Vital Statistics
John Pinsent: 1723 – 1800 GRO1400 (Soap boiler, Kelly in Hennock and in Moretonhampstead)
Elizabeth Puddicombe: 1719 – 1795
Married: 1742: Crediton, Devon
Children by Elizabeth Puddicombe:
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1743 – xxxx (Married William Tucker in 1767, or alternatively William Stevens (?) in Moretonhampstead in 1769)
John Pinsent: 1745 – 1804 (Soap boiler in Plymouth; Married Anne Heard, 1768)
Mary Pinsent: 1748 – 1749
Mary Pinsent: 1751 – 1773
Thomas Pinsent: 1754 – 1841 (Merchant in Newton Abbot; Married 1) Anne Ball, 1777, and 2) Elizabeth Pridham, 1799)
Sarah Pinsent: 1759 – 1782 (Married John Studdy, 1781, Moretonhampstead?)
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO1400
References
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John Pinsent (1723–1800) was the elder son of John Pinsent of “South Kelly” in Hennock, by his wife Margaret (née Luscombe). He was baptized in Lustleigh (which is now the home parish for “South Kelly”) in September 1723. He was a teenager when his father, a “soap boiler,” died in 1737. His mother married Ambrose Rackett, a “tanner”, and moved to Crediton the following year. Ambrose seems to have taken over the management of his father’s soap boiling operation and – although his family clearly came from Crediton – he is mentioned in the list of Hennock “Devon Freeholders” in 1744, 1762, and 1771. The records show that he remained active in Hennock until at least 1777. Nevertheless, the soap business would have passed to John when he came of-age and he most likely took control of it after his marriage to Elizabeth Puddicombe in October 1742.
John Pinsent was ambitious and he set up a similar “soap” and “tallow” boiling operation in Moretonhampstead in the 1750s. It seems to have been a bigger operation than at “South Kelly” and he regularly took on apprentices. They signed on in 1752, 1754, 1759, 1776, 1777, and (x2) in 1783 (Apprentices of Great Britain 1710-1762). By 1767, John was a man of some standing in the community and he signed an affidavit on behalf of his friend, Thomas Sesse of Moretonhampstead, stating that he was too sick to travel to Exeter to appear as a defendant at an upcoming, Easter meeting, of Devon Quarter Sessions. What the case was about, I do not know. In 1777, he leased a plot of land with several buildings, some of which were “in decay”, from Margaret Noseworthy for a year at five shillings and a “barley corn” as rent. He later bought the property for £58 pounds [DRO B/T/M103-105]. Presumably, the business was still growing.
Hennock’s “Land Tax” records show that John assumed control of his father’s land holdings in Hennock and Cecil Torr (Wreyland Documents: 1910) tells us that John Pinsent, “son and heir of John and Margaret Pinsent (soap-boiler) of South Kelly”, conveyed a tenement called “South Kelly” described as being “1 messuage, 4 linhays, 3 gardens, 30 acres (arable) land, 6 acres meadow, 6 acres pasture, 6 acres of wood, 6 acres of furze and heath and 5 acres of moor” to Joshua Banks on 21st May, 1785. This was for the purpose of a recovery. The property was assessed a land tax of £1 3s 4d and was occupied by Mr. Wreyford between 1780 and 1789, by John Pinsent himself from 1790 to 1791, and by a Mr. Hollier from 1792-1796. The following year, at the age of seventy-four, John sold the property to Mr. George Wills, of Rudge in Lustleigh, for £2,152 10s 0d.
John must have retained some of his land in Hennock as the “Church Wardens’ Accounts” show he and his son paid between 1s and 1s 6d for “the Kelly” between 1778 and 1804. Still, in 1805, Mr. Wills paid for “three Kelly’s” and for “Late Pinsent’s Kelly”. Mr. Wills was busy consolidating his holdings and he picked up John’s piece when he died in 1800. Mr. Wills held all four parts in 1818. Subdivided property was difficult to stitch back together again.
John and Elizabeth had their first child, Elizabeth, in Crediton in 1743. This was before they moved to Moretonhampstead. Their second child, another John Pinsent, was born in Moretonhampstead and learnt the “soap-boiling” trade from his father. John “junior” was later to run his own business in Plymouth, until the unfortunate death of his wife, Anne (née Heard), bankruptcy and the needs of his then aging father brought him back to Moretonhampstead.
John and Elizabeth had a short-lived daughter Mary Pinsent in 1748. They tried again, in 1751, and their second daughter of that name. Mary Pinsent, lasted longer but she too died relatively young – in 1773. She was buried in St. Andrews’ Churchyard in Moretonhampstead and a memorial stone describes her as being her parent’s “little daughter”: although at twenty one years of age she was, perhaps, not quite so little. Their elder daughter Elizabeth most likely married in the late 1760s; however, whether it was to William Tucker in 1767 or William Stevens in 1769 is not clear. Perhaps it was both in succession!
Their fifth child, Thomas Pinsent, was born in 1754. He was a soap and candle “salesman”, or “chandler”, and later a significant landholder in Newton Abbot. He married twice; firstly to Anne Ball of North Bovey and secondly to Elizabeth Pridham of St. Mary Church. The second marriage, or perhaps the timing of it — coming as it did after siring an illegitimate daughter by Elizabeth — seems to have upset his father and it may have influenced the distribution of his estate. Mr. John Pinsent was a devout Baptist and he took religion seriously enough that he left a small annual bequest to the “Deacon or Leader of the Tabernacle in Moretonhampstead” when he died. In 1775, John entertained a traveling preacher – and came in for some complimentary comments in the latter’s Diary (Rev. Henry Tanner, of Exeter: Extract from Mr. Tanner’s Diary: Google.co.uk).
Finally, John and Elizabeth had a daughter, Sarah Pinsent, born in 1759 who probably married John Studdy in 1781 and died, as Sarah Studdy, the following year. John’s wife, Elizabeth (née Puddicombe) died in 1795 and John Pinsent, or Mr. John Pinsent “senior” as he came to be known, died after a long illness in October 1800 (Silvester Treleaven’s Diary).
John’s father had bequeathed a tenement in Hennock called “Leigh” to John’s brother, Thomas Pinsent, and Thomas had, in turn, left the property to his two daughters, Mary Pinsent and Elizabeth Pinsent, when he died in 1757. They split the rental income until 1771 when Mary contracted to marry Robert Pinsent. He was from another branch of the family but, coincidentally or otherwise, also a “tallow chandler” in Newton Abbot. Robert would have acquired Mary’s half interest in her father’s property through the marriage and this could have created long-term difficulties. According to Wreyland Documents, the girls’ trustees resolved the problem by selling their respective half-interests to their uncle, Mr. John Pinsent. In October 1775, he gave each of them £165 0s 0d for their respective interests. Mary’s younger sister Elizabeth most likely married John Collins in Wolborough in August 1774. Some years later, in 1787, we find that Ann Lamble was apprenticed to John Pinsent of Moretonhampstead for “Lee estate”, “in Bovey Tracey” (sic). John added to it. He purchased “a spot of land or meadow, about a quarter of an acre more or less, lying on the lower side of Leigh House” from Nelson Beveridge Gribble for 8 guineas on 16th November 1789.
Shortly after selling his land in “South Kelly” (including the cider press) and at “Leigh” (including the “spot of land”) to George Wills of Rudge for £2,152 10s 0d in 1797 (see above), John leased “a certain mine of black lead or some other mineral substance” in “South Kelly” for a period of 21 years. The mine produced a glittering micaceous hematite (or “shining ore”) from a vein that varied from two inches to three feet wide (Philosophical Magazine: January 1st 1904). The ore would have been used to make paint. The mine closed in 1951. However, some of the surface buildings remain and the “Kelly Mine Preservation Society” is slowly restoring them. The London Times shows that John Pinsent may have had other mining interests as he was clearly identified as the viewing agent for the Vitifer Mine “on the Tavistock Road, six mines from Moretonhampstead” in 1798. The “Dartmoor Mining and Smelting Company” had put it up for sale. It was a tin mine approximately 1.0 kilometre east of the “Warren House Inn” on what is now the B3212. It had thirteen shafts at one point and was a going concern employing forty men in 1796.
Land Tax Records show that John Pinsent owned a house in Moretonhampstead with an annual Land Tax value of 12s per annum and he rented properties called “Bugged Down”, “Caphills”, and “Court Tenement” (taxed at an approximate value of £2 14s 0d) from Lord Viscount Courtenay throughout the 1880s and 1890s.
Mr. Sylvester Treleaven, a gentleman who lived in Moretonhampstead, kept a diary in which he described day-to-day life in the town between 1799 and 1830. It has survived, and can be seen on the “Moretonhampstead Historical Society” website. In it, he describes the Pinsent family’s last few years in residence in the community. Among other things, he mentions that George Harvey, an apprentice bound to John in March 1799 caused quite a stir when he accused a fellow apprentice, George Hamlin, of stealing candles and selling them to a local shopkeeper. The Diary refers to Mr. Pinsent’s death,“after a long illness” and mentions the “great numbers” who attended his Methodist funeral. Mr. Pinsent’s household goods were, evidently, sold off in April 1801.
Mr. John Pinsent, “Soap-boiler of Moretonhampstead” signed his Last Will and Testament in August 1800 and died the following October. Unlike so many Devonshire Wills, a copy of his has survived [PRO IR 26/333/74]. It’s content is also summarized in the “Durham, Ely, Exeter and Oxford Death Duty Registers for 1796-1811”. When Mr. John died, he was living in Moretonhampstead with his son John Pinsent and his three granddaughters Mary Pinsent, Sarah Pinsent and Elizabeth Pinsent. His son seems to have been fairly ill himself, so John appointed his granddaughters joint executrixes. In it, he left his son, John “junior” his “utensils belonging to the soap boiling trade … for as long as he shall have an occasion to use them” with a reversion to his granddaughters — presumably to sell off. He left two-thirds of his interest in the mine at Kelly to his son “Thomas of Newton and Thomas his son” for the duration of the term of the lease (then around nineteen years) and he gave the remaining one third to Savery Moses and Joseph Wills to hold in trust for his granddaughters. The girls were also to receive the residue of his stock in trade, bonds and other securities — after payment of his debts and bequests.
John largely ignored his two sons, either because he had made previous arrangements with them, or perhaps because he knew his son John’s days were numbered (he died in 1804) and he had quarreled with Thomas! For whatever reason, he appointed his only (then-living) grandson Thomas Pinsent (son of his son Thomas Pinsent) his principal beneficiary — even though he was only eighteen years old. John left him four hundred pounds and the estate called “Caphills” referred to earlier “subject to an annual payment to his father of sixteen pounds”. He also left him the leasehold of the property called “Court Tenement” in Moretonhampstead “subject to a payment of thirty two pounds to Moses Savery of Bovey Tracey … Serge-maker and Joseph Wills the younger of … Ilsington” which was to be held in trust for John’s granddaughter Mary Pinsent “during the life of her father” and, if she was to die before her father, then in trust for her younger sisters Sarah and then Elizabeth. Unfortunately for Mary, her father (John “junior”) died four years later.
Moses Savery’s daughter, Mary Savery, married Mary’s cousin Thomas Pinsent in 1805 and Moses appears to have helped him set up and run a “drapery” in Devonport. John left his granddaughters wealthy women and he was adamant that the bequests were for them alone and not for the use of any future husband. This was probably a wise precaution.
Mr. John Pinsent made several minor cash bequests to be taken out of the profits from “Court Tenement”. For instance, he gave an annual bequest of six pounds per year for seven years to the “Deacon or Leader of the Tabernacle in Moretonhampstead”. He also gave “ten guineas of gold” to his son Thomas’s daughter Elizabeth Pinsent (presumably the “Betsey” described elsewhere) — which was to be paid to her when she became twenty one and, importantly, he left his infant “grandson John Pinsent, son of Thomas Pinsent of Newton” the sum of sixty guineas in gold to be paid him if and when he reach the age of twenty one years. Thomas’s first wife, Anne (née Ball), had died in 1794 and Thomas had married Elizabeth Pridham in St. Mary Church a few years later. They had a son John Pinsent baptized in Wolborough on 11th October 1799, shortly before his grandfather died. This John lived to collect and, as we shall see elsewhere, took off for America. Thomas and Elizabeth had an illegitimate daughter, Maria Pinsent, in 1797 before their marriage and she was notably left out of the will. Mr. John Pinsent was a man of standing in the Community )and a Baptist at that) and he was probably none too pleased (see also “Yeo society” website).
John Pinsent’s granddaughters probated his will in November 1800 and their cousin Thomas took control of “Court Tenement” and “Caphill”. Land Tax data show that he kept them both until 1806, and that he continued to pay tax for a house in Moretonhampstead until 1814.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: Robert Pinsent: 1661 – 1729
Grandmother: Elizabeth Delve: 1665 – 1729
Parents
Father: John Pinsent: 1690 – 1737
Mother: Margaret Luscombe: xxxx – xxxx
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Julian Pinsent: 1686 – xxxx
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1688 – xxxx
John Pinsent: 1690 – 1737 ✔️
Mary Pinsent: 1697 – 1711
Sarah Pinsent: 1701 – xxxx
Male Siblings (Brothers)
John Pinsent: 1723 – 1800 ✔️
Thomas Pinsent: 1726 – 1757
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