Vital Statistics
Joseph Henry Pinsent: 1863 – 1945 GRO1262 (Carter, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia)
1. Annie Edith Miller: xxxx – 1936
Married: 1885: Clifton Hill, Victoria
Children by Annie Edith Miller:
Arthur Henry Pinsent: 1886 – 1971 (Married Catherine Mary Lynch, xxxx, Victoria, Australia, 1907)
Mary Elizabeth Pinsent: 1889 – xxxx (Married Francis Hugh Cypher, xxxx, Victoria, Australia, 1914)
2. Emma Stranger: xxxx – 1948
Married: 1914: xxxx, xxxx
Family Branch: Australia
PinsentID: GRO1262
Joseph Henry Pinsent was the second eldest of Thomas James Pinsent’s surviving sons by his wife Elizabeth (née James). His father was a “baker” who went out to Australia shortly after the discovery of the Ballarat goldfields (1851). Joseph was born in the nearby mining town of Daylesford and grew up in Fitzroy which, in those days, was an outer suburb of Melbourne. He had three brothers and a younger sister. His father seems to have very done well for himself, in large part by developing land that was later incorporated into Greater Melbourne.
Joseph came from a Wesleyan Methodist family and he won third prize (and a guinea) for an essay written for the “Victorian Sunday-School Union” entitled “What we owe to Animals” (Melbourne Argus: Saturday 21st January 1882).
Joseph’s main passion; however, appears to have been cricket. Several items posted in the “Fitzroy City Press” newspaper show that Joseph played for the “Fitzroy Alberts” in 1882; that he joined the “Fitzroy Hairdressers” in 1884 and played for the “Fitzroy Trades” from 1885 until at least 1890. The “Trades” played league matches against similar teams from local firms and neighbouring suburbs. Joseph was a good all-round player and he was appointed team captain in 1886.
That autumn, the “Trades” played a representative match against a South Melbourne 2nd Eleven: “A two days’ match between the above clubs was commenced on Thursday, on the ground of the latter. The Trades were the first to occupy the wickets, which they kept possession of for the whole afternoon, the last wicket falling with the total at 167. Pinsent was top scorer with a total of 58, Woodhouse, 23 (not out), Banks and Smith 22 each, were also in good form. This match will be continued next Thursday. In connection with the Fitzroy Trades C.C. a number of prizes have been offered, one being a gold medal by Mr. A. Begbie, the well-known bootmaker, of Brunswick Street, for the best batting average, another being presented by Mr. H. G. Burrell, of the Standard Hotel, for the best bowling average. We have no doubt that a number of business men will see their way clear to add to the list. Mr. W. H. Banks is the hon. Secretary” (Fitzroy City Press: Saturday 23rd October 1886).
How did the game go? Well … “This match was concluded on Thursday, the Fitzroy wining in the first innings by 48 runs, the scores being 167 and 119. For the South, Chesterfield 31, b Banks; Mahony 26 and Mitchell 19, b. Mitchell and James 18, b. Muir were the highest scorers. In the second innings Pinsent was again to the fore with 58, Mitchell also batting well for 23. The match no doubt would have been won with more in-hand, had not the captain shown a want of judgment in keeping him self on when runs were coming freely. The following is the analysis: — Mitchell 2 for 10 Banks 2 for 12; Pinsent 2 for 2; Muir and Millis 1 for 14 each; Burrell 1 for 15; Smith 1 for 33″ (Fitzroy City Press: Saturday 30th October 1886). Joseph still had a bit to learn about game management! The Australians do love their cricket.
The Electoral Rolls show that Joseph started out as a “carter,” most likely in his father’s bakery business. Perhaps his father had plans for him to eventually take over the business as his elder brother had other interests. He was noted “sign painter” in Melbourne. Joseph married Annie Edith Miller in Clifton Hill (which is to the southeast of Fitzroy) in 1885 and they had two children, a son Arthur Henry Pinsent in 1886 and a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Pinsent in 1889.
There were two deaths in the family in the early 1900s. Annie Edith’s mother died in 1905 and she and her brother and her young daughter put a notice of remembrance in the Melbourne Argus five years later (Melbourne Argus: Thursday 8th September 1910). Interestingly, the notice makes no mention of her husband or her son. Joseph’s mother Elizabeth (née James) of “Jersey Terrace” Alexandra Parade Fitzroy died in 1908 (Melbourne Argus: Wednesday 22nd July 1908). In the latter case, her three sons – but not their wives – inserted a memorial notice in the paper on roughly same date the following year.
Elizabeth’s death must have made Joseph’s father, Thomas James Pinsent nostalgic for home and Joseph Henry seems to have accompanied him back to England for a visit in 1909. They returned to Australia on the “Orient Steam Navigation Company” ship “S. S. Orosova”, which arrived from London on 18th November. What Joseph’s wife thought about his absence is unknown. However, it seems clear that all was not well between them. In fact, the Victoria Electoral Rolls tell us that Joseph Henry Pinsent had been living with his parents on Alexandra parade since 1903 and he was still with them in 1909. He and Annie had separated.
Joseph was living in the family home at #118 Alexandra Parade when his mother died in 1908, and he was still there when his father died in February 1915. Thomas James Pinsent “senior” had designated his two elder sons (Thomas James Pinsent “junior,” a “sign writer and decorator” living at the corner of Brunswick Street and York Street” and Joseph Henry Pinsent a “collector” of #118 Alexandra Parade) as his executors in 1909 – a year after his wife died – and they administered his estate (Victoria State Archives).
The separation led to divorce in 1913 (Victorian Divorce Case Cause Book: 1861 – 1938). That year, Annie Edith Pinsent of Canterbury Road petitioned for a divorce against her husband on grounds of desertion. She claimed that they lived together for about seven years but in January 1892 he refused to work and went back to live with his mother! She also said that she had been compelled to become a “tailoress” to support herself and her children (Melbourne Argus: Friday 14th November 1913). Another paper put it this way: “Mrs. Pinsent testified that in 1892 the respondent, being unable to get work owing to the general depression; refused to bother himself about it any more, and went to live at his mother’s place.” He did not appear to have done much of anything since, though at one time he paid 10s a week for the support of the children (Record: Saturday 15th November 1913). Joseph Henry failed to appear in Court to rebut her complaint of desertion, and Annie’s wish for a divorce was, needless to say, granted. The process took time and it did not come into effect until 25th March 1914.
Joseph Henry was, in fact, anxious to get it finalized as he planned to remarry. He married Emma Stranger later that year. Perhaps their relationship that triggered the divorce proceedings. The Electoral rolls show that Joseph had become a “collector” (of what is unstated but possibly of money for bread sold as he was named as a “baker” in the divorce proceedings) by 1914. When he died, Joseph’s father split his not inconsiderable estate (£2,554) between his three sons. This must have provided Joseph with an infusion of capital in 1915. Whether Joseph spent it wisely, or not, I do not know.
The electoral rolls also show that Joseph and Emma had moved into a house on Gladstone Street in Northcote, Melbourne by 1919. It was to be where Joseph lived for the rest of his life. While there, the Northcote Leader (Saturday 28th July 1917) listed members of the “Sacred Heart Church” in Preston who had volunteered for active service in the Australian army and notes that: “Mr. Joseph H. Pinsent, 100 Gladstone Avenue, Northcote, has been notified that his son, (sic) Harold C. Pinsent has been awarded a commission as 2nd Lieutenant. He has been at the French front for about two years”. Lieutenant Pinsent was (of course) Joseph’s nephew and not his son. Why Joseph was notified and not the young man’s father Charles Samuel Pinsent is a mystery; although it is true that Charles and his wife, Edith Mary (née Dear) had recently been through a messy and rather public divorce (Victoria Divorce Case Cause Books: 1861 – 1938) and he may have considered his uncle the more stable relative. Joseph, of course, had been through one too – but perhaps his was considered less scandalous.
Joseph never acquired the knack of living within his means. He was summoned at “Victoria Petty Sessions” in November 1931 for failing to pay a debt of £3 10s. He was convicted. The penalty was an extra burden of 15s 6d which had to come from somewhere (Victoria Petty Sessions Registry: Registry of Convictions: Tuesday 10th November 1931). Joseph Henry Pinsent died in Northcote, Victoria, in 1945 and his second wife, Emma (née Stranger) died three years later (Australia, Victoria, Index to Probate Registers: 18421 – 1989). They had no children that I am aware off.
Joseph’s erstwhile wife, Annie Edith Pinsent (née Miller) looked after his children before and after their divorce. She moved in with her sister when she first left her husband and worked for her brother-in-law as a “tailoress” for a few years (Victoria Public Record Office: Divorce Records 1860-1940: 1913 No. 211). Later (in 1897) she managed a furniture store for her brother, Charles Edward Miller, a well-known “furniture remover,” and then joined him in his office on Collin’s Street in Melbourne. Annie saw that her children were properly educated and married. Her son Arthur Henry Pinsent married Catherine Mary Lynch in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne in 1907. He went on to become a “salesman” and also a well-known cricketer. His life is described elsewhere. Her daughter, Mary Elizabeth Pinsent, joined her as a “clerk” in Charles Miller’s downtown office.
Mary was, tangentially, caught up in a murder inquiry while working for her uncle in June 1907. Apparently, she heard two loud bumps coming from the room above her while seated at her desk on the fifth floor of Mr. Miller’s downtown office. She noticed particles of plaster floating down from the ceiling and heard the clattering of someone running down the stairs outside the office. She had not thought much of it at the time but had found a considerable fuss was going on outside the office when it closed down for the day. When she spoke to a detective, he told her that her story fitted very well with what had most likely happened. The victim had been hit and had fallen in one location and had been dragged and dumped in another (Launceston Examiner: Monday 17th June 1907 and other newspapers). Whether the perpetrator was apprehended or not, I do not know.
Annie was a very a capable woman and more that able to look after herself. A few months before her divorce came through, she attended the “E. Watkin’s Employees Sixth Annual Ball” at the Town Hall in Emerald Hill in South Melbourne … “Those in attendance included Mrs. A. E. Pinsent, apricot brocade, with silver and gold overdress and silver trimmings … and … Miss May Pinsent, white satin with Bulgarian overdress, with applique and black velvet …” (Record: Saturday 5th July 1913). The following year, Miss M. E. Pinsent (her daughter Mary Elizabeth) helped organize and Mrs. A. E. Pinsent was “hon. treasurer” of a committee set up to organize a “grand patriotic plain and fancy dress ball” under the patronage of the Lord Mayor and Mayoress of Melbourne in South Melbourne – with the proceeds to go to the “Lord Mayor’s Patriotic Fund” – presumable to assist in the war effort (Melbourne Punch: Thursday 24th September 1914). At the ball, a few days later “Hearty cheers were given for the “Coogee” committee and for Mrs. A. C. (sic) Pinsent, the able leader and organizer of the very successful dance” (Record: Saturday 3rd October 1914). Mary married Francis Hugh Cypher, an American from Pennsylvania, in Melbourne in 1914. They had their first child in Melbourne and then, after the war, moved to the United States.
In January 1917, Adelaide Veronica Gray gave notice to the “Licensing Court” in Wangaratta that she intended to ask the “Licensing Magistrates” in Melbourne for permission to convey the “victualler’s licence” of the “Royal Hotel” to Annie E. Pinsent (Wangaratta Chronicle: Saturday 13th January 1917). The transfer was approved and the following announcement was made in the Chronicle on 14th March that year: “ROYAL HOTEL, Wangaratta: Mrs. E. A. Pinsent, Proprietress: Wishes to announce to the public of Wangaratta and Surrounding Districts, that she has taken a lease of the above Hotel, and will endeavour, by stocking only the best the trade can supply, to secure a share of Public Patronage. The residential portion of the Hotel will be available from April 16th, and arrangements have been made to have the premises thoroughly renovated and re-furbished throughout. Special attention will be given to the Dining Hall, which is a spacious room. Meals of the highest quality will be supplied: Splendid sample rooms and billiards rooms and especially good stabling. Motor Garage with competent mechanic: The Royal Hotel is to be altogether a fine Commercial House: Phone 85.” It was a good move and a “Wedding Tea” she served was commended in the press a couple of months later (Mytleford Mail and Whorouly Witness: Thursday 24th May 1917).
Annie’s permit to serve liquor with meals was renewed the following December (Wangaratta Chronicle: Saturday 15th December 1917). In 1918, as the “First World War” drew to a close and “the boys came home” Mrs. Pinsent placed the following add in the Wangaratta Chronicle (Saturday 18th May 1918): “Returned Soldiers: Mrs. Pinsent, licensee of the Royal Hotel, Wangaratta, has expressed her desire to show appreciation of local returned soldiers by offering them a fortnight’s free maintenance at her hotel. By request of a friend she recently provided the means for rest and care at her hotel for a returned soldier relative, and his experience has suggested that by making a general offer to all local returned men she may have the opportunity of benefiting some soldier who has no home in the town, and is in need of rest after his return”. How many took her up on her offer, I do not know. However, it pays to advertise and support worthy causes!
Annie also gave donations to worthy causes and attended “fashionable” social functions. Her dress was a constant source of comment in the “Social Notes and Fashion” columns of local newspapers – for instance on “Cup Days” during the horse racing season (Weekly Times: Saturday 9th November 1918). In July 1920, she made an entrance at the Mayor and Mayoress of Fitzroy’s ball in a “notable gown of black georgette, embroidered in pale tones in Oriental designs, veiling gold tissue, and having a dago hem of black satin” (Melbourne Table Talk: Thursday 29th July 1920).
It was not all plain sailing at the “Royal Hotel”. In June 1920, Annie was fined £5 and ordered to pay £1 4s 6d in costs for having a side door to the bar open after hours. The offense was mitigated somewhat by the fact that the parched customers the police found hanging around the door were lodgers and could just as easily have got a legitimate drink in the hotel by other means (Border Morning Mail and Riverina Times: Saturday 5th June 1920). Annie ran an efficient and well-regarded hotel that catered to events as well as travellers passing through Wangaratta. Her wedding breakfasts and teas were particularly well thought off: When Miss M. Cross married James Deacon of Wodonga, “The tables were beautifully decorated and the catering by Mrs. Pinsent greatly pleased the guests” (Wodonga and Towong Sentinel: Friday 4th August 1922). One hopes that “Visitors to Wangaratta Golf Tournament” who stayed at the hotel that year were equally pleased with their stay as some of them may have come from further afield (Wagga Wagga, N.S.W. Daily Advertiser: Saturday 19th August 1922). Annie, it seems, was quite willing to advertise out of state – in this case, in New South Wales.
There were two “Royal Hotels” in Wangaratta, which is probably why Edith (as proprietress) was invariably mentioned in the press and in advertising when her hotel was mentioned. Something had to be done about it and, in January 1923, Mrs. Pinsent – the owner and licensee of the “Royal Hotel” was granted permission by the “License Reduction Board” to rename her hotel “Hotel Pinsent” (Melbourne Argus: 24th January 1923). From then on it kept her name and it still does. It can be found on-line today. An advertisement place in the Melbourne Argus a month after the change (24th February, 1923) claims that: “Tourists to Mount Buffalo will find a delightful break at Hotel Pinsent, Wangaratta: Magnificent lounge, dining room seating 150 guests, hot and running water in bedrooms. E.L. throughout, H and C showers, sewered, lock-up garage, Tel. 85; Mrs. A. E. Pinsent, proprietoress”.
Mount Buffalo is a noted beauty spot (now a National Park) in a mountainous region a hundred kilometres southeast of Wangaratta. For several years thereafter, Annie Edith placed advertisements similar to the one below in a variety of Australian Newspapers: Melbourne Argus: Saturday 29th December 1923: “Wangaratta: Hotel Pinsent: Beautifully Appointed, H. and C. Running Water in Bedrooms: lock-up garages: Cars leave for alpine scenery, fishing, tennis, golf, bowls: ‘Phone 85: Mrs. A. E. Pinsent: Proprietress”.
In December 1923, the “Victorian Junior Cricket Team” stayed at the hotel while visiting Wangaratta for a two-day match (Melbourne Argus: Wednesday 26th December 1923). The visiting team included her son, Arthur Pinsent (“A. Pinsent, caught Marsh, bowled Richardson, 17 runs” – if you were wondering). He was a well-regarded, state-level, cricket player in his day.
Annie lived in Wangaratta, approximately 250 miles northeast of Melbourne but still found time to attend social events in the big city. She attended the Mayoral Ball in Fitzroy in 1924 (“wearing a deep pink taffeta gown embroidered in silver …”) (Melbourne Table Talk: Thursday 3rd July 1924) and arranged to have her photograph attached to an announcement that she was shortly to leave on the “S. S. Ventura” for a trip around America (Melbourne Table Talk: Thursday 28th May 1925). She returned to Australia six months later on the “S. S. Sierra” and stopped off in Sydney long enough to marry Brigadier-General James Stewart (Melbourne Table Talk: Thursday 7th January 1926). She had thoughtfully arranged to have the “Chief Clerk” responsible for “Divorce and other Matrimonial Causes at the Supreme Court in Melbourne” provide her lawyer with confirmation that “decree nisi absolute” had, in fact, been granted in 1914.
When asked about her trip and her opinion of the American women she had met; she said: “In New York they are undeniably smart, but inclined to rather over dress. In Chicago they seem all clammy and rushed, as if they have no time to spare to make themselves look nice: they make-up very heavily all over the East. In Salt Lake City the girls struck her as the most beautiful, but not so smart. In the West they do not dress so much for the street. In the evening, everywhere, they dressed very elaborately, and in bright colors. Mrs. Stewart says that: “Their high pitched voices and their restlessness become very wearying. There does not seem much real domestic happiness there, in spite of lovely homes. One young American man, who has lived in Australia, said to me when leaving: ‘You are lucky going back.’” When I reminded him he was an American, and ought to be pleased to be settled there, he said, ‘Yes, I know, but here it all seems artificial, while life there is sincere and homelike,’ And that was just my impression” (Melbourne Table Talk: Thursday 21st January 1926).
Elsewhere in the same newspaper, Annie was reporting as having said: “It looks as if in the near future carpers at the short skirt mode for women will have to learn tolerance of an even more daring innovation. This is knickers as the feminine day wear. Already they are much worn in England for golf and country, and are quite common in U.S.A., where they are known as “hiking costume” -— or, as we should say, touring or walking costume”. Mrs. Pinsent, who recently spent the tourist’s full allowance of six months in America, says that in California and all over the Western States you rarely see anything but “hiking costume” in the daytime. “But for the evening the women dress most beautifully, very bright Colors being most in favour.”
Annie had probably gone to the United States to see her daughter Mary Elizabeth who had married an American (Francis Hugh Cypher) and moved to the United States after the birth of her first child. Mary was living in Lexington, Kentucky in 1920 and in Denver, Colorado by 1928. While there, she wrote a letter to the editor of the “Denver Post Newspaper” complaining about a less than complementary article it had written about the Australian aviators, Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, Harry Lyon and James Warner and their first ever trans-Pacific flight from the mainland United States to Australia in a monoplane. The paper thought that Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic in the “Spirit of St. Louis” the previous year was far more significant … … To do the “Denver Post” justice, it gave Mrs. Cypher a prize for her contribution (Melbourne Table Talk: Thursday 9th August 1928).
After her marriage to the Brigadier General, Annie transferred control of the “Pinsent Hotel” to her son, Arthur Henry Pinsent and moved back to Melbourne where she lived with her husband in Elwood, an inner suburb just south of the business district. Arthur seems to have run the business until September 1932, when “Victoria Licensing Court” approved the transfer of the license to Melton T. Ivey (Melbourne Argus: Tuesday 13th September 1932). Nevertheless, Annie still seems to have held the lease on the property.
Annie Stewart (née Miller) died in Melbourne in October 1936 (Melbourne Argus: Saturday 10th October 1936) and her executors put the lease on the hotel (70 rooms) – along with the fixtures and other items that were available for purchase separately up for sale the following March. It was withdrawn for private sale after a bid of £9,500 had been received (Melbourne Argus: Saturday 6th March 1937). The license was transferred to Robin Duncan a few days later (Melbourne Argus: Wednesday 17th March 1937). With that, it passed out of the family. However, it kept its name!
Family Branch
Grandparents
Grandfather: William Pinsent: 1811 – 1879
Grandmother: Sarah Eales: xxxx – xxxx
Parents
Father: Thomas James Pinsent: 1833 – 1915
Mother: Elizabeth James: xxxx – 1908
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Thomas James Pinsent: 1833 – 1915
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1836 – xxxx
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
Thomas James Pinsent: 1858 – 1932
William Henry Pinsent: 1860 – 1860
Joseph Henry Pinsent: 1863 – 1945
Charles Samuel Pinsent: 1864 – 1930
William John Pinsent: 1866 – 1905
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.