Vital Statistics
Thomas Pinsent: 1754 – 1841 GRO0836 (Chandler of Wolborough and Greenhill, Kingsteignton, Devon)
1. Anne Ball: 1747 – 1794
Married: 1777: Moretonhampstead, Devon
Children by Anne Ball:
Anna Thomasin Crout Pinsent: 1777 – 1799 (Married 1799; first wife of Joseph Pinsent, Ship Broker of London and Jurston, Chagford)
Thomas Pinsent: 1779 – 1779
Thomas Pinsent: 1782 – 1872 (Draper of Devonport and Greenhill, Kingsteignton; Married Mary Savery, 1805)
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1789 – xxxx (Married Westcott Doble Wyatt, 1808, Wolborough, Devon)
2. Elizabeth Pridham: 1763 – 1821:
Married: 1799: St. Mary Church, Devon
Children by Elizabeth Pridham:
Maria Pinsent: 1797 – 1864 (Married Roger Yeo of Bristol & Australia, Wolborough, Devon, 1814)
John Pinsent: 1799 – 1870 (Confectioner of New York, U.S.A.; Married Mary Ann Todd, 1821)
William Pinsent: 1808 – xxxx (Mariner of Liverpool)
Charles Pinsent: 1812 – 1863 (Cheese monger and Poulterer of St. John’s Wood, London; Married 1) Mary Fullick, 1833 and 2) Georgiana Caroline Henly, 1854)
George Pinsent: 1814 – 1894 (Tailor of London; Married Elizabeth Leatt, xxxx)
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0836
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Mr. John Pinsent’s second son, Thomas Pinsent was born to his wife Elizabeth (née Puddicombe) in Moretonhampstead in 1754. He was one of three Thomas Pinsents born that year. However, his parentage is clear as the parish clerk had the foresight to note his parish of birth when he married Ann Ball, by banns, in 1777. She was the daughter of William and Anne Ball of North Bovey. Thomas’s unmarried sister Sarah Pinsent witnessed the ceremony.
Thomas and Ann lived in Newton Abbot and had four children born there between 1777 and 1789. Despite Thomas’s family’s obvious Baptist leanings, they were a baptized in the Wolborough parish church. Thomas and Ann named their first born son Thomas Pinsent. He was born and died in 1777. They tried again and christened their second son Thomas Pinsent in 1782. He was their only surviving son. Thomas “junior” was still a “minor” (age eighteen) when his grandfather, the patriach of the family died in 1800. Nevertheless, he appears to have been named as a trustee of his estate and he was certainly the principal beneficiary. Mr. John Pinsent seems to have left the family “soap” and “tallow” boiling business to his eldest son, John Pinsent “junior”, and passed over his second son. Thomas “junior” was later to marry the daughter of one of the other trustees — Moses Savery, a “serge maker” from Bovey Tracey. Moses helped him develop a prosperous “drapery” business in Devonport; however, those days were still to come.
Thomas’s father, Thomas Pinsent “senior” started life as a tradesman and local directories tell us that he was a “tallow chandler and soap and glue salesman in Newton Abbot” in 1784 (Bailey’s British Directory). He had other commercial interests as well. Whitbread Brewery’s Records evidently show that he acquired an interest in the “Old Brewery in Newton Abbot” in 1781 and, with a partner, William Hancock, leased it out to Mr. Loveys in 1783. Thomas “junior” seems to have picked up his father’s interest in brewing and, although he was primarily a “draper”, he set his own son, John Ball Pinsent, up in business as a “brewer” in the neighbouring parish of Highweek. In 1860, John Ball took a lease on the “Old Brewery” for twenty one years.
Thomas Pinsent “senior” also had a controlling interest in a farm called “Greenhill” in Kingsteignton (across the River Teign from Newton Abbot) as early as 1780. It is not clear how the farm came to be in the family. The earliest Land Tax records (1780) show that it was “owned” by Thomas Pinsent and “occupied” by Mr. William Smale who held into the early 1800s. However, when Thomas’s brother, John Pinsent (the “junior” of late) disposed of the family business in Moretonhampstead, Thomas seems to have given up his job as a “tallow”, “soap” and “glue” salesman and taken to full-time farming. He was both owner and occupier of “Greenhill” in 1804. It must have been was a substantial farm as it was taxed at of £3 10s 6d.
Thomas and Ann (née Ball) had two daughters: Anna Thomasin Crout Pinsent was baptized in Wolborough in November 1777 and Elizabeth (“Betsy”) Pinsent was christened there in April 1789. Anna married Joseph Pinsent, a London “merchant” and Chagford “farmer”, who came from the HENNOCK branch of the family. The marriage was witnessed by an Elizabeth Pinsent who could have been either her sister or her cousin of the same name, and also by a John Pinsent, who could have been her uncle or her husband Joseph’s brother! The two families were both active in the Newton Abbot area. They came from the same social class and clearly knew each other well. When Anna’s younger sister, “Betsey” married Wescott Doble Wyatt in Wolborough in May 1808, it was probably her father Thomas Pinsent “senior” and her brother, who was then known as Thomas Pinsent “junior” who stepped up and witnessed the marriage.
Joseph Pinsent’s life is described elsewhere. He was a shipping broker who worked out of “Birchin Lane, Cornhill”, in London and also owned a small farm at “Jurston”, near Chagford. He took his first wife, Anna (née Pinsent), up to London shortly after their wedding in May 1799 and she fell sick and died there later that same year. In her will, Anna left most of her estate to her husband; however, she gave “one equal half part of her interest in … Greenhill estate, in Kingsteignton (now or late in the occupation of Mr. Smale)” to her “dearly beloved sister Betsey”. The other half went to her husband, giving him a partial interest in a property that more properly belonged to the DEVONPORT line. Anna’s will was witnessed by an “Elizabeth Pinsent” who had presumably joined them in London when Anna fell sick. She was probably Anna’s cousin (John Pinsent and Anne Heard’s daughter) Elizabeth as Anna’s sister “Betsy”, being a beneficiary, would have been debarred from witnessing her sister’s will. Joseph Pinsent married Elizabeth the following year, 1800!
The will shows that Anna, who was twenty-two years old when she died, held her “part interest” in the Greenhill estate before her grandfather, the patriach, Mr. John Pinsent of Moretonhampstead, died, so she must have received it from another source—possibly Mr. John Pinsent’s brother, Thomas Pinsent. He had married Mary Gildon in Kingsteignton in 1752 and clearly had interests in the parish. He died in Kingsteington in 1757 leaving two young daughters. They sold their joint inheritance at “Leigh” (a property in Hennock) to their uncle John in 1775 (Wreyland Documents). Thomas may have left some of his Gildon family property to his brother Mr. John Pinsent “in trust” for his young nephew Thomas. “Greenhill” was in the DEVONPORT family as far back as 1780, and another farm “Gildons” from 1826. It must have been a substantial property as it was taxed at £4 10s 9d.
Joseph’s farm at “Lower Jurston”, in Chagford, is interesting as Land Tax Records show that his erstwhile father-in-law Thomas Pinsent “senior” owned an adjoining property at “Ponsford’s Lettaford” and “South Lettaford” (together taxed at £1 17s 11d) immediately across the parish boundary in North Bovey. Thomas also owned a piece of land called Pawtry, taxed at £1 3s 8d — at least from 1780 onward. They may have come to him through his marriage to Ann Ball of North Bovey. Thomas conveyed “Lettaford” to his (by then ex-) son-in-law Joseph Pinsent in 1805, several years after his daughter Anna Thomasin Crout Pinsent died. It later became Joseph’s principal residence in Devon. Joseph may have given Thomas the portion of “Greenhill” he had been left by his first wife in return.
Thomas Pinsent “senior” retained his interest in “Pawtry” through “Pinsent, Widdicombe and Co.” and he purchased “Bridge” (Land Taxed at 13s 9d) in North Bovey in 1808 and held it until at least 1831. These properties likely passed to his son, Thomas Pinsent of “Devonport and Greenhill” and were held by him throughout his life. They were described as “farms and lands called Potworthy and Barramore Bridge” when they were written into the latter Thomas’s will in 1869. “Greenhill” remained in the family until 1872.
Thomas’s father, Mr. John Pinsent, had set his eldest son John Pinsent up in business (as a “soap boiler”) in Plymouth when he married and he may have done something similar for Thomas Pinsent as he settled in Kingsteignton (Newton Abbot). Thomas may have run an Inn (?) called the “Blue Ball and Gardens” in Wolborough (Newton Abbot) owned by Mr. Francis Drake and Land Taxed at 10s 3.75d between 1780 and 1784. Presumably it was linked to the “Old Brewery.” He later became the “tallow chandler” and “soap salesman” referred to above. He likely had a house/shop in Newton Abbot taxed at around 13s 9d a year until sometime in the late 1820s. It was probably this Thomas who witnessed the will of Martha Cawse in Newton Abbot in 1793. It was probated in 1814 (Inland Revenue: Stamp Office Wills: 1814).
Thomas Pinsent seems to have lost interest in the family business by the time his elder brother John Pinsent died in 1804, and at his age he had no wish to move back to Moretonhampstead to run it. It was sold off and Thomas moved to “Greenhill” farm where he took on several apprentices between 1803 and 1821 and was elected “Secretary of the Teignbridge Agricultural Association” in 1833 (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Saturday 7th December 1833). Thomas was issued with “Game Certificates” (at cost of £3 13s 6d) in 1824, 1826, 1829, and 1834 (Western Times: Saturday 27th September 1834).
Parliament passed a law in 1836 that enabled landowners to commute their parish tithes — if they could reach agreement with the rector and parishioners. Several parishes, including Kingsteignton, commuted their tithes in the years that followed and we find Thomas Pinsent of “Greenhill”, Thomas Pinsent of “Pitt” in Hennock (who held 16 acres of land at “Lower Albrook”), and other land-owners calling for a parish meeting to discuss the issue in 1840. The parishioners carried out a land survey that showed that Thomas of “Greenhill” owned two separate blocks of land; 78 acres at “Greenhill”, for which he paid £8 4s 6d to the vicar, and £3 18s 0d to “impropriators” (the actual owners of the benefice) and 20 acres at “Greater Salcombe”. His rent charge for the latter was £ 11s 6d to the vicar and £3 5s 0d to the “impropriators”. The previous year, Thomas of “Greenhill” attended a meeting of local farmers who were determined to lobby Parliament in favour of keeping the “Corn Laws” (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Saturday 2nd March 1839). It is worth noting that when it came to Kingsteignton, Thomas Pinsent “of Pitt” is usually identified as such, or by some reference to Hennock.
Thomas’ first wife “Mrs. Ann” died in 1794 and was buried in her home parish of North Bovey. Thomas Pinsent “widower” married Elizabeth (“Betty”) Pridham of St. Mary Church five years later – in June 1799 – and they had a second family comprised of at least four sons, John, William, Charles, and George, and a daughter, Maria. They were probably brought up with their much older half-brother Thomas Pinsent at “Greenhill”. Maria’s birth was a problem as she seems to have been illegitimate. She was baptized as Maria Pridham in St. Mary’s Church in March 1797, two years before her parents married. Maria married Roger Yeo of Castle Precincts in Bristol in Wolborough in 1814 and they went out to Australia. Their story is told by Sheila Yeo in an article entitled “The Mystery of Maria Pinsent’s Parents” on the “yeosociety.com” website.
Thomas and Elizabeth’s eldest son, John, was (just) legitimate. He was baptized in October 1799, a year before his grandfather, Mr. John Pinsent “senior”, died. The latter was a committed Baptist and he may not have been amused by his son’s behaviour. When he died, Mr. John Pinsent gave his son, John Pinsent “junior”, the family business in Moretonhampstead and took care of his grandchildren but he limited his bequest to his younger son “Thomas Pinsent of Newton” to two thirds of the income from a “haematite (iron) mine” for the remainder of its term of lease. However, even then there was a rider that any residual interest should go to his grandson Thomas. Mr. John made his grandson “son of Thomas Pinsent of Newton” his principal beneficiary and held him and his fellow trustees responsible for looking after his granddaughters. He did, however, leave Elizabeth Pridham’s infant son, John Pinsent, “sixty guineas in gold to be paid him at the time that he shall attain his ages of twenty-one years”. He made no acknowledgement of Maria at all and, of course, made no provision for any grandchildren still to come. He was determined that the bulk of his estate would pass to his grandson from the first marriage. Elizabeth (née Pridham) died in 1821, leaving Thomas with several young children.
John Pinsent lived to collect his golden inheritance. He married a girl called Mary Todd in 1821 and, interestingly, following in the family business was a “wax and tallow chandler” on the Goswell Road in London between 1823 and 1832. John and Mary emigrated to the United States in 1832 and settled in New York, where they opened a “confectionery store”. The family shows up in the United States Census records but has not been traced for any great distance. Thomas and Elizabeth’s second son, William Pinsent, was baptized in Wolborough in 1808. There is not much known about him. He seems to have been the “mariner” who married Margaret Sayle of Toxeth Park near Liverpool in 1835. He must have died prematurely, as it seems likely that Margaret was a widow, rather than a divorcee, when she remarried in 1842.
Thomas and Elizabeth’s next son, Charles Pinsent was baptized in Wolborough in 1812. He became a “Cheese monger and Poulterer” in St. John’s Wood. Charles married Mary Fullick in London in 1833 and they had a large family. Thomas’s fourth son by Elizabeth, George Pinsent, was christened in Wolborough two years later. He too went up to London where he became a tailor in St. Paul’s, Covent Garden. He married Elizabeth Leatt (in 1844 or earlier) and they also had a large family. Charles and George remained close, and Charles’s eldest daughter, Amelia Pinsent, married George’s eldest son, George Henry Pinsent, in 1874. However, they had no children. The lives of the productive sons are discussed elsewhere.
Thomas appears to have been less active in religious and social matters than his father, or his son Thomas Pinsent “junior” for that matter but he made his contribution. He was a member of a “General Committee of the Newton District Reform Association” in 1835 (Exeter Flying Post: Thursday 18th June 1835), and he gave a large sum to facilitate the rebuilding of the “Salem” Dissenting Chapel (£50) in Kingsteington. The “lasting gratitude of the friends is justly due to the noble offer of Mr. Pinsent as it supplied the stimulus for the accomplishment” (Western Times: Saturday 12th October 1839). Presumably, Thomas thought the “Misses Dyer” taught the right stuff as he gave them a reference when they moved their school for young ladies to Torbay Mount in Paignton (Western Times: Saturday 3rd March 1832). Thomas Pinsent of “Greenhill” is mentioned in electoral rolls for 1832 and 1834, and he was most likely the candidate proposed for the position of “Constable for Kingsteignton Hundred” referred to in 1839 (Ugbrooke Archives). Who Mr. Calmady Pollexfen Hamlyn (three exquisitely Devonshire names) was, I am not sure, but Mr. Thos. Pinsent of Kingsteignton attended a meeting in the Globe Hotel in Exeter in November 1830 to honour his work and to thank him for his “unremitting perseverance” in the Public Service, 13th November 1830). He was doubtless a local worthy.
Thomas Pinsent, “gentleman”, died in Newton Abbot in February 1841, aged 86 (Western Times: Saturday 20th February 1841). His will, if he made one, was likely destroyed when the probate office in Exeter was bombed during the Second World War. Presumably he did what he could for his daughter Maria and his younger sons, but there was no getting away from the fact that “Greenhills” and the other “family” property was already in the hands of his eldest son: Thomas Pinsent (1782 – 1872) and had been since he came off-age. His father had at best a life-interest in some of it. Certainly, it was Thomas Pinsent “junior” who paid “Chief rent for Greenhills, part of Gildons and part of Blindwells”, in Kingsteignton Manor from 1842 onward.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: John Pinsent: 1690 – 1737
Grandmother: Margaret Luscombe: xxxx – xxxx
Parents
Father: John Pinsent: 1723 – 1800
Mother: Elizabeth Puddicombe: 1719 – 1795
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Sarah Pinsent: 1721 – 1805
John Pinsent: 1723 – 1800 ✔️
Thomas Pinsent: 1726 – 1754
Mary Pinsent: 1728 – xxxx
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1732 – 1804
Male Siblings (Brothers)
John Pinsent: 1745 – 1804
Thomas Pinsent: 1754 – 1841 ✔️
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