a history
Birth: 1929 (née Rita May Paul)
Marriage: 1951
Spouse: Dennis William Pinsent
Death: 2006
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO1454
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.
Birth: 1778
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: 1868
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0734
Grandfather: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Grandmother: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Father: Richard Pinson: 1745 – 1825
Mother: Elizabeth Gregory: 1748 – 1837
Thomas Pinson: 1776 – xxxx
Richard Pinson: 1778 – 1868
William Pinson: 1784 – xxxx
Joseph Pinson: 1788 – xxxx
Abraham Pinson: 1787 – 1871
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.
Richard Thomas Pinson: 1850 – 1913 GRO0731 (Butcher, Ashfield, Sydney, New South Wales)
Mary Agnes McClune: 1846 – 1930
Married: 1867: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Children by Mary Agnes McClune:
Mary Ann Matilda Pinson: 1868 – 1868
Archibald Frederick Pinson: 1869 – 1951 (Married (1) Rosanna Pettit, Petersham, New South Wales, Australia, 1887; (2) Ellen Storm, Newton, New South Wales, Australia, 1929)
Lily Amy Pinson: 1871 – 1873
William James Pinson: 1875 – 1945 (Married Florence Isabella Field, Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia, 1901)
Richard Alfred Pinson: 1877 – 1944 (Married Florrie Osley Davis, Canterbury, New South Wales, Australia, 1906)
Mary Agnes Pinson: 1879 – xxxx
Thomas Henry Pinson: 1881 – 1938 (Married Matilda J. Booth, Petersham, New South Wales, Australia, 1908)
Herbert Joseph Pinson: 1883 – 1917
Walter Pinson: 1885 – 1946 (Married Susan Ann Boss, Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia, 1922)
Pearl Elsie Pinson: 1887 – xxxx (Married Andrew C. Davis, Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia, 1913)
Arthur Ernest Pinson: 1889 – 1960 (Married Ida Harriet Dawes, 1914)
Ruby May Pinson: 1891 – xxxx (Married Charles M. Smith, Burwood, New South Wales, Australia, 1930)
Vera Maud Pinson: 1894 – xxxx (Married Walter C. Dart, Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia, 1916)
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0731
Click here to view close family members.
Richard Thomas Pinson was the second eldest son of Joseph and Elizabeth Pinson. He was born in Redruth in Cornwall in 1850 and was taken out to Australia as a baby. His father was “quarryman” who settled in Pyrmont in (what is now) central Sydney, New South Wales. Joseph and Elizabeth had eleven children including four sons (William James, Richard Thomas, John and Frederick Arthur) and three daughters (Louisa, Sarah and Hannah Amelia) that grew up and married. They contributed handsomely to the gene-pool and their descendants can still be found in New South Wales.
Richard Thomas may have been a bit of a trial for parents. On the 28th April 1864, the Sydney Morning Herald ran the following announcement: “I hereby caution the public not to harbour nor give credit to my son, Richard Pinson, after this date: April 27th, 1864: Joseph Pinson”. If that was not enough, the same paper carried the following item on the 29th January 1867: “To Clergymen: I hereby caution them against marrying my son, Richard Thomas Pinson, as he is under eighteen years of age: Joseph Pinson.” Despite his father’s disapproval, Richard married Mary Agnes McClune later that year and they had a short-lived daughter in 1868. Otherwise, they seem to have had a successful marriage.
Richard and Mary had thirteen children, seven boys and six girls over a period of twenty-five years and only two of them (both girls) died young. The boys all grew to maturity; however one of them, Herbert Joseph did die relatively young and only six actually married. Off these, five had children. Walter Pinson, who married late, appears to have been childless. The lives of the productive sons, Archibald Frederick, William James, Richard Alfred, Thomas Henry and Arthur Ernest Pinson) are discussed elsewhere.
Richard entered into the meat business while still a young man and the first time we hear of him after the birth (and death) of his first child is when he was charged with a colleague with carting meat that was insufficiently covered into the city. He was fined 10s in the “Central Police Court” (Empire: Friday 1st March 1872). Richard seems to have settled down after that and become a respectable “butcher.” He moved around within the then outer suburbs of Sydney and had children that were born, or at least baptized, in Balmain, Marrickville and Petersham. His two youngest daughters (Ruby and Vera Pinson) arrived after the family finally settled down in Ashfield, approximately 15 kilometres west of downtown Sidney. They were born there in 1891 and 1894 respectively.
According to the 1901 census for New South Wales, the family lived at “Carlisle” on George Street in Ashfield. All but two of Richard’s sons followed him into the family business and became “butchers” in their own right. Presumably he taught them the trade and worked with him until they married and struck out on their own. Meanwhile, William James, Richard’s eldest son, became “compositor” for a “printer” and his son Herbert Joseph became “saddler”.
Richard was interest in local politics and he joined his father and brother William in signing a letter of encouragement – desiring Mr. Robert Fowler to run as an “alderman” in Sydney’s Denison Ward in November 1974 (Sydney Morning Herald: Tuesday 24th November 1974). After a considerable break, Richard found time to renew his interest in politics in the late 1880s. This time, he joined a committee of support for the election of a Mr. William Lovel Davis to the “parliamentary” seat of Canterbury, in Sydney (Sydney Morning Herald: Friday 11th February 1887). Whether he was elected or not, I am not sure. On a less promising note around then, Richard may have been the Richard Pinson who appeared in “Newtown Police Court” and was fined 10s for cruelly treating a horse (Evening News: Tuesday 4th June 1889). To be fair, there were other Richard Pinsons around at the time.
Richard’s parents had died in 1880 and 1881. His wife Mary Agnes, however, did not lose her mother until 1889. For several years after her death, Agnes submitted “In Memoriam” notices to the local newspapers (e.g. Evening News: Thursday 26th November 1896). It was the conventional thing to do. Her father died in 1903.
Richard’s eldest son, Archibald, married Rosanna Petit in 1887 while he was still quite young (18). The next to marry was William James in 1901, followed by Richard Alfred in 1906 and Thomas Henry in 1908. Their lives are discussed elsewhere.
Richard Pinson of “Carlisle,” George Street, Ashfield (Canterbury) died in January 1913 and the Sydney Morning Herald received a bundle of letters from grieving relations, brothers, cousins and children informing their friends of the funeral arrangements. He was interred in the Anglican section of “Rookwood Cemetery” in Sydney. His passing was also remembered through a series of “In Memoriam” notices printed in the same newspaper on the appropriate date for several years to come. The “Probate Division of the Supreme Court” duly processed Richard’s Will and the appropriate duty was duly paid (New South Wales Probate Records INX-15-103792: File now at ZO8310).
Richard’s daughter Pearl Elsie married Andrew C. Davis in Marrickville later that same year (1913) and his son Arthur Ernest Pinson married Ida Harriet Dawes the following year (1914). Richard’s widow, Mary Agnes (née McClune) was left as the matriarch of an extended but by then somewhat scattered family. The Electoral Rolls show that when her husband died, she had only two of her sons Walter (who was a “labourer”) and Herbert (who was a “saddler”) living with her. Mary Agnes’s daughter, Vera Maud, who was a “dress-maker” married a “butcher”, Walter William Dart, in St. Clement Church, Marrickville in November 1916. Sadly, Walter died in April 1920; which left Vera a widow at the age of 26 years.
Mary Agnes’s son Walter enrolled in the “Australian Imperial Forces” during the “First World War”. His Attestation papers show that he signed up in February 1917. Walter gave his contact address as “George Street” in Canterbury and Richard Alfred, his elder brother, as his principal contact. He was 5ft and ½ inch in height and weighed 175 lbs. He had a chest measurement of 37 ½ – 41 inches. His complexion was fresh and he had blue eyes and brown hair. When it came to distinguishing features, he had a scar on the right side of his head (temple) and on the right side of his waist (groin). The medics considered him fit for active service. He was given Regimental number #71031 and sent for training. That was, however, the limit of his service.
Walter was sent before another medical board that found that he was deaf in both ears. He was unfit for service and discharged on 6th February 1917. Walter returned to civilian life and took over his father’s butchery business on “George Street” in Canterbury. He married Susan Ann Boss in Marrickville in 1922. He was then thirty-six years old at the time and she was the thirty-two year’s old daughter of a “baker”. They do not seem to have had any children. Walter became a “butcher” in Burwood (New South Wales Electoral Rolls, Sydney: 1935). He died in 1946 (Sydney Morning Herald: 30th November 1946).
Mary Agnes and her son Herbert moved to “Queen Street” in Hurlstone Park in Sydney. Herbert died there in August 1917 and his passing led to a veritable flood of notices of upcoming funeral arrangements from his extended family in the local press. He was buried in the Church of England portion of the Cemetery at “Rookwood” (Sydney Morning Herald: Monday 6th August 1917).
Mary Agnes stayed on in Ashfield and died there in 1930. She made her third son, Richard Alfred, and her “solicitor” executors of a will – which is available on-line. She gave her daughter Ruby £50, linen and other household items; she requested that the family pictures be equitable distributed among her children and asked that the remainder of her goods and chattels be converted to money and divided equally into ten parts and given to her children, Archibald Frederick, Walter, Arthur Ernest, Richards Alfred, Mary Agnes, William, Vera Maud and Ruby May. Pearl Elsie and Thomas Henry also received their share; however, Mary decreed that £40 should be transferred from Pearl to Thomas. Presumably that was to cover some private arrangement between the two. Vera and Mary Agnes (?), being single, were allowed to stay on in her house until it was sold. Meanwhile, Thomas and Richard were given the right of first refusal to buy the land in Bankstown that they were currently occupying to conduct their business. The Will was witnessed and signed in 1921 but was essentially up to date with respect to her children when she died.
Interestingly, Mary Agnes Pinson may have bought 1 acre 2 roods, ¼ perch of land on “Canterbury Road” and “Viola Street” in Canterbury, Parish of Saint George, County of Cumberland which was part of 60 acres originally granted to Richard Calcott 1st January 1810 (NRS-17513-14-150-PA24837: Primary Application Volume 3538: Folio 8: 13th March 1923 – 8th December 1923) in 1923. Alternatively, her daughter Mary Agnes, about whom I know very little, may have bought the land. However, this seems unlikely. She does not seem to have married.
Mary Agnes (“senior”) died on “Queen Street” in South Ashfield on 15th July 1930 and – after the family had duly notified their friends (Sydney Morning Herald: Thursday 17th July 1930) – she too was buried in the Anglican part of “Rookwood Cemetery”. Her Will was processed in the “Supreme Court” in New South Wales and her creditors’ needs were addressed (Sydney Morning Herald: Tuesday 22nd July 1930) and the required duty was duly paid (New South Wales Probate Records INX-15-103791: Pinson, Mary Agnes: Deceased Estates Index: Mary Agnes Pinson). After her death, Mary Agnes’s daughter Ruby May must have felt that she was finally able to marry. She married Charles M. Smith later that same year. She would have been thirty-nine years old.
Grandfather: John Pinsent: 1782 – 1849
Grandmother: Mary Follett: 1782 – 1859
Father: Joseph Pinsent: 1819 –1881
Mother: Elizabeth Snell: 1824 – 1880
Ann Pinson: 1809 – 1862
William Pinsent: 1811 – 1879
Elizabeth Pinson: 1814 – xxxx
John Pinsent: 1817 – 1819
Sarah Pinson: 1821 – 1886
John Pinsent: 1823 – 1902
James Pinsent: 1825 – 1886
William Pinson: 1845 – 1845
William James Pinson: 1846 – 1899
John Pinson: 1855 – 1919
Frederick Arthur Pinson: 1857 – 1914
Andrew C. Pinson: 1859 – 1862
Henry Charles A. Pinson: 1865 – 1868
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.
Richard Pinson: 1745 – 1825 GRO0620 (Agricultural Labourer, Lustleigh, Devon)
Elizabeth Gregory: 1748 – 1837
Married: 1775: Lustleigh, Devon
Children by Elizabeth Gregory:
Thomas Pinson: 1776 – xxxx
Richard Pinson: 1778 – 1868
Elizabeth Pinson: 1780 – xxxx
John Pinson: 1782 – 1849 (Married Mary Follett, 1808, Hennock, Devon)
William Pinson: 1784 – xxxx
Mary Pinson: 1786 – 1873 (Married Thomas Northway, 1824, Highweek, Devon)
Joseph Pinson: 1788 – xxxx
Abraham Pinson: 1787 – 1871 ((1) Mary Willmington, 1819, Dawlish, Devon; (2) Anne Unknown, xxxx, xxxx, xxxx)
Rachael Pinson: 1796 – xxxx
Loyalty Pinson: 1799 – xxxx (Married James Prowse, 1831, Lustleigh, Devon)
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0620
Click here to view close family members.
Richard Pinson has the distinction of being the patriarch of the BRISTOL branch of the family. His parentage is, for now at least, uncertain. He married Elizabeth Gregory in Ilsington in 1775, and this was the first sign of family-related activity in the parish since an apparently unrelated marriage took place there in 1754. He seems to have been an “agricultural labourer” and a recent arrival in Ilsington. He died at “Mapstone” in the nearby parish of Lustleigh, aged 80, in 1825. His wife died there in 1837.
There is no sign of any Richard being born in Ilsington, Lustleigh or any other neighbouring parish in-or-around the calculated date of his birth (1745). There are, however, breaks in the relevant parish records and he may have been missed. Alternatively, he may have been a Baptist. Perhaps his birth will turn up in one of their registers. He may be the son of another Richard Pinson/Pinsent – if so, the BRISTOL family could link up with one or other of the BOVEY TRACEY or the TEIGNMOUTH branches. I suspect they are all related.
When Richard married Elizabeth Gregory, the parish “clerk” wrote down his name as “Pinsent” (albeit, he clearly seemed uncertain about it). Richard signed his name “by mark” (which tells us that he was illiterate) so was not in a position to comment! Another Richard (probably his father?) rather clumsily and laboriously signed the register as a witness. He wrote his name as “Pinson” – which suggests that he had been taught the old spelling (Devon Banns Register: Findmypast). They names would have sounded much the same. However, the “clerk,” along with the other better educated parishioners in Ilsington would have been more familiar with the “Pinsent” spelling as there were substantial land-owning “Pinsents” living in Hennock (HENNOCK branch) and Bovey Tracey (DEVONPORT branch) and elsewhere. This may have led to the change in spelling used by the English members of the BRISTOL branch of the family.
Richard and Elizabeth had ten children (six boys and four girls) over the next twenty-five years. Most were baptized as “Pinsons” but nearly all of them made the conversion to “Pinsent” and were buried under the latter name. However, there is on throw-back; one of Richard’s grandchildren Joseph Pinson reverted back to “Pinson” and took that name out to Australia where he started a substantial “Pinson” tree in New South Wales!
The lives of Richard’s children are hard to follow; however, most of them seem to have survived childhood and been apprenticed out to local landowners at the age of nine or ten. John Wills took four of them at about that age and his brother (?) Joseph Wills took another (Apprenticeship Records: Devon Records Office). Thereafter, three of the boys (Thomas, William and Joseph) are hard to trace as they either died or left the parish. Still, we know something about the other three (Richard, John and Abraham). They reached maturity and John and Abraham married and had children. Their lives are described elsewhere.
The Census Records show that Richard “junior” was living with the Easton family at his (then deceased) parents home in “Mapstone”, in Lustleigh in 1841. A few years later, he was the subject of a “Settlement Examination” that was held in Lustleigh in 1845 (Manor of Lustleigh: H. M. Preskett: 1970). The tribunal established that Richard was born in Lustleigh and that he had been bound as an apprentice to John Wills and later to his brother until he was about twenty-one years old. He then worked at “Knowle” for a couple of years as a “day labourer”. After that, he became an “ostler” (read “stable-hand”) and worked for an “Innkeeper” in East Teignmouth. He lived there for eleven or twelve years before returning to Lustleigh on account of poor health. Since then, he had either worked as a “day labourer” or been on parish relief. Thirty-three years or so on, the Lustleigh “Guardians”, who were responsible for allocating that relief, seem to have lost patience with him. They checked to see if he was, in fact, eligible.
Richard was living with his sister Mary and her husband Thomas Northway at “Higher Gabwell” in Stokeinteignhead when the Census takers dropped by in 1851. He was almost eighty years old by then, and (understandably) still on relief. Ten years on, Thomas Northway had died but Richard and his sister Mary were still living in Stockeinteignhead. Richard Pinsent “junior” never married – at least as far as I know. He was over ninety when he died in 1868.
It is not clear what happened to Richard’s sister Elizabeth, but Mary, as noted above, married a Mr. Northway of Stokeinteighhead in 1824. Rachael was “in service” in London when the 1841 Census was taken. She may have married there; however I think it is more likely that she was the Rachael Pinsent, “the faithful servant of the late Mrs. William Jackson” who died in London in 1862 (Morning Herald (London): Monday 29th December 1862). Loyalty Pinson married James Prowse of Bovey Tracey in 1831. I have not followed their descent but Richard’s brothers John and Abraham are discussed elsewhere.
Richard “senior” and Elizabeth (née Gregory) named one of their sons Abraham and two of their daughters Rachael and Loyalty, so they may have had “Baptist” or other “Independent Church” leanings. Despite this, they were buried in the local, Anglican, parish churchyard.
Grandfather: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Grandmother: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Father: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Mother: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
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.
Birth: 1894
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: 1894
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0730
Reginald was the illegitimate son of Laura Ann Pinsent.
Grandfather: John Pinsent: 1852 – 1917
Grandmother: Ann Paddon: 1849 – 1922
Father: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Mother: Laura Ann Pinsent 1874 – 1940
Wallace Pinsent: 1877 – 1955
Ada Pinsent: 1880 – 1959
Albert John Pinsent: 1882 – 1928
Florence Annie Pinsent: 1885 – 1918
Lily Blanche Pinsent: 1887 – 1949
Beatrice May Pinsent: 1894 – 1894
Sydney John Pinsent: 1891 – 1968
Reginald Pinsent: 1894 – 1894
Ernest Reginald Pinsent: 1895 – 1896
William Leonard Pinsent: 1897 – 1898
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.
Birth: 1903
Marriage: 1924
Spouse: Richard Gay
Death: 1979
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0714
Grandfather: William Henry John Pinsent: 1841 – 1923
Grandmother: Louisa Broad: 1837 – 1926
Father: Edwin John Pinsent: 1868 – 1949
Mother: Emily Mary Vowles: 1877 – 1912
William Henry Thiery Pinsent: 1865 – 1915
Louisa Pinsent: 1867 – 1936
George Pinsent: 1870 – 1890
Alfred James Pinsent: 1872 – 1873
Emilie Marie Eugenie Pinsent: 1873 – 1959
Josephine Pinsent: 1876 – 1952
Lana Florence Mary Pinsent: 1878 – 1879
Alfred Louie Pinsent: 1880 – 1944
Beatrice Rose Pinsent: 1882 – 1959
Sidney Pinsent: 1883 – 1947
Eric Henry Edwin Pinsent: 1896 – 1959
Leslie Donald Pinsent: 1900 – 1972
Samuel Claude Pinsent: 1904 – 1988
Alfred Edwin Hope Pinsent: 1906 – 1907
Ronald Leslie Pinsent: 1926 – 2007
Cyril Edwin Pinsent: 1928 – 2003
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.
Birth: 1899 (née Olive May Perry)
Marriage: 1928
Spouse: William Henry Pinsent
Death: 1995
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0940
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.
Birth: 1927 (née Muriel Pamela Emily Pope)
Marriage: 1966
Spouse: Ronald Leslie Pinsent
Death: 2011
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO1459
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.
Birth: N/A (née Muriel Helen England)
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: Ernest John Pinsent
Death: 2021
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO1516
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.
Birth: 1839 (née Mary Ann Gilley)
Marriage: 1868
Spouse: Thomas Pinsent
Death: 1895
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0658
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.