a history
Birth: 1838
Marriage: 1864
Spouse: James Murphy, Charles Pinsent
Death: N/A
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0361
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Birth: 1854
Marriage: 1874
Spouse: Joseph Edward Cant
Death: N/A
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0360
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent: 1754 – 1841
Grandmother: Elizabeth Pridham: 1763 – 1821
Father: Charles Pinsent: 1812 -1863
Mother: Georgiana Caroline Henley: xxxx – xxxx
Anna Thomasin Crout Pinsent: 1777 – 1799
Thomas Pinsent: 1779 – 1779
Thomas Pinsent: 1782 – 1872
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1789 – xxxx
Maria Pinsent: 1797 – 1864
John Pinsent: 1799 – 1870
William Pinsent: 1808 – xxxx
Charles Pinsent: 1812 – 1863
George Pinsent: 1814 – 1894
Thomas Pinsent: 1836 – 1838
Charles Pinsent: 1837 – 1862
George Pinsent: 1840 – 1875
Alfred Pinsent: 1848 – 1919
Henry James Pinsent: 1850 – 1853
Frederick Pinsent: 1852 – 1929
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George Henry Pinsent: 1844 – 1915 GRO0351 (Tailor; London)
(1) Amelia Pinsent: 1842 – 1901
Married: 1874: London, Middlesex
(2) Eliza Mason: 1854 – 1935
Married: 1901: Stratford, Essex
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0351
George Henry was the eldest and only surviving son of George Pinsent, a “Journeyman tailor,” by his wife Elizabeth (née Leatt). He was born in his mother’s home parish of St. Paul’s in the Covent Garden area of London. He grew up in London with an ever growing number of brothers and sisters.
The Census records show that George Henry was a “scholar” in 1851 and a “porter” in the market at Convent Garden a decade on. George Henry then became a “private” serving with the “Royal Marines” on “H.M.S. Pylades”; however, he left in time to marry his cousin, Amelia Pinsent (1842 – 1901), in Stepney, in 1874. She was his Uncle Charles’s daughter.
George Henry was a “tailor,” like his father and, although Amelia had grown up in her father’s “cheese-shop,” she took up her husband’s trade. They had no children of their own but adopted a daughter Eleanor Lee Pinsent (a.k.a. “Nellie L. Pinsent.”) who was eight years old when the census takers called in 1881. Presumably, she too learnt to cut and sew. The records show that although the family was living in Tower Hamlets, in London in 1881, it had relocated and settled in Albert Square in Stratford, in Essex, by 1891. Ten years on, in 1901, George was reported to be a “breeches tailor” living with his wife Amelia (who was by than an “assistant tailor”) and their unmarried daughter Eleanor L. – who was a “home worker”. Interestingly, the census records shows that they had a visitor, “William A. May – a tailor who was working on his own account” with them. Eleanor Lee Pinsent married William Arthur May in North Peckham, Southwark, in December 1902. Her father by adoption, George Henry Pinsent, was present and signed the register as a witness. Sadly, her “mother” Amelia did not live to see the wedding. She died of cancer in May, 1901. Perhaps her death, and her “father” decision to remarry freed Eleanor up to marry.
George went on to marry a “butcher’s” daughter, Eliza Mason, in St. Paul’s church in Stratford later that same year (1901). Eliza’s mother seems to have suffered a stroke and moved into the family home on Churchill Road, and her daughter was with her when she accidentally fell and died (Eastern Argus and Borough of Hackney Times: Saturday 27th August 1906).
George Henry and Eliza were still living in Churchill Road when the census takers returned in 1911. He was a “gentleman’s tailor,” who had, evidently, not forgotten his roots. They erroneously stated that he had been born in Newton Abbot in Devon! George died in Homerton in November 1915. Eliza went to live with her niece, Ellen Crisp and her husband, Edward Crisp, who was a “hostler” employed by the brewers, “William Fuller and Son, Provision Merchants” of Homerton. She was still living in the Hackney area when she died in 1935.
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent: 1754 – 1841
Grandmother: Elizabeth Pridham: 1763 – 1821
Father: George Pinsent: 1814 – 1894
Mother: Elizabeth Leatt: 1822 – 1890
Anna Thomasin Crout Pinsent: 1777 – 1799
Thomas Pinsent: 1779 – 1779
Thomas Pinsent: 1782 – 1872
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1789 – xxxx
Maria Pinsent: 1797 – 1864
John Pinsent: 1799 – 1870
William Pinsent: 1808 – xxxx
Charles Pinsent: 1812 – 1863
George Pinsent: 1814 – 1894
George Henry Pinsent: 1844 – 1915
Thomas Charles Pinsent: 1845 – 1868
William John Pinsent: 1848 – 1849
Walter Pinsent: 1860 – 1863
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Birth: 1866
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: 1921
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO1127
Grandfather: Charles Pinsent: 1812 -1863
Grandmother: Mary Fullick: 1812 – 1852
Father: George Pinsent: 1840 – 1875
Mother: Mary Ann Louisa Payne: xxxx – xxxx
Mary Ann Elizabeth Pinsent: 1833 – 1868
Thomas Pinsent: 1836 – 1838
Charles Pinsent: 1837 – 1862
George Pinsent: 1840 – 1875
Amelia Pinsent: 1842 – 1901
Alice Pinsent: 1844 – xxxx
Eliza Pinsent: 1846 – 1847
Alfred Pinsent: 1848 – 1919
Henry James Pinsent: 1850 – 1853
Frederick Pinsent: 1852 – 1929
Georgiana Caroline Pinsent: 1854 – xxxx
Eliza Marian Pinsent: 1856 – 1857
George Augustus Pinsent: 1866 – 1921
Charles Alfred Pinsent: 1866 – 1914
Frederick Henry Pinsent: 1868 – 1937
Arthur Edwin Pinsent: 1871 – 1939
Harold Edmund Pinsent: 1872 – 1872
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Birth: 1599
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: N/A
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO1767
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Grandfather: William Pinsent: 1527 – 1601
Grandmother: Joan Unknown: 1535 – 1590
Father: Robert Pinsent: 1562 – 1626
Mother: Dorothy Carpenter: 1565 – 1643
Simon Pinsent: 1587 – xxxx
Robert Pinsent: 1589 – 1650
William Pinsent: 1591 – 1591
Thomas Pinsent: 1597 – 1649
George Pinsent: 1599 – xxxx ✔️
John Pinsent: xxxx – 1600
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George Pinsent: 1840 – 1875 GRO1048 (East India Company Army & Public Works Department Supervisor, India)
Mary Ann Louisa Payne: xxxx – xxxx
Married: 1865: Bombay, India
Children by Mary Ann Louisa Payne:
George Augustus Pinsent: 1866 – 1921
Charles Alfred Pinsent: 1866 – 1914
Frederick Henry Pinsent: 1868 – 1937 (Indian Telegraph Service, Clerk; Married (1) Florence Maud Platel, in Karachi, 1893; (2) Constance Hilda Platel, 1906)
Annie Mary Louisa Pinsent: 1869 – 1951
Arthur Edwin Pinsent: 1871 – 1939 (Married Annie Louisa Brennan, 1898, Bombay)
Harold Edmund Pinsent: 1872 – 1872
Alice Mabel Pinsent: 1873 – 1874
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO1048
George Pinsent was the second eldest son of a “cheese-monger,” Charles Pinsent by his first wife, Mary (née Fullick). He appears to have been born in London in 1840; however, I have yet to determine when, or for that matter, where. George, like his older brother Charles, was in training to become a “clerk” when the “Sepoys” (Indian Soldiers) belonging to the “East India Company Army” rebelled in 1857. India must have been much in the news the following year as the Company’s army aggressively stamped out what the British called the “Indian Mutiny”. Being a soldier must have seemed a far more exciting prospect than selling cheese, and George’s brother Charles enlisted in 1859. George followed on a few months later. He signed on as a 2nd Corporal with the Army Engineers in the “Sappers and Miners” section (troops that blew things up) for a period of twelve years. The two brothers were shipped out to India together on the “S. S. Monteagle”and arrived in Bombay in April 1860 (IOR Reference L/MIL/12/116). What their father thought about loosing the help of his two eldest sons, particularly given his brush with bankruptcy in the early 1850s, has not been recorded.
The British Government nationalized the “East India Company’s” holdings in India in November 1858 and took control of its army. George transferred to “Her Majesty’s Royal Artillery” in 1861, and was promoted to “Sergeant” in the Army’s “Public Works Department” a couple of years later (IOR Reference L/MIL/12/116).
George and his brother Charles were both originally assigned to the “East India Army” base at Poona (Pune), southeast of Bombay (Mumbai) on the northwest coast of India. George married Mary Ann Louisa Payne while there in 1865, and they had seven children over they next ten years. They had no less than five sons and two daughters. Two of the sons, George Augustus Pinsent and Charles Alfred Pinsent were twins (whether identical or fraternal I do not know) born in Satara, near Poona, in Maharashtra State in January 1866.
After Poona, George was posted to Karachi in what is now called Pakistan but was then part of British India. His next two children Frederick Henry Pinsent and Annie Mary Louisa Pinsent were born while he was there. George’s term of enlistment ended in 1871 and he was back in London in time for that year’s census. It describes him as being an “unmarried private in the army”. Clearly, he had left his pregnant wife and young children back in India. Presumably they were in Deolali, a hill-station northeast of Bombay, as that was where his next son, Arthur Edwin Pinsent was born, in April 1871.
George seems to have returned to India as a quasi-civilian. He returned to Ahmedabad on the coast of India north of Bombay, and his fifth son, Harold Edmund Pinsent was born and died there, in 1872. By then, George was a “Supervisor” at the “Public Works Department”. George’s second daughter Alice Mabel Pinsent was born in Ahmedabad in 1873; however, she died in Bombay shortly afterwards. There was a high mortality rate for infants in India in those days and it was not much better when it came to adults. The “Commander in Chief” in Bombay granted Serjt. George Pinsent of the “P.W. Department” a year’s furlough in Europe on grounds of ill-health in December 1874 (Indian Statesman: Friday 18th December 1874). George Pinsent died on board “S. S. Crocodile” at Malta on 9th January 1875, whilest in transit back to England. He left his wife with five young children to look after.
Mary Ann Louisa carried on to England but arrived back in Bombay on the “S.S. Macedonia” in May (Indian Statesman: Sunday 9th May 1875). She stayed on in India and was granted a pension of Rs 5-9-5 per month from 9th Jan. 1876 – twelve months after her husband’s death (Indian Statesman: Friday 17th September 1875). The “Families in British India” Website shows that Mary Ann Louisa married Henry S. Duke in Bombay five years later. Perhaps surprisingly, only two of her five children, Frederick Henry Pinsent and Arthur Edwin Pinsent married and only one, Frederick Henry had children.
Charles Alfred Pinsent, one of George and Mary Ann Louisa (née Payne’s) twin sons would have been nine years old when his father died on his ill-fated trip back to England in 1875. There is not much known about him; however, he spent his whole life in India and ended up working as a civilian “cutter” in the “Government Harness and Saddlery Factory” at Cawnpore (Kanpur), a British Garrison town in Uttar Pradesh, southeast of Delhi. It had seen one of the worst incidents of violence during the “Indian Mutiny” (albeit this was before he was born). The entire British garrison, men, women and children was massacred in June 1857.
Charles never married. Like his grandfather before him, he chose to end his life through suicide, by hanging. Why is unknown: the Coroner put it down to “temporary insanity”. In the absence of immediate family, the Government, who were in charge of all the Europeans in India, processed and preserved his will. It is now visible on-line (British India Office: Wills & Administration Transcripts: Findmypast.com). Charles made his twin brother, George Augustus Pinsent his executor and left to him the bulk of what little goods and chattels he actually had. George Augustus was employed by the “Eastern Telegraph Company.” He proved his brother’s estate, which was worth less than Rs. 1,700 (rupees), in Bombay, in March 1914.
George Augustus Pinsent never married either. He had stayed on in Bombay and joined the “Eastern Telegraphic Company” as a “clerk”. He was living on “Mazajan Terrace, Nesbit Road, Bombay” when taken to St. George’s Hospital in Bombay. He died of natural causes on 25th April 1921. The Government duly processed his will, and it too is available on-line (British India Office: Wills & Administration Transcripts: Findmypast.com). George Augustus had appointed his godson George Eardley Robinson (a railway company “clerk”) and yet another brother Arthur Edwin Pinsent (a “docks manager”) as joint executors and trustees. His estate amounted to around Rs. 81,000 (rupees). He gave his jewelry and ornaments to his unmarried sister, Annie Mary Louise Pinsent and his clothes to his servant, Sukla Mikla. He gave Rs. 20,000 (rupees) to his brother Frederick Henry Pinsent (“Freddie”) and Rs. 20,000 (rupees) to his brother Arthur Edwin to hold in trust to provide income for their sister Annie during her life, and he gave his godson Rs. 10,000 (rupees) to provide income for his erstwhile servant and his wife. The rest, he gave to his godson. The will was proved in the High Court at Bombay in July 1922.
Annie Mary Louisa Pinsent witnessed her brother Frederick’s marriage in Karachi, in 1893, but never married. She seems to have been brought up in India and become an “Army School Mistress.” In the summer of 1904, she was attached to the “1st Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment” at one of the “hill depots” (Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore): Saturday 12th March 1904). Presumably she was given other postings in other years. Eventually, she retired back to England. I am not sure when; however, she was living in Milton, in Hampshire in 1921, at the time of the census. It tells us that she was a “retired army school teacher” who had been born in Karachi. She was living on her own.
Annie Mary Louisa died in Southsea, near Portsmouth (where there were several other completely unrelated Pinsent families) in 1951. In the apparent absence of any family, administration of her estate (which was valued at approximately £580) was granted to “H. M. Treasury”. However some doubts must have remained as a firm of solicitors in Southampton issued a plea for any remaining kin to contact them about her estate a few years later (Hampshire Telegraph: Friday 22nd July 1955). Why her solicitors had been unable to locate her brothers Frederick Henry and Arthur Edwin – who were living in London – I am not sure! One has to wonder if they heard about the newspaper item and got in touch.
Arthur Edwin Pinsent, the youngest of the surviving brothers, did marry but he had no children that I am aware of. He married Annie Louisa Brennan in Bombay, in 1898. Arthur was employed as the “Dock Manager” for the “Bombay Port Trust” and it was as “Deputy Superintendent of Prince’s and Victoria Dock” that he was invited to witness the crew of “S.S. Aberlour” demonstrate their newly installed “Clayton Disinfecting and Fire Extinguishing Apparatus.” No doubt he were impressed (Indian Daily News: Thursday 6th November 1902).
Annie Louisa was an impressive lady in her own right. The Medical Register for 1913 shows that “Annie Louisa Pinsent of Gymkhana Chambers, Fort Bombay was licensed by the Royal College of Physicians, in Edinburgh and by the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow in 1896.” She would have been approximately twenty-three years old at the time.
Arthur and Annie Louisa must have made at least two trips to England between the wars. Ships’ manifests show them returning to India – leaving London on the “S. S. Merkara” on 8th August 1919, and the “S. S. Narkunda” on 6th January 1922. Perhaps Annie had professional business to attend to, or perhaps they were trying to find a place to retire to. The Electoral Registers show that they they occupied a flat in Redcliffe Square, in Kensington from 1924 to 1926. They had moved to Woodstock Road, in Hendon near London by 1927, and to Quadrant Close, the Burroughs, in Hendon, by 1936. Interestingly, Arthur and Annie timed their move back to England to coincide with Arthur’s brother, Frederick Henry Pinsent and his wife, Constance Hilda (née Platel).
Arthur and Annie Louisa took a trip to America in 1937. They arrived in Boston on the “S. S. Sameria” on 28th May and they arrived back in Liverpool on the “S. S. Scythia” on 26th July. Why they went, I am not sure. On arrival, the American officials described Arthur Edwin Pinsent as being “5ft 9in, dark in complexion, having grey hair, blue eyes and a scar on the base of his left thumb”. They described Annie as being “5ft 2in, dark in complexion, having brown hair and blue eyes:” [List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States Immigrant Inspector at Port of Arrival: Massachusetts, Boston Passenger Lists: 1820-1943].
Arthur Edwin Pinsent died in January 1939 and his widow was granted probate. His effects were valued at approximately £9,000. Annie Louisa was still living in Hendon later that year, when the pre-war Register was taken; however, she moved up to London after the War and was at Rodney House, in Dolphin Square, in Hampstead when she died in October 1952 (Westminster and Pimlico News: Friday 14th November 1952). Her estate was valued at approximately £7,500. She had no immediate Pinsent relations, so who her beneficiaries were, I do not know.
Only one of George Pinsent and Mary Ann Louisa Pinsent (née Payne’s) five sons, Frederick Henry Pinsent, had children and his only child, Hazel Ella Pinsent died while still a young child. His life is described elsewhere.
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent: 1754 – 1841
Grandmother: Elizabeth Pridham: 1763 – 1821
Father: Charles Pinsent: 1812 -1863
Mother: Mary Fullick: 1812 – 1852
Maria Pinsent: 1797 – 1864
John Pinsent: 1799 – 1870
William Pinsent: 1808 – xxxx
George Pinsent: 1814 – 1894
Thomas Pinsent: 1836 – 1838
Charles Pinsent: 1837 – 1862
George Pinsent: 1840 – 1875
Alfred Pinsent: 1848 – 1919
Henry James Pinsent: 1850 – 1853
Frederick Pinsent: 1852 – 1929
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George Pinsent: 1814 – 1894 GRO0348 (Tailor, London)
Elizabeth Leatt: 1822 – 1890
Married: xxxx: xxxx
Children by Elizabeth Leatt:
George Henry Pinsent: 1844 – 1915 (Tailor; Married (1) Amelia Pinsent, 1874, London; Middlesex; (2) Eliza Mason, 1901, Stratford, Essex)
Thomas Charles Pinsent: 1845 – 1868 (Fishmonger, Sydenham, Kent)
Unknown Pinsent: 1847 – xxxx
William John Pinsent: 1848 – 1849
Elizabeth Maria Pinsent: 1851 – xxxx (Married William John Shubrook May, Tailor, 1870, London)
Emily Jane Pinsent: 1854 – 1866
Jessie Caroline Pinsent: 1857 – 1944 (Married Frank Wood, Compositor, 1877, London)
Walter Pinsent: 1860 – 1863
Alice Amy Pinsent: 1863 – xxxx (Married William George Smith, 1892, West Hampstead)
Amelia Pinsent: 1866 – 1866
Family Branch: Devonport
Family Summary: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0348
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George was the fourth and youngest son of Thomas Pinsent and Elizabeth (née Pridham). He was born in Newton Abbot and, like his brothers (John Pinsent, William Pinsent, and Charles Pinsent) he was brought up at “Greenhill,” in Kingsteignton. The farm belonged to their half brother, another Thomas Pinsent, the “draper” from Devonport. Elizabeth Pridham’s boys were children from a second marriage and they moved out before their father died in 1841. John was a “tallow chandler” in London before emigrating to the United States. William became a “mariner” and landed up in Liverpool.and Charles became a “cheese-monger” in London. Their lives are discussed elsewhere.
George followed his brothers up to London and married Elizabeth Leatt – although I am not sure when or where. They had a large family (ten children: four boys and six girls); however, at least three (possibly four) died in infancy (William John, Walter, Amelia and an “unknown” born in 1847) and two others (Thomas James and Emily Jane) died young. London was not a particularly healthy place to be. Nevertheless, their eldest son (George Henry) and at least three of his sisters (Elizabeth Maria, Jessie Caroline and Alice Amy) grew to maturity and married.
London’s water supply was frequently contaminated and there outbreaks of cholera and typhoid were all too common in the City well into the mid-1850s. Their cause was unknown until a medical officer, Dr. John Snow, conducted a land-mark morbidity survey in Soho in 1854. Much of the City’ sewage was discharged into the River Thames untreated and the summer of 1858, which was particularly hot was (not so fondly) remembered as “the year of the big stink”. The City undertook a major restructuring of its sewage disposal system in the 1860s, for which future generations must have been truly thankful.
George and Elizabeth seem to have moved around the City of London quite a bit. Census records show the family living near Lombard Street, in St. Edmund the King and Martyr Parish in 1851; in Spread Eagle Passage in Leadenhall Market in St. Peter’s Parish Cornhill, in 1861, and on Lambeth Street in Whitechapel in 1871. Whitechapel was not exactly the best part of town in those days. It is best remembered for the “Ripper” murders which took place in 1888.The family had moved there by 1863 and were still there in 1881.
George was a “journey man tailor” and his wife Elizabeth helped out as an “assistant tailoress”. Their eldest son, George Henry Pinsent also became a “tailor.” His life is discussed elsewhere. Their other sons, Thomas Charles Pinsent, William John Pinsent and Walter Pinsent never married. Thomas Charles was a “porter” in the marked at Covent Garden in 1861; however, he seems to escaped London as he was a “journeyman fishmonger” in Lewisham when he died, apparently unmarried, in 1868. His younger brothers did not survive that long.
Several of George and Elizabeth’s daughters went into the tailoring business in some form or another. Although Emily Jane Pinsent and Amelia Pinsent died young, the others survived. Elizabeth Maria Pinsent married William John Shubrook (?) May, a widower and fellow “tailor” in 1870, and went on to have a large family of her own in Kensington – which was far more upmarket than Whitechapel! He was presumably related to the man who married Emily Jane’s adopted Aunt, Eleanor Lee Pinsent mentioned above. Life gets complicated.
Elizabeth Maria’s younger sister, Jessie Caroline Pinsent married Frank Wood a “compositor” (presumably in a local printing works) in 1877, and her other sister Alice Amy Pinsent married William George Smith – another widowed “tailor” in West Hampstead, in Essex in 1892. Alice had had two illegitimate daughters before she married Mr. Smith in 1892. Sophia Mary Pinsent was born in Forestgate (West Hampstead) in 1885 and Minnie Florence Amberg Pinsent arrived in West Hampstead in 1890. Minnie could have been an early daughter by her eventual husband, however, the 1901 Census shows that Alice took two “Pinsent” daughters into her marriage. Both survived infancy and grew up and married in their turn.
Alice’s daughter Sophia had some schooling. She was admitted to the “Baker Street School” in Tower Hamlets, in London, in 1890 (London, England, School Admissions and Discharges, 1840-1911). Sophia went on to marry Edgar Thomas Merriday, in September 1902. Minnie Florence, meanwhile, married Albert Abraham Burton, a “general labourer” in West Hampstead in 1915. Before she did so; however, she a had an illegitimate daughter of her own. She had a child called Minnie Pinsent in 1909. The latter probably married Samuel Leslie Prestwick in London in 1928. Life definitely gets complicated.
George’s brother John Pinsent emigrated to America in the 1830s and established his family there; his brother William married in Lancashire but had no sons, and George Pinsent had only the one surviving son – however, he failed to provide male heirs. It is only through their brother Charles Pinsent that his particular line continued on in England. The fact that George’s son, George Henry married his cousin Amelia, tells us that at least these two brothers remained close – or at least they did until Charles committed suicide in 1863.
George and Elizabeth (née Leatt) were living apart when the Census takers came calling in 1881. They erroneously reported that George was a “widowed tailor” living with his, as yet unmarried, daughter, Alice Amy Pinsent in their family home at #40 Lambeth Road, in Whitechapel. Meanwhile, they found his wife, Elizabeth (née Leatt) living with another daughter, Elizabeth Maria and her husband, William May in Peckham Grove, in Camberwell, Surrey. Whether the separation is significant or not, I do not know.
Elizabeth died in Mile End Infirmary in July 1890 and her son, George Henry Pinsent, notified the relevant authorities. He described her as being a “domestic nurse”, and that may explain why she had been living with her daughter’s family in Camberwell (London, England, Deaths & Burials: 1813 – 1980). Social Services were almost non-existent in those days and Elizabeth’s husband, George, was living in the St. George in the East Workhouse on Raine Street, in London by the time the next census was held, in 1891. He was discharged from the Workhouse to the Infirmary and died there in April 1894.
Grandfather: John Pinsent: 1723 – 1800
Grandmother: Elizabeth Puddicombe: 1719 – 1795
Father: Thomas Pinsent: 1754 – 1841
Mother: Elizabeth Pridham: 1763 – 1821
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1743 – xxxx
John Pinsent: 1745 – 1804
Mary Pinsent: 1748 – 1749
Mary Pinsent: 1751 – 1773
Thomas Pinsent: 1754 – 1841
Sarah Pinsent: 1759 – 1782
Thomas Pinsent: 1779 – 1779
Thomas Pinsent: 1782 – 1872
John Pinsent: 1799 – 1870
William Pinsent: 1808 – xxxx
Charles Pinsent: 1812 – 1863
George Pinsent: 1814 – 1894
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Birth: 1855
Marriage: N/A
Spouse: N/A
Death: 1856
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0334
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent: 1782 – 1872
Grandmother: Mary Savery: 1780 – 1859
Father: John Ball Pinsent: 1819 – 1901
Mother: Hannah Davie Swain: 1815-1887
Mary Savery Pinsent: 1806 – 1884
Thomas Pinsent: 1807 – 1826
Anna Pinsent: 1809 – xxxx
Elizabeth Savery Pinsent: 1811 – xxxx
Sarah Savery Pinsent: 1812 – 1813
Savery Pinsent: 1815 – 1886
Sarah Pinsent: 1817 – 1847
John Ball Pinsent: 1819 – 1901
Richard Steele Pinsent: 1820 – 1864
Emma Pinsent: 1823 – 1831
Thomas Pinsent: 1842 – 1889
William Swain Pinsent: 1843 – 1920
John Ball Pinsent: 1844 – 1890
Frederick Richard Steele Pinsent: 1855 – 1856
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Frederick Henry Pinsent: 1868 – 1937 GRO0330 (Clerk, Indian Telegraph Service)
1. Florence Maud Platel: 1876 – 1896
Married: 1893: Karachi, British India
Children by Florence Maud Platel:
Hazel Ella Pinsent: 1893 – 1896
2. Constance Hilda Platel: 1883 – 1963
Married: 1906: Bombay, India
Family Branch: Devonport
Family Summary: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0330
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Frederick Henry Pinsent was the third of George Pinsent and Mary Ann Louisa (née Payne’s) five sons. He was born in Karachi – in what is now Pakistan – in April 1868. He was baptized at Holy Trinity Church there on 8th May. Frederick grew up in Ahmedabad on the coast to the north of Bombay and then moved to Bombay with his family.
I know very little about his early life; however he had become a “signaler” for the “Indo-European Telegraph” by the time he married Florence Maud Platel, in Karachi in 1893. They had a daughter, Hazel Ella Pinsent, that October; however, she died as a young child in April 1896. Sadly, her mother, Florence Maud died the following month, during childbirth. Presumably her second child died with her.
Frederick transferred From Karachi back to Bombay and married Constance Hilda Platel, in St. Patrick’s Church in April 1906. She was probably Florence’s younger sister, as they were both described as being daughters of “Frederick Platel”. Constance must have been a devout Catholic as Frederick was re-baptized at St. Patrick’s, a Roman Catholic Church, a few months before they married. They had no children that I am aware of.
Frederick was working for the “Persian Gulf Telegraph Company” in Karachi when he made a contribution to the “Belgian National Relief Fund” in November 1915 (Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore): Saturday 27th November 1915. I am sure Belgium needed all the help it could get. He retired back to England with Constance in the early 1920s. A study of British Telephone Books shows that they were living on Russell Road in London in 1924 and on Elsham Road in Kensington/Chelsea from 1925 to 1933. They then moved to Blakesley Avenue in Ealing. It is interesting to note that they returned to England at about the same time as Frederick’s brother Arthur Edwin and his wife, Annie Louisa (née Brennan). Presumably that was not a coincidence.
Frederick died in Brentford, in Essex, November 1937 leaving an estate, valued at £225. It passed to his widow who stayed on in Blakesley Avenue and died there, in July 1963. Her estate was valued at £378.
Grandfather: Charles Pinsent: 1812 -1863
Grandmother: Mary Fullick: 1812 – 1852
Father: George Pinsent: 1840 – 1875
Mother: Mary Ann Louisa Payne: xxxx – xxxx
Mary Ann Elizabeth Pinsent: 1833 – 1868
Thomas Pinsent: 1836 – 1838
Charles Pinsent: 1837 – 1862
George Pinsent: 1840 – 1875
Amelia Pinsent: 1842 – 1901
Alice Pinsent: 1844 – xxxx
Eliza Pinsent: 1846 – 1847
Alfred Pinsent: 1848 – 1919
Henry James Pinsent: 1850 – 1853
Frederick Pinsent: 1852 – 1929
Georgiana Caroline Pinsent: 1854 – xxxx
Eliza Marian Pinsent: 1856 – 1857
George Augustus Pinsent: 1866 – 1921
Charles Alfred Pinsent: 1866 – 1914
Frederick Henry Pinsent: 1868 – 1937
Arthur Edwin Pinsent: 1871 – 1939
Harold Edmund Pinsent: 1872 – 1872
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Frederick Charles Pinsent: 1875 – 1951 GRO0327 (Caterer, Walthamstow, Essex)
Jessie Maud Berrill: 1877 – 1967
Married: 1898: Walthamstow, Essex
Children by Jessie Maud Berrill:
Ivy Lillian Pinsent: 1900 – xxxx (Married Harold John Buck, 1925)
Victor Charles Pinsent: 1907 – 1993
Family Branch: Devonport
Family Summary: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0327
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Frederick Charles Pinsent was the eldest son of Frederick Pinsent by his wife, Hannah Jane (née Jenner). He was born in Hackney, in London, in 1875 and attended Sidney Road School between 1884 and 1888, when his parents lived at #165 Rushmore Road (London, England, School Admissions and Discharges: 1840-1911). After leaving school, he took a job as a “waiter” in Walthamstow in Essex, on the outer fringe of London – approximately five miles northeast of Hackney.
Frederick was a Wesleyan and he married Jessie Maud Berrill at the New Congregational Church in Hackney, in October 1898. They had a daughter, Ivy Lillian Pinsent in 1900, while they were living at #105 Pretoria Avenue in Walthamstow. They were still there when the census was taken the following year. Ivy attended Napier College and played a principal role in an operetta (“Pearl, the Fisher Maiden”) put on by the upper and middle school students as a charity concert at Christmas in 1913 (Walthamstow and Leyton Guardian: Friday 19th December 1913). Ivy married a “sales rep” (representative) named Harold John Buck, in 1925. Note that the “Mrs Pinsent” who, along with Mr. W. H. Dickenson. M.P. and others, contributed to a discussion on “Mental Deficiency” at a “Walthamstow Women’s Liberal Association” meeting in June 1913 was probably Ellen Frances Pinsent. I don’t know if Jessie Maud attended!
Frederick Charles and Jessie had moved to #105 Forest Road, in Walthamstow, by 1911, and they lived there with their with their two children, Ivy, and a son, Victor Charles Pinsent. Frederick’s parents, Frederick and Hannah, moved up from Hackney to join them in the early 1900s. Frederick “senior” helped his son manage a coffee stall. Frederick Charles described himself as being a “master caterer” when he registering the birth of his son in 1907.
Interestingly, Frederick Charles “of Clifton Avenue, Walthamstow,” was summoned before Mr. Leycester at the North London Police Court in March 1917 for selling tobacco at a coffee-stall after 9 p.m., contrary to the – presumably war-time – regulations). Apparently, he could sell a cigar or cigarette to a customer to enjoy with his meal but not sell him tobacco to go. The magistrate saw no particular evil intent at play, and he said: “I shall fine you only 5s. Don’t do it again!” (Ilsington Gazette: 23rd March 1917).
Frederick Charles Pinsent was over forty-three years old on 5th July 1918 – when he joined the “Royal Air Force.” He signed on for the duration of the war – which was, in fact, nearly over. He passed his medical and was described as being 5 ft. 3 in. in height, with a 31 ½ in chest, fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He signed on as a Pte. 2nd Class and trained as an “Aircraft hand (A.C.H.)”. Frederick Charles was given a very good character rating (British Royal Air Force Records, Airmen’s Service Records (1912 -1939): findmypast) and on leaving the Air Force, on 27th February 1919 he transferred to the “R.A.F. Reserve.”
After the war, Frederick Charles rejoined Jessie Maud and their two children in Walthamstow. He went back into the catering business and the 1921 census shows that he was a “refreshment caterer, working on own account at 71 Dalston Lane.” It was a business he ran with his father, Frederick, who lived next door at #73 Dalston Lane. Jessie Maud had household duties to attend to, and their daughter Ivy Lilian worked as a “shorthand typist” for “William Warne, Rubber Manufacturers” on Gresham Street, in London E.C. 2. Frederick Charles’s son Victor Charles was still at school. The household included a boarder.
The Pinsent family was still living on Clifton Avenue when the second world war started in 1939. Frederick Charles’s parents had died by then, but Frederick Charles and Jessie still owned their Dalston Lane property. At least, they still held it in 1932 (London, England Electoral Register: 1846-1965).
Frederick Charles died in Langthorne Hospital, in Essex, in September 1951 and his widow, Jessie Maud, who was still to be found at #18 Clifton Avenue as late as 1962, died in 1967.
Grandfather: Charles Pinsent: 1812 -1863
Grandmother: Mary Fullick: 1812 – 1852
Father: Frederick Pinsent: 1852 – 1929
Mother: Hannah Jane Jenner: 1847 – 1926
Mary Ann Elizabeth Pinsent: 1833 – 1868
Thomas Pinsent: 1836 – 1838
Charles Pinsent: 1837 – 1862
George Pinsent: 1840 – 1875
Amelia Pinsent: 1842 – 1901
Alice Pinsent: 1844 – xxxx
Eliza Pinsent: 1846 – 1847
Alfred Pinsent: 1848 – 1919
Henry James Pinsent: 1850 – 1853
Georgiana Caroline Pinsent: 1854 – xxxx
Eliza Marian Pinsent: 1856 – 1857
Frederick Charles Pinsent: 1875 – 1951
Thomas Benjamin Pinsent: 1876 – 1877
Alfred Charles Pinsent: 1881 – 1942
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