveys, and had several daughters employed in the potteries who were not alone in having illegitimate children. The problem seems to have arisen from the rapid industrialization of what had originally been a quiet rural town. The local vicar and three nuns established the “Devon House of Mercy” for “fallen women” in Bovey Tracey in around 1861. It endeavored to see newly arrived girls through their confinement and prepare them for domestic work. The local women, of course, stayed with their families.
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent 1738 – 1818
Grandmother: Jane Glanville 1757 – 1827
Father: N/A
Mother: Jane Pinsent: 1791 – 1831
Thomas Pinsent: 1773 – 1799
Unknown Pinsent: 1782 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: 1784 – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1786 – xxxx
Jane Pinsent: 1788 – xxxx
Samuel Pinsent: 1793 – 1798
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Birth: 1835
Marriage: 1882
Spouse: Elizabeth Ann West
Death: 1884
Family Branch: Bovey Tracey
PinsentID: GRO0833
Thomas and Mary’s second youngest son, Thomas Pinsent was born in Bovey Tracey in 1835. His father died when he was four years old and he grew up with his mother and siblings on Main Street in Bovey Tracey. His mother Mary (née Mugford) took up with Samuel Tapper and had an illegitimate half brother, George Pinsent who was born in 1844. There was another half brother, Francis, born in 1847; however he was short-lived.
Thomas’s elder brother John had joined the Royal Navy and Thomas “probably” joined him in what was then known as the “Senior Service”. I say “probably” as the records show a discrepancy in his date and place of birth. His enlistment documents (National Archives ADM 188/23: 39412 and 51167) have his date of birth as 10th November 1837 and his place of birth as Plymouth, whereas Mary Mugford’s son was clearly born in Bovey Tracey and baptized on 29th November 1835! Why the discrepancy I do not know; however there are no other likely Thomas in the offing and it makes sense that he would have followed his brother into the Navy. What’s more, he later became linked by marriage to his younger brother, Samuel Pinsent.
The Pinsent family lived close to Plymouth and the Navy, which was then in mid-transition from the wind-powered wooden fleet of Nelson’s day to the steam-powered “ironclad” ships of the then the modern era, was always looking for young men to fill its ranks.
Thomas’s records are incomplete and he probably joined as a “boy” and later signed on for ten years. The records show that he was 5 ft. 8 ¾ in. tall; had dark brown hair, hazel eyes and a scar on his right forehead when he signed on for ten year’s service on 10th December 1866. This may have been his second term as the 1861 Census shows that “Thomas Pinsent, aged 23 years and 5 months, born in Plymouth Devon, was an “ordinary seaman” on H.M.S. Terrible (a wooden paddle-wheel driven frigate) in Corfu Roads”.
Ten years later, the next Census show us that Thomas was still in the Royal Navy. He was then “2nd Captain of the hold” on “H.M.S. Minotaur”, which was docked at Spithead in Portsmouth, Hampshire. The Minotaur was a wind and steam-powered armoured frigate that had been commissioned in 1867 and served as the flagship of the Channel Squadron in the 1880s.
During his second stint, Thomas was posted to “H.M.S. Duke of Wellington” (an old-fashioned wind and steam powered “ship of the line”) on 1st January 1873 and he served there until 11th May that year. He then transferred to “H.M.S. Ready” (a small gun-boat) for a couple of months before being reassigned to “H.M.S. Egmont” (a 74-gun, old-fashioned wind-powered third-rate “ship of the line”) on 6th July 1873. He was posted there for a year while it was stationed in Rio de Janeiro, Argentina, and he then made his final transfer back to “H.M.S. Ready”. He was discharged to shore and pensioned off in Sheerness in Kent.
After leaving the service, Thomas returned to Plymouth and he was living with his brother Samuel and his wife, Sarah Jane Pinsent, when the census takers called in 1881. Samuel had married Sarah Jane (née West) in 1866 and had a large family that Thomas would certainly have known from his visits between postings. He would also have known his sister-in law’s family. Sarah Jane’s father, Abraham West, was a “cab driver”.
Thomas was a “mason’s labourer” by 1881 and settled back into civilian life when he married a widow – Elizabeth Williams – in Plymouth Registry Office the following year. Elizabeth was Sarah Jane West’s elder sister. Thomas gave his home address as “31 Morley Road in Plymouth” when he married. He was probably still living with his brother as this was the address that Samuel gave at the time of the 1891 Census, and it was to be his family home into well into the 1910s. Thomas was probably living there when he died in 1884.
After Thomas died, his widow, Elizabeth Ann (née West) moved in with a young married “tailoress” and her family in Cobourg Lane in Plymouth. She was living with them in 1891 (Census data). She was listed as a 57-years old, widowed, “shirt needle-woman.” I cannot find her in the 1901 or 1911 Census records; however, I know she died in Plymouth in 1917.
Grandfather: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Grandmother: Jane Pinsent: 1791 – 1831
Father: Thomas Pinsent: 1806 – 1839
Mother: Mary Mugford: 1808 – 1850
John Pinsent: 1831 – 1908
Thomas Pinsent: 1835 – 1884
William Pinsent: 1837 – xxxx
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Birth: 1968
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: 1968
Family Branch: Bovey Tracey
PinsentID: GRO1583
Grandfather: Victor William Pinsent: 1909 – 1983
Grandmother: Mavis Beatrice Victoria Bignell: 1920 – xxxx
Father (GRO0167)
Mother (GRO1549)
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Birth: 1859
Marriage: 1881
Spouse: Frederick Young
Death: 1935
Family Branch: Bovey Tracey
PinsentID: GRO0797
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent: 1806 – 1839
Grandmother: Mary Mugford: 1808 – 1850
Father: John Pinsent: 1831 – 1908
Mother: Frances Elizabeth Bennett: 1834 – 1898
John Pinsent: 1831 – 1908
Sarah Jane Pinsent: 1832 – 1916
Mary Ann Pinsent: 1834 – 1850
Thomas Pinsent: 1835 – 1884
William Pinsent: 1837 – xxxx
Samuel Pinsent: 1839 – 1912
John Samuel Pinsent: 1861 – 1931
William Thomas Pinsent: 1865 – 1941
Frederick Christopher Pinsent: 1867 – 1890
Alfred George Pinsent: 1872 – 1872
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Birth: 1832
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: 1916
Family Branch: Bovey Tracey
PinsentID: GRO0513
Grandfather: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Grandmother: Jane Pinsent: 1791 – 1831
Father: Thomas Pinsent: 1806 – 1839
Mother: Mary Mugford: 1808 – 1850
John Pinsent: 1831 – 1908
Thomas Pinsent: 1835 – 1884
William Pinsent: 1837 – xxxx
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