Vital Statistics
John Pinsent: xxxx – 1575 DRO0001 (Farmer, Combe, Bovey Tracey)
Johanna Unknown: xxxx – 1570
Married: xxxx, xxxx: xxxx
Children by Johanna Unknown:
John Pynsent: 1532 – 1615 (Married Alice French, Bovey Tracey, 1557)
George Pinsent: xxxx – 1598 (Married (1) Juliana Bonfessor, Bovey Tracey, Devon 1587; 2) Mary Unknown, Exminster, Devon, 1592 [DRO0013 Combe] [DRO0013 Combe])
Thomas Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
Elizabeth Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
Hugh Pinsent: 1540 – 1626 (Married Johanna Woodley, Bovey Tracey, 1574)
Margaret Pinsent: 1542 – xxxx
Walter Pinsent: 1544 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: 1546 – xxxx (Married Rev. William St. Hill, Exeter, Devon, 1581)
Johanna Pinsent: 1549 – xxxx (Married John Ball, Chudleigh, Devon, 1574)
Family Branch: Combe
PinsentID: DRO0001
The Pinsent family was well established in Bovey Tracey by the mid-1400s (Bovey Tracey Manor Court Rolls) and there were several families living there in the early 1540s when the first birth, marriage and death records were collected. The latter included those of “John the clerk” (who, incidentally, made the early entries in the register and went out of his way to differentiate himself from “John of Combe”). There was a “William of Southbrook,” a “Thomas of Colehouse,” and a “Richard Pinsent” who all had families. The Court Rolls for the Manor of Bovey Tracey tell us that on 15th November in 1531 Richard Richard “gave a fine for licenses both to brew & to tap ale this year.” How these and other families were inter-related is unclear; particularly as there seem to have been Pinsents in the district since the early 1300!
“John (Johannes) Pinsent of Combe” lived on Combe Farm on Hatherdown Hill northeast of Bovey Tracey. He was probably born in the parish in the late 1490s or early 1500s and married Johanna (“Joanna”) – surname unknown – sometime in the late 1520s. According to legal testimony discussed elsewhere, his eldest known son, another John, was, born in 1532. John and Johanna seems to have had several other children before those recorded in the parish register.
John’s family was wealthier than most. A John Pynson “senior” – who may have been this John’s father – was taxed on goods worth £30 in 1525, whereas a typical yeoman taxed on goods worth £10 would have considered himself to be comfortably off (Devon Subsidy Rolls, 1525 – 1527 & 1543 – 1545: Ed. T. L. Stoate). John “senior” had money to lend and the Bovey Tracey Manor Court rolls for 10th July 1532 show “John Cove in mercy for license to agree with John Pyncent in a plea of debt.”
Our John Pynsent was assessed at £27 in 1544, so he had probably inherited the bulk of his father’s estate. This may well have included part ownership of a tin mine at Owlscombe in Bovey Tracey. Two of his grandsons, John and William Pinsent, were defendants in a cause in Court of Chancery (C10/7/115) in 1651. The dispute related to an acrimonious and decidedly long-standing argument between John’s son, Hugh Pinsent, and one of his partners in the mine over the payment of development costs. According to the Court documents, Hugh Pinsent (who controlled three of the thirteen “doles” (or shares) in the mine) originally complained to the Stannary Court (a local court that dealt with tin-related disputes) in 1611. He said that one of his partners, Stephen Collings, had taken more than his fair share of the ore – particularly as he, Hugh, had yet to recover the costs of the construction and development work he had paid for. The mine would likely have been a relatively shallow-depth open-cut dug along the surface expression of a tin-bearing vein that may have had some near surface underground workings. The dispute simmered on until it was resolved in the Chancery Court. Hugh’s father, John Pynsent, likely held the mining interest before him. It would account for his above-average wealth.
Although John Pynsent’s part ownership of the Owlscombe mine may be uncertain, he was certainly involved in tin mining. He was one of several people who brought an “action of trespass” against John Bennett in the Stannary Court in Chagford in 1542. This action seems to have led to the restraint of some of Bennett’s goods and chattels, including his some of his livestock – which were taken to the Castle at Lydford and later sold. John Bennett responded by suing John, among others, in the Court of Requisitions (REQ/2/2/164). A much corroded document seems to show that – despite his protestations – his property had been lawfully seized by the bailiffs “according to the customs of the said Stannary.”
When Henry VIII suppressed the Monasteries between 1536 and 1542, he acquired a considerable amount of good-quality agricultural land which he sold off to rich aristocratic landowners who were only too happy to sell smaller bits to yeoman farmers – who wanted it for themselves and/or their children. It was a good time to be rich! John seems to have loaned his neighbours the money they needed to buy the land – doubtless at a price. He could not loose! If they were unable to pay, John just took the property for himself. In 1543, John Pinsent of Bovey Tracey “purchased” land in Averton Gifford from Gregory Ley, of Bovey Tracey, mercer. The purchase was to be void if Gregory repaid the purchase money, L 10 0s 0d, by St. John Baptist’s Day, 1548 (Calendar of Deeds Enrolled #174). Whether he did so, I do not know. Similarly, John “of Combe in Bovey Tracey, yeoman” purchased property from Stephen Comyn of Weke, in North Bovey, for L 40 0s 0d in 1555. This purchase was also to be void if Stephen repaid the money by All Saints Day, 1561 (Calendar of Deeds Enrolled: #450). The land was used as collateral for a loan.
The year before he died, John Pyncent “at Comb, in Bovey Tracey, Husbandman” loaned (his son?) Thomas Pynsent “of Chagford, Husbandman” money to purchase land at “North Cleave and the North or East Wood in Pafford, Moretonhampstead” from Francis Peperell of Chagford. The loan was to be repaid to him and two of his other sons, John & Hugh Pynsent, by 30th March 1587 (Calendar of Deeds Enrolled: Tingey: #1021). John, who was then known as John “senior,” had died by then, so it was left to his executor, Hugh, to complete the transaction.
Social Status was extremely important to the Tudors and they even had “sumptuary laws” (“Act of Apparel” 1483) that were specifically designed to ensure that one could distinguish “gentlemen” and “yeomen” from members of the lower classes. It would have been important for John – who had to deal with gentlemen in his business life – to formally make the transition to “gentleman” and he was probably the man who applied to the College of Heralds for a coat of arms: “gules, a chevron engrailed, between three mullets, argent.”
The earliest mention of a coat of arms I have found comes from a document signed and sealed in 1608 by one of John’s grandsons, Jonas Pinsent, who was an Associate on the Court of King’s Bench. Presumably his arms would have been slightly different from those described above, as his father (Hugh) was a younger son. By convention, it was the eldest son who took his father’s arms when he died, and an “armiger’s” younger sons tweaked the design for there own and their descendants.
The first formal descriptions of the arms as we know them comes from the family tree that John’s great grandson (John Pynsent, who was a “prothonotary” in the Court of Common Pleas) submitted to the editors of the Visitation of Surrey 1662-8 (British Library: D.15, fo. 63b). The “prothonotary” attributed both the arms and the formal use of the name Pynsent to his grandfather, but it may predate him by a generation or two.
John and Johanna Pynsent had nine children, however, the parentage of three of them (George, Thomas, and Elizabeth) has to be inferred as they come without birth records. In fact, they were probably born before parish records were first collected. Nevertheless, when Walter Pinson was born in 1544 he was described in the parish register as being the son of “Johnis and Jon Pinson of Combe.” The farm name was probably added to help differentiate him another, short-lived, Walter (the son of John and Elizabeth Pinsent) who was born six months earlier. This latter John may have been “ye clerk.” Perhaps surprisingly for those days, all of our John’s children seem to have lived to maturity and most of them married. Three of John’s sons (John, Hugh, and George) went on to have families of their own and they are discussed elsewhere.
Johanna died in 1570 and John died a few years later, in 1575. His Last Will and Testament was filed in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (P.C.C.33 Pyckering: PRO WILL11-57) rather than in one of the ecclesiastical courts in Exeter, so it survived the fire that destroyed so many Devonshire Wills during the Second World War.
John left £10 to the parish of Bovey Tracey, and bequeathed £5 each to two of his daughters, Johanna (who had married the previous year) and Elizabeth. His daughter, Mary, was to receive 100 marks (£6 15s) when she married – which she did – to the Reverend William St. Hill in 1581. John’s “son” (either in-law or illegitimate?), Richard Miller, was to receive £5. Also, Mr. Southcote Esq., one of the principal landowners in the district, was to receive £10 – on condition John’s “son Hugh do obtain and enjoy Comb Park during the said Hugh, his natural life.” Although there is no mention of his other sons, that is not unusual. He had seen that they were educated and had set them up with with land or in business. Hugh, who was his father’s executor and residuary legatee, negotiated the probate of the will in London in August 1575.
Hugh Pynsent was left to deal with his father’s estate and settle outstanding disputes. At the outset, he found that his father had lent £40 to his son John who had signed a bond by which he agreed to repay the loan at a rate of £5 per year. Hugh Pynsent refused to return the bond until his brother had completed making the payments! John was not best pleased, and the issue ended up in the Court of Chancery (C8/3/24: 1575) where he sought to recover and cancel the bond. Hugh claimed that although he, and his brothers John and Thomas, had once been involved in a joint bond with a Robert Hayman, that issue had been dealt with and he, Hugh, was in no way responsible for his brother’s debts. He felt that both brothers had land or other assets that they could use as collateral for money if they needed it.
Before his death, John “senior” left John “junior” a life interest in “a tenement with one orchard and one herb garden belonging to the same” in Bovey Tracey. However, John does not seem to have had any personal need for the property as he was living and working in Chudleigh. He transferred the lease back to his brother Hugh for £20 (Calmady Manuscripts: #372/6/3/2). John was to marry and settled in Chudleigh, where he became a merchant who, among other things, probably ran an Inn. His life is described elsewhere.
When John “senior” died in 1575, we know that Hugh inherited Combe Park and that John “junior” moved to Chudleigh; so it is not clear who the John Pinsent who held by “copy of the Barton one Tenement called Combe Parks, two gardens and curtilage by estimation: 0a 2r 0p: One Meadow called Le Moare now divided: Once in two by estimation: 2a 0r 0p: Hill Parke by estimation 1a 3r 0p: One Close one Two by estimation 2a 2r 0p and Little Close next to the Yate by estimation: 1a 0r 0p.” forty years later -in 1615 (Norden’s Survey of Various Manors in the County of Devon: 1615: London Metropolitan Archives: CLA/044/05/041)!
I do not know what happened to John “junior’s” brother, Thomas either. He may have became a cloth merchant. In a discussion of the role of the “Guild of Tuckers and Weavers” in regulating the woolen industry in Devon; Joyce Youings mentions that: “in 1564, for instance Thomas Pynson, late of Moretonhampstead, was convicted by the city chamber for selling “falsely made” kersey in Exeter Market ‘the same (having been ) tried (examined) by the Company of the Tuckers and Weavers’, the cloth was declared forfeit and Pynson was put in the pillory ‘yn example to others.’” Evidently, this Thomas had gone into business and made a mess of it! Perhaps I am doing our Thomas an injustice.
Unfortunately, the Moretonhampstead parish records do not start until 1603, so, if this is our Thomas and he stayed on and married and had children, we would know nothing about them. There were no Pynsons or Pinsents in Moretonhampstead in, or immediately after, 1603.
There is a mention of Thomas Pinsent of “Hatherley” in a dispute over church rates in 1596 (Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries: Vol. X). However, as he (probably) married Johanna Graye in 1590 and this Thomas “of Hatherley” had a son, Thomas, baptized in Bovey Tracey in October 1603 he likely came from another (as yet unspecified) family.
Norden, in his “Survey of Various Manors in the County of Devon:”, dated a few years later, in 1615 (CLA/044/05/041, London Metropolitan Archives), tells us that “Hatherley” comprised an “Orchard Garden and Curtilage by estimation 1a 1r 0p; Little Meadowe by estimation 1a 0r 0p; One Meadowe called Short Meadowe by estimation 2a 1r 0p; One Close Called Blackett Ashe 1a 0r 0p; One Close called Conny Parke by estimation 2a 0r 0p; Langa Lande by estimation 4a 1r 0p; Le Ball by estimation 1a 0r 0p; Higher Downe by estimation 5a 0r 0p, One Close called Yonderley by estimation 4a 0r 0p; One close called Innerley by estimation 4a 0r 0p; One Close called Underdowne by estimation 1a 2r 0p” and was liked to other sites held copyhold. Clearly, this Thomas owned property.
Out Thomas’s brother Walter (“Walterus Pinson” son of “Johnis of Comb” & his wife “Jon”) is easier to follow. He was baptized in Bovey Tracey on 22nd September 1544. How old he was at the time, I do not know! When giving a deposition in the Ecclesiastical Court in 1598 (Dean and Chapter Bundle 96: Moger Abstracts: Series 1) he said he was 56 years old, and that he had arrived in Teigngrace some 30 years before. In other words, he had been born around 1542 and moved to the parish around 1568. The deposition was for a cause pending between Messrs. Shapley and Wetherdon. Walter deposed that he had been present at the signing of a disputed Will and acknowledged being appointed its overseer.
In 1617, Gentle Godolphin challenged Walter in the Chancery Court over a disputed bond (C2/CHASI/G63/69). Also that same year, Walter was called upon to testify in a dispute between Christopher Copplestone and John Southcott over a tenement called “Lower Albrook” in Kingsteignton (C21/C33/20). This time, he stated that he was then 76 years old. In his deposition he admitted that he had collected forty shillings from Richard Bennett and Edward Gildon on behalf of Christopher Copplestone – the then Lord of the Manor – forty-six years previously. He said had done so in his official capacity as Reeve of the Manor of Teigngrace. This suggests that Walter was born in 1541 and had moved to Teigngrace in around 1571. These dates are in broad agreement with the dates given previously. As an aside, it is worth noting that “Lower Albrook” farm later came into the hands of the HENNOCK branch of the family, through the marriage of a Thomas Pinsent to Mary Gildon in the 1752.
Walter’s actual land holdings in Teigngrace may have been modest as they were only valued at £1 when assessed for the Devonshire Lay Subsidy in 1581. Perhaps he just owned a tenement or house. It is not clear if he married and had children as any parish records made in Teigngrace prior to 1683 have since been lost. Interestingly, a Walter Pinson married Mary Walrond, in East Budleigh parish, in November 1606. However, if this is our man, it seems late – unless it was a second marriage.
Two of John’s daughters are known to have married. Mary Pinsent married the Reverend William St. Hill, the rector of Hennock, in April 1581 (Visitation of County of Devon). She moved to the parish next-door. Her sister Johanna most likely married John Ball of Bridgeland, in Chudleigh, in January 1573/4 (Visitation of County of Devon). A “John Ball of Bridgeland” was later to become one of the overseers of Johanna’s brother, George’s will. The same will implies that one of her other sisters (presumably Margaret or Elizabeth) married Mr. Hugh Hole. George’s life and those of his brothers Hugh and John are discussed elsewhere.
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