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John Pinsent was the eldest son of John Pinsent of Wolborough (Newton Abbot) by his wife Susanna (née Pooke). He was born in Newton Abbot in 1753 and was apprenticed to Mary Speare, a “baker” in St. Thomas Parish (in Exeter), in 1767. His parents died while he was still quite young – in 1772.
John married Susanna Speare, in Newport, in Hampshire, in 1793. She was, probably, Mary Speare’s daughter; however, I need confirmation of that. There was a marriage settlement and it is (or at least was) in the Devon Records Office (“Exeter Dean and Chapter documents Bundle 7153”). I have not seen it. Why John waited until he was around forty to marry, and what he was doing in Hampshire, I am not sure!
John Pinsent appears in the land tax records in 1796.
London’s Land Tax Records show that he lived at (or at least payed the taxes for) a house at 22 James Street (between Gray and Bird Street) in St. Marylebone parish from 1784 until he died in 1821. The “Sun Fire Insurance Company” issued John Pinsent “baker” a policy on the same property in 1809. He may have also held some interest in a property on Park Street in the early 1800s as anyone interested in renting a house “fit for the reception of a small family; fitted up with a degree of superior elegance, and commanding a most beautiful view of Hyde Park” was advised to apply to Mr. Pinsent, Baker, No. 88 Park Street in 1801 (Morning Post: 6th June 1801).
John seems to have run his business out of No. 35 Edward Street – which in those days – was, sadly, not a particularly salubrious part of London! However, it was close enough to Portman Square (which was a lot more up-market) that he included that in the address! John’s brother Robert was living at “No. 35 Edward Street, Portman Square” when he wrote his Will in 1786. Presumably the property was somewhere near today’s “Edward’s Mews.”
Map of Mayfair (south) and Marylebone (north), c. 1830. The square is top left. Wikimedia.
London’s Directories show that John had broader interests than baking and he ran the London side of a shipping business (“William and John Pinsent of Portman Square”) he had set up with his brother William in Port de Grave, in Newfoundland. John coordinated European sales and arranged shipping out of London and William dealt with day-to-day operations in Newfoundland (1792-1821).
John’s younger brother, Joseph Pinsent, may have helped out now and then, both before and after he became an accredited (City of London) shipping agent; however, there is no sign of their having a particularly deep or on-going working relationship. Joseph advertised a quantity of cod “just imported in excellent order” in March 1806. It is not clear if it came off one of his brothers’ ships (Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser: Monday 3rd March 1806). He also dealt with the sale of the hull and contents of the “William and John” which was driven on shore near Lymington in a gale in June 1806 (Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser: Wednesday 11th June 1806). I fear that this was one of the family’s ships! I hope it was insured.
John and William first show up in the Newfoundland records as partners in 1791, when they sue “Thomey for £23 debt.” It is worth noting that a “John Pinsent” captained one of the firm’s ships in 1793 and 1794 – so John may have taken a hands-on approach to the business in the early days. Perhaps he was not just pushing paper. The brothers’ ship “Pinsent” (Captain Wells) was among a list of vessels reported to be at anchor in the River Tagus (Portugal) in April 1803 (Oracle and Daily Advertiser: Tuesday 8th November 1803). The same ship unloaded cargo at Newry (Ireland) and was en route from Lisbon to Liverpool the following January (Oracle and Daily Advertiser: Wednesday 11th January 1804). It docked in Cork with the rest of the “Surinam Fleet” in April 1805. The “Pinsent” was on its way back to London (Royal Cornwall Gazette: Saturday 6th April 1805). These movements are probably fairly representative. The business is described more fully under William’s name.
John shared the Edward Street property with his cousin Charles Pinsent from 1792 to 1798 (or, perhaps, later). Charles was the son of John’s uncle Robert Pinsent by his wife Eleanor Shapley (see elsewhere). Charles married (the very appropriately named) Elizabeth Butter in Devon in 1791 and set up as a “cheese-mongers” in Edward Street. It made sense, I suppose, bread and cheese. A document in the London Metropolitan Archives shows that “Charles Pinsent, cheese-monger” took out a “Royal and Sun Alliance” insurance policy on the Edward Street property in 1792 – so he may have had the first claim to the premises.
John and “cousin” Charles were neighbours throughout the 1790s and their children were baptized at St. Marylebone Parish Church. They would have been christened in what is now known as the “Old Church” – which had been built in 1760. It rapidly became too small for the parish and it was replaced by the new one in 1817. John would have been around to see the latter built.
Charles gave up on selling cheese in the late 1790s. He moved into the construction business and relocated to the nearby parish of Soho. His life is described elsewhere. Just to complicate matters, there was to be another Charles Pinsent “cheese-monger” living in London in the mid 1800s. However, he was not yet born, so there is no confusion.
The Old Bailey in London.
John Pinsent was, (according to the records of the “Central Criminal Court” (“Old Bailey”) that are now available on-line) summoned for jury service on 1st July, 1790 and was appointed to the “First Middlesex Jury” of the “King’s Commission of Oyer and Terminer, and Goal Delivery.” Sometime later (on the 17th February 1796) he was appointed to the “Second Middlesex Jury.” On that occasion, his cousin Charles Pinsent was appointed to the “First Middlesex Jury.” They both fulfilled their civic duty.
Interestingly, Charles was back in court as a plaintiff in 1805, when thieves stole a cart load of lumber from his work-yard. It came from a house demolition project and the perpetrators failed to notice that some of it still had wallpaper attached that could be matched to similar paper still adhering to lumber in his yard!
Baptism entries for John Pinsent’s children.
One of John’s daughters, Sophia Speare Pinsent, died in London in 1805. How old she was I am not sure as John and Susanna seem to have been slow to have their children baptized. Her sister, Susanna Speare, was born about 1795 but wasn’t christened until after a still younger sister, Elizabeth Speare, and a brother, Robert John Pinsent, were born in 1798 and 1801 respectively. All three were baptized in 1806.
In all, John and Susanna had four daughters and two sons; however, only three daughters and one of the sons survived. Infant mortality was very high in London in those days as the drinking water came from communal pumps in the street and it was easily contaminated. Diseases such as cholera and typhoid spread rapidly throughout the city. The situation did not improve much until London had its sewage and drinking water system rebuilt in the late 1850s.
Article describing the fraud case against William McVilley, Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser, February 2, 1818.
In 1818, John was, in his capacity as a baker, caught up in a fraudulent scheme that led to Wm. McVilley (alias Burk and/or countless other names) facing charges at Marlborough Street Court. Evidently, Mr. McVilley had arranged for a couple of women to visit the bakers in the district and con them into providing bread for resale at a chandler’s shop that they had – supposedly – just opened in St. John’s Court, Hanway Street. The bakers were (of course) to be reimbursed later. Needless to say, the money was not forthcoming. Mr. Pinsent was defrauded of £8’s worth of bread. Unfortunately for Mr. McVilley, the bakers talked amongst themselves and contrived to have the culprit caught (floury handed) with two stolen loaves that he was attempting to sell on the street (London Packet and New Lloyd’s Evening Post: Monday 2nd February 1818).
First page of John Pinsent’s last will and testament, 1821.
John died in London in 1821 and was buried in St. Marylebone parish churchyard. He arranged for trustees to look after his estate and appointed his unmarried eldest daughter, Mary Speare Pinsent, as his administratrix. Presumably she had a head for business as she ran a millinery business out of No. 109 New Bond Street with her younger sister Elizabeth Pinsent (London Directories).
The business was insured by the “Sun Fire Insurance Company” in 1823. John asked his assignees to divide his assets between his wife and four children – albeit he gave his son (Robert John Pinsent) the right of first refusal to buy out his mother and sister’s Newfoundland shipping interests.
After her father’s death, Mary Speare seems to have kept some exposure to the family shipping business. She became a co-owner, with her uncle William Pinsent and her father’s estate of the ship BROTHERS (115 tons, built in Cupids, Conception Bay, in 1820). Unfortunately, the vessel was lost in 1830. How or why, I am not sure. Presumably the the trustees sold the bakery and, over time, Robert John exercised his right of purchase of the shipping business. He took off for Newfoundland in 1827 – as his uncle William was getting on in years and needed his help.
Newspaper notes Susanna Pinsent’s death in 1830. Exeter & Plymouth Gazette.
The family had maintained its Devon roots while it lived in London and Susanna and her daughters moved back there, after John’s death. Susanna’s daughter, Susanna Speare, seems to have preceded them as she was described as being “of Kingscarswell” when she died (aged 24) in 1819. Elizabeth died in Cullompton in 1828, “after two years of illness” and Susanna, herself, died in Totnes in 1830.
Mary Speare Pinsent is listed in the 1851 census.
None of John’s daughters married. Mary Speare leased a property called Long Park, in Clyst Honiton owned by the Exeter Cathedral Chapter, in 1831 and periodically renewed her lease (Archives: Exeter Cathedral). While she was living there, she became entangled in a dispute between two of her neighbours. Apparently, she had sold a house and nine acres of land to a local gentleman in 1865 and, appropriately enough, had notified the sitting tenant. All should have been well; however, there was a long and ongoing dispute between the new owner and the tenant over the maintenance of a hedge between their adjoining properties and the tenant haughtily disputed the new owners right to the property. He wrote to her questioning his new landlord’s signature. The dispute made its way to the Local Assize – much to the benefit of the lawyers, but, one suspects, no one else (Western Times: Tuesday 13th March 1866).
Mary Speare Pinsent died in December 1882 at the age of eighty-eight. She had been living off her investments for many years. The Calendar of Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration shows that Mary Speare Pinsent, late of Totnes, spinster, had her will proved by Emma Derry of Paignton, “one of the executors”. Her effects were valued at £121 5s 0d.
National Probate Calendar entry for Mary Speare Pinsent, 1882.
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Handwritten record of John Pinsent’s baptism in 1728.
John Pinsent was the youngest of the surviving sons of Thomas “the elder” of “Pitt Farm”. He grew up in Hennock and later became a “merchant” in Wolborough (Newton Abbot). According to his son Joseph’s application for membership of the “Patternmaker’s Guild” (submitted in 1800 in order to become eligible to become a “Freeman of the City of London”), his father was a “Stapler” (i.e. he traded in wool). This makes sense as John’s brothers Robert and Gilbert, who also moved to Newton Abbot, were serge weavers and woolcombers. Sadly, they both arrived as the Devonshire cloth industry was starting to decline. Newton Abbot was, however, growing into a major recruitment and administrative centre for the Newfoundland cod fishery and it is quite possible that John had interests there too.
Map of Newton Abbot.
John Pinsent marries Susanna Pooke in 1750.
John married Susanna Pooke in 1750 and they had a family of eight (surviving) boys, of whom five were to grow up, marry and have children. This discussion (see elsewhere) follows the male line of descent of three of them down to the 1960s and it tracks the descent of two others as far as they are known to go. I am a direct descendant of John’s eldest married son, John Pinsent (1753-1821); my distant “cousins”Edward Humphrey and John Pinsent are descended from Gilbert Pinsent (1758-1835) and my other “cousins”Robert Burton and GRO0710 (and also several Australians) are descended from Joseph Pinsent (1770-1835). All three, and Charles Pinsent (1766-1826) too, have female-line descendants as well; however, they are not discussed.
John and Susanna die within days of each other in the February of 1772.
John Pinsent (44) and his wife Susanna (42) died within days of each other in 1772. They were relatively young, so they presumably succumbed to a pandemic of some sort.
They had launched their elder sons but their four young boys (Gilbert, Charles, Samuel and Joseph) were still in needed of a home. They seem to have been sent to live on their grandfather Thomas at Pitt in Hennock. He would have been getting on by then and the farm was probably being run by the boys’ uncle, Thomas Pinsent“the younger of Pitt.” He had no children of his own and must have been pleased to have them. Gilbert, Charles and Joseph almost certainly learned to farm while at “Pitt”. Presumably their brother Samuel did too; however, he died young.
St. Mary’s church in Wolborough via geography.org.uk.
Their lives are described elsewhere. There is a memorial in Hennock Church that shows that Charles took over the running of the farm at “Pitt” and inherited it in 1802, when his uncle died. Gilbert had, in the meantime, become a well-known tenant farmer in the Teign valley.
Charles’s brother Joseph had gone up to London and become a shipping agent and insurance broker (not a “patternmaker”!). Nevertheless, he returning to Devon in the 1820s to farm at Lettaford, in North Bovey. He is notable for marrying not just one DEVONPORT branch Pinsent, but two (see elsewhere)! Sadly, both died young. He ended up with children from his second and third wives.
John and Susanna’s four elder sons (John, Robert, Thomas and William) were apprenticed by the time their parents died. The eldest, John Pinsent, was apprenticed to Mary Speare, a baker in St. Thomas Parish in Exeter, around 1767. He later married her daughter (?) Susana Speare and moved up to London.
Robert Pinsent’s will was probated in 1787.
Robert Pinsent was apprenticed to a peruk (“wig” maker) named Anthony Stoker in Totnes in 1769. He also went up to London and he was living with his brother John, on Edward Street near Portman Square, in 1786, when he wrote his last Will and Testament. In it, he repaid a bond he owed to his brothers John and William (whom he made his co-executors) and after other bequests he left the residue of his estate to his brother Joseph, who had yet to turn twenty-one. The Will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in 1787.
It seems likely that their brother Thomas joined the Royal Navy and died young. When Thomas “the younger of Pitt” wrote his Will, he refers to all his nephews by name except Thomas, so he had probably died before it was written, in 1791.
Thomas Pinsent wrote his will in 1779.
The younger Thomas may well have been the Pinsent who served on H.M.S. Exeter and wrote his will in 1779, presumably on joining the Navy. In it, he left his “wages, sums of money, lands, tenements, goods, chattels and estate” to his brother, Charles Pinsent. He probated the will in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in 1785. Charles later went on to inherit “Pitt” from his uncle.
The H.M.S. Exeter at the Battle of Cuddalore, 1783, via Wiki.
How and when Thomas actually died, I do not know. It is worth noting that H.M.S. Exeter was a 64 gun “third-rater,” commissioned in 1763, that served with the British fleet in the Bay of Bengal during the American Revolutionary War. It fought five engagements with the French in 1782 and 1783 (Sadras, Providien, Nagapatam, Tricomalee and Cuddalore) and it is quite possible that he died in action. Alternatively, he could just as easily have succumbed to malaria or some other tropical disease. His affairs would not have been wrapped up until the fleet returned home.
John and Susanna’s son, William, went out to Newfoundland as an “agent” for a mercantile firm around 1777 and (as discussed elsewhere) stayed on in Port de Grave where he established a shipping business which he ran with his elder brother, John. William returned to England late in life, and died in Teignmouth in 1834.
Gilbert doesn’t have a known birth record but, from his death notice, he must have been born around 1758. He probably worked on his uncle’s farm until he found one for himself. As discussed elsewhere, he turned out to be a very successful tenant farmer.
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John Pinsent was the youngest son of Gilbert Pinsent by his wife Margaret (née Snow). John grew up on a farm in Kingsteington called “Ponswin” with two elder brothers Thomas Pinsent (who died in 1804, aged 14 years) and William Pinsent, and an elder sister, Mary Snow Pinsent.
In 1824, when John was still young and unmarried, his father moved to a larger farm called “Aller Barton” in Abbotskerswell. John seems to have gone with him. However, he may have spent a year managing some rental property in Modbury in 1828, before passing that particular task on to his brother William. His father was getting on in years, so John took over the farming at “Aller Barton.” While there, he seems to have rented land at “Sandford Marsh”, in Teigngrace, in his own name. It was owned George Templar Esquire (Earl of Somerset) and valued £1 0s 0d per annum. He held it in 1830 and 1831 (and possibly later – the tax records end around then).
“Diabolical villains” burn a neighbouring property. Hampshire Telegraph, January 3, 1831.
John must have been running “Aller Barton” in all but name by 1831 when he married Ann Brock. Nevertheless, it was his father’s farm and it was Gilbert Pinsent who split the £24 16s 0d property land tax with William Bickford. This was a considerable amount. Presumably, they co-owned a considerable amount of land.
It was cheaper to import grain than to grow it in those days and there was considerable resentment, amongst unemployed “agricultural labourers” of affluent farmers who used machinery at the expense of manual labour. In 1831, John and Gilbert received threatening letters from people who clearly objected to their using a threshing machine. They were not alone. One of their neighbours received a similar letter and actually had his farm burnt down. “Aller Barton” was, at least, spared that fate (Hampshire and Sussex Chronicle: Monday 13th January 1831).
The Electoral Roll for the County shows that it was John (as opposed to his father) who was eligible to vote in 1832 and also in 1834. John formally took over the rental of the farm after his father died the following year. John Pinsent of “Aller Barton” applied for a Game Certificate in 1839. It cost him £3 13s 6d (North Devon Journal: Thursday 17th January 1839).
John Pinsent appears in the 1841 England, Wales & Scotland Census.
John and Ann had eleven children (five boys and six girls) over a period of twenty years and four of them (Anne, Martha, John and Gilbert) were living with them at the time of the 1841 Census. John’s mother (Margaret née Snow) and Martha and Amy Brock (two of his wife’s relations) were also in residence, as were eight servants. It was a substantial farm!
The Reverend George Baker, who owned the farm, put “Aller Barton”, “the well known Capital Barton of Aller, with the lands and appurtenances belonging …” up for sale by auction in June 1841 with Mr. John Pinsent as the sitting tenant.
Aller Barton is listed for sale. Sherborne Mercury, May 10, 1841.
The property was described as having “an excellent farm house, having all necessary and convenient outbuildings, offices and gardens …” two cottages, 73 acres (or thereabout) of water meadow, 47 of fertile pasture, 8 of orchard “famed for their superiority of fruit and cyder … ” and 172 acres of arable land. The property had a near “inexhaustible quantity of Potter’s Clay” that was suitable for brick manufacture and, presumably, paper manufacture as the property included an active paper making business at “Aller Mills” (Sherborne Mercury: Monday 10th May 1841). Despite its many assets, the property did not sell – and the trustees of the late Reverend Baker decided to subdivide it. In 1847, they put “Aller Barton” up for sale as thirteen lots (Daily News: July 2nd 1847). Presumably it sold that time and the farm seems to have been subsumed into a large pottery business by 1902. It was time for John and Ann to move on.
John Pinsent skewers a bull after a worker is badly injured. Western Times, August 5, 1843.
Accidents can occur on any farm and in 1843 one John’s apprentices’ at “Aller” was severely gored by a bull. John successfully distracted the beast by driving a pitchfork through its nose (Western Times: Saturday 5th August 1843). That would have got my attention too! There no mention of what the boy had said or done to the bull. John was a man of considerable standing in the local farming community and his ploughmen competed and did well in local, ploughing matches (Western Times: Saturday 1st March 1845). In his last year at “Aller” (1846) he was appointed one of Abbotskerswell’s Churchwardens. This is a surprise as he was probably a dissenter! Certainly, his wife Ann was a non-conformist and their daughters had chapel weddings.
Sadly, 1846 was not a good year for the family as Ann took ill and John had to have her admitted to to Bowhill House, a lunatic asylum near Exeter. She was admitted in July 1846 “rather feverish but in pretty good health” on grounds of “hereditary insanity.” She was discharged in June in the following year (Devon Heritage Centre: 3992F/H20/1: Findmypast). Presumably it was a temporary breakdown as there are no other indications of ill-health. Perhaps the loss of a son, Albert Pinsent – who was born in February and died in August 1846, and the stress of the upcoming move were too much for her.
Ware Barton near Kingsteignton via the National Library of Scotland.
John and Ann moved to “Ware Barton” (a.k.a “Wear Barton), a farm owned by Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, in Kingsteignton, in 1847. It backed onto the Teign River estuary a few miles east of Kingsteignton. On his arrival, probably as an act of good-will, he offered to host the eleventh annual ploughing match of the “Newton Abbot, Agricultural and Labourers’ Friendly Society” (Western Times: Saturday 26th August 1848). Perhaps he took his ploughman with him from “Aller” and felt that he could hold his own. The event seems to have gone well, and it was followed by a slap-up dinner at the Globe Hotel in Newton Abbot (Flindell’s Western Luminary: 7th November 1848). John served as a juror on the Manor Court at Kingsteignton in 1848 and again in 1851.
John Pinsent and family appear in the 1851 England, Wales & Scotland census.
One of John’s sisters-in-law, Martha Vooght, died in Bishopsteignton in 1849 leaving his wife Ann as was one of her beneficiaries (Inland Revenue Wills: 1849). The 1851 Census data shows that “Ware Barton” covered 250 acres and that John and Ann worked it with the help of their elder children Martha, John, Gilbert, James and Henry Pinsent – all of whom were born in Abbotskerswell. There were also three resident servants and five other outside-workers. John and Ann’s three younger daughters, Emma Louisa, Mary Isabella and Harriet Carlotta were born and baptized in Kingsteignton.
Pike testifies in court. Exeter Flying Post, October 31, 1850.
In 1850, Mr. Pike, one of John’s outside workers, gave evidence against a Bishopsteignton gamekeeper who had been summoned for trespassing and shooting pheasants on “Brimble Hill” on Mr. Pinsent’s land. After considerable discussion, the local magistrates plumped for “mistaken identity” and told Mr. Pike to be sure of his identification next time (Exeter Flying Post: Thursday 31st October 1850)! I do not know who the gamekeeper worked for, but perhaps his employer had clout.
John Pinsent confronts the owner of the murderous dog. Exeter Flying Post, February 13, 1851.
The following year, one of John Pinsent’s workmen saw one of the farm’s pregnant ewes being attacked by a bull terrier. He followed the dog home to Teignmouth where he discovered that it was owned by Rev. Dr. Richards. The sheep died, and the embarrassed Reverend gentleman dutifully paid up (Exeter Flying Post: Thursday 13th February 1851). John lost another sheep a month later, this time to a dog owned by Mr. Sanders of Kingsteignton. It was the third ewe that this dog had killed and compensation was not enough, it was put down (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Saturday 8th March 1851).
Letters in Lord Clifford’s archives at Ugbrooke show that John and his Lordship corresponded in 1846 over a parcel of land needed by the South Devon Railway Company. The point at issue seems to have been the amount of land he would loose to a sloped embankment. The line open as far as Teignmouth by then but under construction further west. It was slated to run from Exeter to Plymouth and would prove to be a valuable addition to the regional transit system. It was not all bad news. The farm remained productive. 1853 must have been a good year and the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette (Saturday 13th August 1853) tells us, with hint of relief, that “a field of wheat belonging to Mr. John Pinsent, of Ware Barton in this parish, has been cut and saved in good condition …”
By 1854, John had obtained enough standing in the farming community to be asked to participate as one of three judges at the sixteenth annual ploughing match of the “Newton Abbot Agricultural and Labourers’ Friend Society”. After receiving a vote of thanks at the Annual Dinner at the Globe Hotel, Mr. Pinsent expressed “a hope that in their awards and prizes (the judges) had given general satisfaction” (Western Times: Saturday 4th November 1854. John was appointed to the Newton Abbot Board of Guardians, which looked after the Workhouse and administered social services in 1857 (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Saturday 13th June 1857).
John Pinsent joins the call to fight concessions to “Romanism.” Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, January 31, 1852.
John was a chapel-goer, and he attended the “Great Protestant Meeting” when it was convened in Newton Abbot in January 1852. It was held to encourage people to sign a Petition to “Her Majesty and both Houses of Parliament against a continuance of the Maynooth Grant, and any further Concessions to Romanism” (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Saturday 31st January 1852). The Maynooth Grant was a highly contentious cash grant that the British Government made to a seminary in Ireland in 1845. John was not alone in signing the petition. John Ball Pinsent – the son of John’s neighbour, Thomas Pinsent of “Greenhill” in Kingsteignton – another wealthy farmer also signed it. They were Baptists belonging to the DEVONPORT branch of the family.
John had died a few years before the 1861 Census. However, his widow, Ann (née Brock) had evidently stayed on and continued to run the farm with the help of her unmarried sons (John, Gilbert, James and Henry Pinsent), and also her daughters (Anne, Martha, Emma, Mary and Harriet Pinsent). According to the census, “Ware Barton” covered 300 acres. There were five resident servants and two day-labourers working there.
Ann received letters of administration for her husband from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in 1859; however, there were still matters outstanding in 1866 and her eldest son, John Pinsent, acquired additional letters relating to his father’s estate in 1868. By then, John had married Catherine Whidborne and had moved to a nearby farm called Middle Rocombe in Combeinteignhead. Later, he moved out of the County and farmed in Sherfield English, in Hampshire. This seems to have been the county his wife had come from.
John’s brother Gilbert Pinsent stayed on at “Ware Barton” after his parents died and was granted letters of administration for his mother’s estate in 1866. He (eventually) married Clara Bridgman in 1880; he was forty years old. They started their family in Kingsteignton but later moved to a farm in Newbury, in Berkshire. Henry Pinsent, John and Gilbert’s younger brother, may have acquired “Whitstone” farm in Bovey Tracey when he married Mary Langmead in 1870. The lives of all three of them are described elsewhere.
James Pinsent witnessed Wm. Horsham, steal a nosebag containing a quantity of oats valued at 5s while working at Ware Barton in December 1870. Mr. Horsham was brought up before the magistrates at Newton Petty Sessions and, after initially pleading “guilty,” he changed his plea to “not guilty, as he was too drunk to know what he was doing”. He then asked “his master (in this instance James) if, in the 20 years he had worked for him, he ever knew anything against him before. His master confessed to having heard reports, but never till then, having caught him in the act. In consequence of his already long incarceration (12 days), he was ordered to be further locked up until six o’clock and then discharged” (Western Times: Thursday 29th December 1870).
John Pinsent hosts a “manure audit” and much fun was had by all. East & South Devon Advertiser, November 27, 1875.
James Pinsent worked at “Ware Barton” but also had a sideline as a “manure agent” (fertilizer salesman). In the 1870s, he was the local agent for “Messrs. Law and Co. Manufacturers”. It was a sales position that had the side benefit that he got to attend annual meetings and dinners of the “Newton Abbot Agricultural and Labourers’ Friend Society” (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Friday 28th October 1870). James and a colleague also hosted the firm’s clients to a fancy meal at one or other of the Newton Abbot hotels every year (East and South Devon Advertiser: Saturday 27th November 1875). At one of them he was teased mercilessly for still being single. He ran for it! As far as I know, he never married.
James Pinsent is charged in Australia. New South Wales Police Gazette, February 18, 1885.
James seems to have gone out to Australia, however, exactly when, I am not sure. I suspect he was the “J. Pinsent” who belonged to the Australian Jockey Club in Sydney in the late 1870s. If so, he raced a brown gelding named “Partisan” at, among times and places, the August track meet at Tattershall in August 1877 (Sydney Morning Herald: Friday 2nd March 1877). He was probably also James Pincent apprehended by the police for setting fire to a stable and shed at Temora, New South Wales, on the 27th December 1885 (New South Wales Police Gazette: February 18th, 1885). The Attorney General, for some reason, declined to prosecute. What that was all about, I have no idea. James would have been forty-three years old at the time.
John Pinsent dies without a will. Northern Miner, January 23, 1902.
James went on to become a miner in what is now Papua New Guinea. He died intestate (without a will) on Samarai Island in British New Guinea in 1902. The Deputy Curator for Intestacy processed his estate in the Northern Supreme Court (The Northern Miner: Thursday 23rd January 1902) and the Queensland Gazette shows that the State carefully invested his money while they sought a deserving legatee. The account had accumulated to £243 4s 2d by 15th September 1905.
Map of Abbotskerswell.
John and Ann (née Brock’s) had six daughters but one, Eliza, died in infancy in 1837. The other five grew up in Abbotskerswell and Newton Abbot and were married in the Independent Chapel in Kingsteignton. The girls were well known in and around Kingsteignton and Newton Abbot in the 1860s and 1870s – and it is not always possible to distinguish which did what or attended any given event!
An unknown Miss Pinsent’s craftiness is memorialized in the newspaper. Western Times, May 26, 1865.
For instance, which “Miss Pinsent” was it that “contributed many articles of elegant needle work” at a Wesleyan Bazaar held in the Royal Public Rooms in Exeter in May 1865 (Western Times: Friday 26th May 1865)? Doubtless any one of them could have. Similarly, which was it that “kindly presided at the trays” at a Harvest Thanksgiving tea given to the locals at a chapel in Kingsteignton in November 1867 (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Friday 1st November 1867)? Also, which one of them served the tea at the testimonial celebration given to honour the Rev. R. W. Row on Good Friday in April 1870? We do know that the money collected to purchase a gold watch for him was “principally through the instrumentality of Mr. Pinsent of Were Barton” (Western Times: Friday 22nd April 1870)? This was probably the late John Pinsent’s son Gilbert Pinsent .
Anne married a dentist, Thomas John Hawkins Westall, in Newton Abbot, in 1876; Martha married a grocer, John Soudon Bridgman, from Torquay, in 1868; Emma Louisa married a farmer, Frederick Lewis Crabb, from Wellington in Somerset, in 1872; Mary Isobella married a draper, George Bowers Lansdale, from Newton Abbot in 1871 and Harriet Carlotta married a chemist, John Henry Bibbings, in Newton Abbot, in 1880. Their choice of chapel over church marriages almost certainly reflects the family’s Methodist leanings.
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John Pinsent was the only son of the Rev. John Pinsent by his wife Edith Mary (née Lane). His parents decided to emigrate to Australia when he was two years old. Unfortunately, his father died on the “S.S. Hobson Bay” en route to Melbourne and his mother, who also had a young daughter to care for, decided to return to England. The family grew up in New Milton, in Hampshire. John was fond of the place. On returning there after the war, he wrote a letter to the Editor of the New Milton Advertiser questioning its local development plans: “I am not attacking this on any political lines. I am merely stating an evident economic fact. The real strength of this Borough, I suggest, lies in the development of Lymington as a town of craft industries, its (original position in the country), and of the rest of the Borough as a predominantly farming community. The over-development of the rentier class has already destroyed much the real of community in the Borough” (New Milton Advertiser: Saturday 19th January 1946). He was a young man of strong opinions!
John was educated at “St. Edmund’s School Canterbury” where he (predictably) did well in Latin, Modern Languages and English and History (Kentish Express: Friday 1st July 1938). He was at “Oriel College”, Oxford, studying classics, at the outbreak of the Second World War. He stayed on at university for a while, and was at home in New Milton long enough to participate in a four scene version of “Romeo and Juliet” in which he “made a gallant, albeit remorseful lover, gaily attired” (New Milton Advertiser: Saturday 30th August 1941).
Men of RAF 210 squadron gather around a Catalina flying boat via the Imperial War Museum.
John joined the Royal Air Force as a “leading aircraftsman” in July 1943. He was promoted to “Flight Officer” in November 1943, and “Flight Lieutenant” in May 1945 (London Gazette). John the war with “Coastal Command”, much of it piloting Catalina flying boats out of Loch Erne in Northern Ireland. Presumably he was looking for enemy submarines and monitoring the progress of convoys in the Atlantic. After the war, he stayed on in the “Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve” and in 1969 he was attached to a unit serving in Scotland. He was an active member of the “Volunteer Reserve” until March 1972, when he retired with the rank of “Squadron Leader” (London Gazette: 27th March 1972).
John’s interest in national defense reemerged in a series of letters that he sent to the Editor of the London Times in 1966. Sir Ralph Cochrane was looking for ways to include the knowledge and experience of a broad range of people in political and military decision-making, and Dr. Pinsent (as he was then) came up with the idea of a “country house” model, whereby military personnel, defense strategists and politicians could meet with university staff and other invited individuals. As a side-benefit, he thought the approach might lead to more productive scientific research both in universities and the private sector (The Times: Monday 31st January 1966). Another correspondent pointed out that a similar model had been used very successfully during the last war and a third, who happened to be the “Director of the Royal United Services Institute”, pointed out that it already had the facilities required and a staff to go with it! It had been around for over 130 years (The Times: Friday 4th February 1966)! The following year John gave his support for the creation of a “Royal Defense College” specifically designed to provide a more focused education on military matters than was currently available through the universities (London Times: Monday 12th June 1967).
After the war, John returned to finish his degree in Classical Studies at Oxford University and in 1950 he accepted the position of “Assistant Lecturer in Greek” at Liverpool University. He later became a “Senior Lecturer”, and then a “Reader” in the Classics Department. Dr. J. Pinsent, M.A., D.Phil. retired from teaching in 1990. He had been at it for 40 years.
John’s letter to “Robin” (R. J. F. H. Pinsent) from 1967.
Dr. John Pinsent took a sabbatical year at the “University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia” in the United States in 1958/9 and on his return to Liverpool heard of my father, Dr. R. J. F. H. Pinsent‘s, interest in family history. They corresponded on family related matters into the 1970s and their work forms the foundation for the current “One Name” study. Interestingly, he called his home in Liverpool (#9 Menlove Gardens West, Liverpool) “Rocombe” – hearkening back to the family’s farm in Stokeinteignhead in Devon.
According to his Obituary published in the “London Times” (Tuesday 28th February 1995), John first visited Greece while on a military exercise with the R.A.F. in 1968 and quickly realized its potential for on-site learning.
The cover of the 1973 edition of Greek Mythology by John Pinsent.
Dr. Pinsent gave a series of public lectures on Greek and Roman history in August 1966 (Chester Chronicle: Friday 19th August 1966) and he completed his well-known book on “Greek Mythology” (published by Hamlyn, London: 1969) three years later – in August 1969. He then took his family out to America for a year on sabbatical, teaching at “University of Michigan” (Liverpool Echo: Monday 18th August 1969).
While there, he wrote a companion book, “Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece” – a paperback that presents “nearly 100 tales from Greek mythology with the aim of providing a fascinating insight into Greek“ (Kensington News and West London Times: Friday 20th March 1970).
The cover of the 1973 edition of Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece by John Pinsent.
On his return to Liverpool, Dr. Pinsent started to organize annual tours of the principal archaeological sites in Greece and for several years “The Doctor Pinsent’s Tour” was a mainstay of the University’s “Institute of Extension Studies” (Liverpool Echo: Monday 24th December 1973). From 1977 onward, he regularly attended the “Homeric Conferences” in Ithaca. It provided material for illustrated lectures (Staffordshire Sentinel: Friday 18th November 1983) and was a rewarding way of networking and promoting his periodical magazine.
Dr. Pinsent had become intensely frustrated by the intricate formatting (and the inevitable delays) that came in getting professional papers published in the established Classical Journals; so he had established his own outlet in 1975. He solicited eclectic papers and articles and personally contributed and edited the “The Liverpool Classical Monthly” until he died in 1995. Sadly, the newsletter died with him (Obituary: H. D. Jocelyn). However, it is still available in libraries and online and his ideas live on – as they do in other publications: for instance, in his comments on “Ascetic Moods and Greek and Latin” (in, “Asceticism”, by V. L. Wimbush, R. Valantasis, Oxford University Press: 1998).
The header block for the November 1992 edition of the Liverpool Classical Monthly.
Dr. Pinsent as he is appointed “Public Orator”. Liverpool Daily Post, July 7, 1983.
John Pinsent evidently had charm and wit and he was well-enough versed in French wine to be appointed Chairman of University’s “Laid Down Wine Committee”. He had a booming voice (I can attest) and served as “Liverpool’s Public Orator” from 1983 to 1987. He had the honour of addressing Princess Alexandra, the Queen’s cousin, when she attended a conferment ceremony in Liverpool in July 1985 (Liverpool Echo: Friday 19th July, 1985).
John Pinsent addresses Princess Alexandra and others as she receives an honourary degree. Liverpool Echo, July 19, 1985.
John and his sister Mary Catherine Pinsent were “best man” and “brides maid” when their friends Kenneth Friend and Lexie Foxton married in Hinton Admiral (New Milton Advertiser: Saturday 29th June 1946) in 1946.
As for John, himself, he married a few weeks later. In fact, he married three times. Firstly, he married while back at University after the war. The wedding notice tells us that: “The bridegroom served with R.A.F. Coastal Command during the late war, holding the rank of Flight Lieutenant, and in the later stages of his service he was captain of a Catalina flying boat, while his bride was engaged in research work at Bart’s Hospital” (New Milton Advertiser: Saturday 31st August 1946). The marriage ended in divorce in July 1950. There were no children and his erstwhile wife remarried two years later.
Secondly, John married a schoolteacher in 1955 and they had three children, two sons, one of whom has since died, and a daughter: His son, John Pinsent – the last (5th) in a long line of “John Pinsents” – died in Newcastle upon Tyne in 2016. He had been predeceased by his own wife, Margaret. I am not aware of any children by that marriage. John’s other two children live on.
Later on in life, John married for a third time. On this occasion it was to a colleague in the Classics Department. Dr. J. Pinsent died in Liverpool in 1995. He is buried in Toxteth Cemetery.
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John Pinsent was the last born and only surviving son of John and Catherine (née Whidborne). He was born in Combeinteighhead, in Devon, but grew up with seven sisters on “Gambledown farm” in Sherfield English, near Romsey, in Hampshire.
All but one of the girls (Ellen Pinsent), had left home before the census was taken in 1901; however, John Pinsent “junior” was still living with his parents. He was reported to be a “farmers son,” aged twenty. Presumably he would have been a great help to his father who was, by then, in his sixties. In 1911, when the census takers next made their rounds, Ellen was visiting Catherine, her eldest sister, but John “junior” was still at home. However; he had decided against becoming a farmer and he was enrolled as an Anglican “theology student.” Perhaps living next door to “Romsey Abbey” influenced his decision and drew him to “High Anglicanism.” It is worth noting that the St. Barbe Monument in Romsey Abbey harks back to an earlier generation of more affluent Pinsents (Pynsent’s) who lived in the area in the 1600s.
John Pinsent, father and son, may have attended a meeting of the “Sherfield English New Forest Conservative Association” in 1906 (Western Gazette: Friday 20th April 1906); however, his interests lay elsewhere.
John Pinsent “junior” was ordained as a “priest” by the Lord Bishop of St. Albans, in Bedford, in December 1914 (Biggleswade Chronicle: Friday 25th December, 1914). As the Rev. John Pinsent, John went on to hold curacies at Woolwich, Biggleswade, Leiston, Crosby and Lincoln at intervals between 1914 and 1925 (Freeman’s Journal (Sydney: New South Wales): Thursday 11th December 1924). The paper does not give the dates but we know he was Curate of Biggleswade in the summer of 1914 as he organized a “Whist Drive and Dance” on behalf of the local “Nursing Association” (Biggleswade Chronicle: Friday 3rd July 1914).
St. Andrew’s Anglican Church at Biggleswade via Rodney Burton at Wikimedia.
He was at Biggleswade at the outset of the First World War, and we find that he was present at several events and services held in Biggleswade in 1915. Evidently, he built up quite a reputation for his “impressive officiating” – especially at funerals (Biggleswade Chronicle: Friday 16th April 1915) – and was also complimented for his fine tenor voice (Bedford Times and Independent: Friday 19th March 1915).
The Rev. John seems to have had a theological breakdown in May 1915 and his doctor instructed him to take a two-month sabbatical (Bedfordshire Times and Independent: Friday 21st May 1915). The diocese agreed to this but as he was unable to return in July, it asked him to resign: “The current issue of the “Parish Magazine” contains the following: “We are sorry to say that owing to continued ill-health Mr. Pinsent has resigned. The Vicar felt obliged to ask him to do so, as it was evident Biggleswade did not suit his health, and for the sake of the work here he has kindly fallen in with his wishes, and the Bishop has accepted his resignation” (Biggleswade Chronicle: Friday 9th July 1915).
Rev. John Pinsent resigns. Bigglewade Chronicle, July 9, 1915.
Biggleswade village seems to have had more than its fair share of casualties during the First World War – quite apart from those belonging to the various army units that were cycled through the nearby camp. Interestingly, the camp was the home of the “Royal Engineers, “D” Company Signals Section” from “the outbreak of war” in 1914 until August 1919 – when it was under the command of Major John Ryland Pinsent. The “Signals Section” then transferred to Mansfield Park. According to the local paper “their departure will be regretted by many residents in the town and district” (Biggleswade Chronicle: Friday 1st August 1919). Whether the two “John Pinsents” ever met, I do not know.
How long the Reverend John had off, and when he moved on to Leiston, in Suffolk (as suggested above) I do not know. However, he resigned from his position as curate at Leiston citing ill-health in April 1917 (East Anglian Daily Times: 2nd April 1917), was appointed to Crosby in the “Lincoln Diocese” in March 1918 (Lincolnshire Echo: Monday 18th March 1918), and to St. Swithuns, in Lincoln in February 1919 – after the war was over (Sheffield Telegraph: Tuesday 25th February 1919).
The Reverend John’s final posting was to Winchcomb, in Wiltshire. He was there by November 1921 and, from then on, we find him once again holding services and actively involved in the social life of the community. For instance, he attended a meeting of the “Winchcombe Auxiliary of the Bible Society” (Cheltenham Chronicle: Saturday 26th November 1921). On the social side, his tenor voice was still much in demand at concerts and other events (Gloucestershire Echo: Tuesday 13th December 1921)!
Rev. John Pinsent performs. Cheltenham Chronicle, March 31, 1923.
The Reverend John Pinsent was nearly forty-one years old when he married Edith Mary Lane in April 1921. Shortly afterwards, he took her visit his sister Jessie Florence Gibson, in Grimsby, in Lincolnshire. Her husband, Edward Galliard Gibson, was the “chief cashier” at the Grimsby “National Provincial & Union Bank of England.” The census takers have Rev. John down as being a “priest” at St. Bartholomew’s at Southsea.
Edith Mary helped him with his pastoral work at Winchcomb. For instance, she collected food and money for “Cheltenham General Hospital” (Gloucestershire Echo: Friday 2nd December 1921). Rev. John was formally appointed “Curate at Winchcombe” in January 1922 and was actively involved in parish activities throughout that year.
Report of Rev. John Pinsent’s conversion to Catholicism, Advocate, November 27, 1924.
In March 1923, Rev. John resigned his position as “treasurer of Winchcombe St. Peter’s Cricket Club”, saying that he was leaving town (Cheltenham Chronicle: Saturday 31st March 1923). The stated cause of his leaving was, once again, “ill-health”; however, at the Easter Vestry, a week or so later, it became clear that he had had a disagreement with the Vicar, Rev. F. M. Wickham. The Vicar objected to some of John’s changes to the religious services and, although “he wished to come to a fair and open agreement on the matter, to live and let live, if possible, without any compromise of principle on questions which it was ultimately his duty and responsibility to decide” (Cheltenham Chronicle: Saturday 7th April 1923) it was not to be. It seems likely that Rev. John had tried to move to a more Catholic approach to the liturgy but that the Vicar had objected. Certainly, the Roman Catholics considered him to be a convert (Advocate (Melbourne, Victoria) 27th November 1924).
Rev. John Pinsent resigns. Cheltenham Chronicle, April 7, 1923.
Reverend John and Edith had a son, another John Pinsent, who was baptized in Romsey Abbey in 1922, and a daughter, Mary Catherine Pinsent, who (for some-reason) had her birth registered at Minehead, in Somersetshire, in 1924. How and where she was baptized, I do not know. After leaving Winchcombe, the Rev. John appears to have taken a trip to the West Indies on the “Royal Mail Steam Packet S.S. Andes.“ Again, I am not sure why. Perhaps it was just to clear his head.
The S.S. Hobson Bay via the Queensland State Library.
Under the circumstances, it was going to be difficult for Rev. John to re-enter the “Church in England” so, by the time he returned, he had decided to emigrate to Australia. The Reverend John and his family boarded the “Australian Commonwealth Steam Ship Line vessel S.S. Hobson Bay” in London and set off for Melbourne on 31st March 1925.
Rev. John Pinsent’s estate is settled. Grant of Administration, Supreme Court of the State of Victoria, November 27, 1925. Via Public Records Office of Victoria.
Sadly, he never arrived. The “Calendar of Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration” tells us that “Rev. John Pinsent of the Steam Ship Hobson’s Bay, clerk, died 24th April, 1925, at sea”. His wife had a choice to make. She could either stay on in Melbourne or return to England. She decided to return home; however, before she could do so, the “Public Trustee, the Attorney of the Curator of Victoria, Australia” had to grant Edith preliminary “letters of administration” over her late husband’s effects – which were valued at £497. This took time and the Court in the meantime granted her a small weekly sum out of her husband’s estate for the care of her daughter Catherine and her son John.
The Australian letters were revoked when she returned to England and another set were granted – after John’s English creditors had had a chance to make their claims (London Gazette: 5th January 1926). There was no significant change.
Rev. John Pinsent’s entry in the England and Wales National Probate Calendar in 1925.
Edith Mary Pinsent appears in the 1939 England and Wales Register.
Edith Mary Pinsent was thirty one years old when her husband died. She never remarried. After bringing her children back to England she seems to have brought them up on her own. She settled at Far Dene in New Milton, in Hampshire, and became an active member of the Milton & Milford Choral Society. It had considerable success in local competitions in the 1930s (New Milton Advertiser: Saturday 26th September 1936 etc.). The Wartime Register (1939) tells us that she was a “matron” at “Field Place School”, in Lymington, Hampshire.
Edith Mary Pinsent’s entry in the England & Wales National Probate Calendar.
Edith died in Oxford in 1989. Her daughter, Mary Catherine, married Haim Musa Nahmad in London in 1957. Her son, another John, attended St. Edmund’s School in Canterbury and went on to serve in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He studied classics at Oxford and became a lecturer at Liverpool University. His life is described elsewhere.
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John Pinsent was the eldest son of John Pinsent by his wife Ann (née Brock). He was born at “Aller Barton” in Abbotskerswell and grew up there and at “Ware Barton” in Kingsteington with several younger brothers. His father taught them how to farm; however, he died in 1858, while they were still quite young. John – as the eldest son – nominally took over the tenancy of the family farm and became the next “Mr. Pinsent of Ware Barton.” His mother Ann was still alive and ran it with the help of her sons.
John “senior’s” loss created vacancies in the village hierarchy and John “junior” was appointed to fill a vacancy on the “Newton Abbot Dispensary Committee” in April 1861. At the same meeting, his more elderly (and more affluent) neighbour, Mr. Thomas Pinsent of (“Greenhills”) Kingsteignton was appointed a “vice president” (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Friday 5th April 1861). Thomas was from the DEVONPORT branch of the family. John attended the “Joint Annual Meeting of the South Devon and Newton Agricultural Societies” in Torquay in November that year (Western Times: Saturday 2nd November 1861) and he could be seen at most of the “Newton Abbott Agricultural and Labourers’ Friend Society” meetings and dinners in the early 1860s. One of his young ploughmen, George Warren, won second prize in the youth category at the “25th Annual Ploughing Competition” in 1863 (Western Mercury: Friday 23rd October 1863).
John Pinsent celebrates a threshing machine. Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, October 2, 1863.
Mr. John Pinsent of Ware (and, one would imagine, some of this brothers) witnessed a “B. J. Webber & Co.” threshing machine in action in October 1863 and he, along with other local farmers signed a promotional letter extolling its virtues (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Friday 2nd October 1863).
John married Catherine Whidborne, the daughter of a farmer from Bishopsteignton and took over the tenancy of a farm at “Middle Rocombe” – in the nearby parish of Combeinteignhead on “Ladyday” (25th March) 1865. “Middle Rocombe” is south of the Teign River and inland from the estuary town of Shaldon. It is now in the parish of Stokeinteignhead but, in those days, was in Combeinteignhead. The farm was up put up for sale relatively recently, which accounts for the excellent quality of the photographs on line.
John Pinsent acts as a judge during a show. Western Times, September 11, 1866.
John left “Ware Barton” in the hands of his mother and his capable younger brother Gilbert. Soon after his arrival in Combeinteignhead, John was asked to act as a judge at the annual “Cottage Garden Society” meeting. Presumably, the locals thought that, as a new-comer, he would be impartial (Western Times: Tuesday 11th September 1866). He must have made good impression as they invited him back the following year (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Friday 2nd August 1867)!
Middle Rocombe Farmyard.Middle Rocombe Farm.
Map of Middle Rocombe in Devonshire.
A week or so after that first flower show, “Middle Rocombe” was advertised for sale with Mr. Pinsent as its then sitting tenant – as he had signed a fourteen-year lease. According to the announcement: “The Farm is very compact, and comprises a recently erected Dwelling House and all necessary Outbuildings, Cellarage, Yards, Gardens, Labourers’ Cottages, and about 164 Acres of Land, of which about 36 Acres are fertile Pasture and Watered Meadow, about 18 Acres of Orchard in full bearing, and the residue, about 110 Acres, superior Arable Land, and is very conveniently situated about four miles from the excellent market town of Newton Abbot …” (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Friday 21st September 1866).
John and Gilbert Pinsent attended numerous events and meetings together in the late 1860 and 1870s. For instance, they attended a lecture on the “Education of the Labouring Classes” in April 1868 (Western Times: Friday 17th April 1868), and a discussion on “Agricultural Taxation” put on by the “Devon Central Chamber of Agriculture” the following month (Western Times: Friday 22nd May 1868). They also attended funerals, often in the company of representatives of the DEVONPORT branch of the family (Western Times: Friday 12th March 1880).
John Pinsent is listed as an employer in the 1871 census.
The 1871 Census tells us that John Pinsent employed four men, a boy and three full-time domestic servants at “Middle Rocombe”. The Census was taken three days after John’s daughter, Emma Pinsent, was born, so it is not that surprising to find that Catherine’s unmarried sister, Mary E. Whidborne was also present. She was a widowed nurse. Catherine’s two eldest daughters, Catherine Ann Pinsent and Mary E. Pinsent had gone to stay with their uncle Gilbert at “Ware Barton” but the third, Lucy Whidborne Pinsent, was still at home with her mother. She was only two years old.
Farming was the lifeblood of the community and in Combeinteignhead it was honoured by an annual harvest festival that included, a church service and – at least in 1872 – quite a party: “after (the) service, the whole of the male population, about 150, were regaled in Mr. Lang’s building with a good substantial meal of beef and plum pudding without stint, beer and cider being also supplied them. The happiness evinced by the labouring portion showed that very pleasant relations existed between them and their employers. The women and children, about 250, were provided with tea, cake etc.” The “Teignmouth Artillery Band” played, cannons were fired, bells rung and the evening ended with a firework display. Needless to say, as an important local farmer, J. Pinsent was on the organizing committee (Exeter Flying Post: Wednesday October 2nd 1872) and doubtless threw in some cash as well. The East and South Devon Advertiser (Saturday 21st September 1878) tells of a similar event at which “no less than 600 persons were regaled in this way” on the rector’s lawn.
Some residential servants stayed with their masters – or at least on their farms – for decades and the “Newton Abbot Agricultural and Labourers’ Friend Society” awarded prizes annually to those who had stayed put the longest. In 1874, Ann Howard came second for her 30 years and 4 months service at “Ware Barton”. That was the year that John Balkwill, who worked for Mr. J. Pinsent in Combeinteignhead, came in second in the “double or one-way ploughing competition” (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Friday 23rd October 1874).
John Pinsent, farmer, is fined one pound. East & South Devon Advertiser, April 12, 1884.
Two advertisements placed in the Western Times Friday 10th December 1875 issue are of note: One describes the loss of a white and liver coloured spaniel called “Sport:” – Mr. Pinsent of Rocombe was offering a reward. The other placed immediately below it, says: “Found, a spaniel dog”. … One hopes they were reunited. Interestingly, another liver and white spaniel turned up “Found” at the neighbouring farm of Lower Rocombe around Christmas 1880. However, this one may have come from Christow (Western Times: Friday 31st December 1880).“Sport” and his kennel mates led to their master receiving a dressing down at the “Newton Abbot Petty Sessions” in April 1884. John Pinsent was fined £1 for keeping dogs without a license (East and South Devon Advertiser: Saturday 12th April 1884)!
John Pinsent’s ever-expanding family is listed in the 1881 census.
John and Catherine and their ever-growing family of young daughters (he had seven before the arrival of his first, and as it happens, only surviving, son, John Pinsent) were still living at “Middle Rocombe” when the Census was retaken in 1881. This one tells us that the farm covered 165 acres and that John was still employing four labourers and a boy, and he still had three household servants. His daughters were growing up; Catherine Pinsent, Lucy Pinsent, Emma Pinsent, Ellen Pinsent and Ada Pinsent were “scholars.” Their sister, Mary Eliza Pinsent was, for some reason, staying with Whidborne relations at Shute in Bishopsteignton. John’s two youngest children, Jessie Pinsent and John Pinsent were still young; she was two and John was just four months old.
John’s 14-year tenancy at Middle Rocombe officially expired in 1879 but he stayed on for a few more years holding the farm on a series of annual leases. Messrs. Rendell and Symons auctioned off the fee-simple inheritance of and in the “Manor and Lordship of Combeinteignhead” – along with the freehold estate of “Middle Rocombe” (“now in the occupation of Mr. John Pinsent”) in June 1883 (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Friday 8th June 1883). John seems to have realized that it was time to move on and the same auctioneers sold off some of John’s stock in August 1883. They disposed of the remainder at an auction held on the farm on March 24th 1884. John sold 182 sheep and lambs, 24 bullocks, 5 horses, 4 pigs, poultry and implements of husbandry (Western Times: Friday 7th March 1884). He surrendered the tenancy of the farm on Ladyday (25th March 1884).
Map of Gambledown Farm and Sherfield English, Hampshire.
John moved his family to another mixed farm, at “Gambledown”, in Sherfield English, near Romsey in Hampshire. His brother, Gilbert, coincidentally, or probably otherwise, followed him east a few years later. He moved to “Scrope Farm”, in Froxford, in Wiltshire.
John Pinsent and his family appear in the 1891 census.
John and Catherine Pinsent were living at “Gambledown” with their children Jessie F. and John, and two domestic servants when the 1891 Census was taken. Two of their daughters, Catherine A. and Ada were then with their uncle Gilbert, who had recently moved to “Scrope Farm.” Lucy was married and the other two, Emma and Mary Eliza were working as a shop assistant, at Leamington in Warwickshire, and as a governess for a farmer’s family at Liskeard in Cornwall. Even farmer’s daughters were expected to work in those days! John was elected as one of the two “Guardians” representing Sherfield English Parish in the “Romsey Union” that year – so was becoming an established member of the community (Romsey Register and General News Gazette: Thursday 2nd April 1891). He was a member of the “Romsey and South Hants Farmers’ Union” and a member of its committee in 1896 (Eastleigh Weekly News and Hants Gazette: Saturday 1st February 1896).
By 1901, all but two of the children (Ellen and John Pinsent), had moved out and, by 1911, John and Catherine only had their one son in residence. John was 70 years’-old in 1908, and winding down his farm. That autumn, he arranged for a four-year old roan colt and a two year-old shorthorn bull to be sold at auction at Salisbury (Salisbury times: Friday 18th September 1908). However, he kept his Clydesdale horses. He bred them and we find that one of his foals won second prize and another came second in the yearling category in a competition sponsored by Major S. F. Chichester of Embley Park in 1910 (West Sussex Gazette: Thursday 22nd November 1910).
At least four of the girls, who had been properly educated as befitting young ladies, went on to marry in Sherfield English. Catherine married a “medical practitioner” in 1898 and Lucy a local “gentleman” in 1888. In the latter case, the marriage announcement noted that her father was John Pinsent “of Gambledown, Romsey, formerly of Combe-in-Teignhead, Devon” (London Evening Standard: Friday 2nd November 1888). Emma married a “draper” (1910) and Jessie a “banker’s clerk” (1908). The latter was said to have been “a very pretty country wedding” (Grimsby News: Friday 24th January 1908). Jessie had attended the Goldsmiths’ Institute in London and taken part in an “Art Students’ Conversazione” there in December 1896. She played “The Lady of Shallott” in a presentation entitled “Tennyson’s Heroines” (Brockley New, New Cross and Hatcham Review: Friday 25th December 1896).
The London Hospital’s main entrance.
Their sister Ada was to become a nurse at the “London Hospital” in Whitechapel, which was, in those days, one of the poorest and most squalid parts of London. She lived in a world without vaccines or antibiotics and it is not that surprising that she died of pneumonia in 1903. Whether her time there overlapped with Edith Cavell, the nurse executed by the Germans for assisting British and French soldiers in Belgium during the first world war, I do not know. Edith left the London Hospital in 1907. The story of “London Hospital” – as it was in 1906 – was dramatized by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2006. The series story lines are based on hospital records and give a sense of the world in which Ada (and her sister Mary Eliza) lived. Neither married. Nursing was considered to be a commitment for life.
There were, however, male Whidborne weddings for their parents to attend. John and Catherine and their daughter Mary attended one of their nephew’s weddings in 1910 (Middlesex County Times: Saturday 17th September 1910).
Mary Eliza Pinsent appears in the Registrar of Nurses for 1934.
Mary Eliza Pinsent trained at the self-same “London Hospital” (Charity Record: Thursday 15th August 1901) and, fortunately, lived to tell the tale. Perhaps she knew Edith Cavell before she left the London Hospital to go to Belgium in 1907. Mary Eliza later moved to the “Royal Orthopaedic London Hospital,” where she was appointed “Matron” in 1901. This merged with the “National Orthopaedic Hospital” in 1906 and Mary Eliza, who had been acting Matron under Miss Frances Hole was promoted to “Lady Superintendent” of the combined “Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital” (Charity Record: 15th March 1906).
The “Royal” hospital “had been opened by King Edward VII for the treatment and cure of crippled and deformed patients, 75 per cent of whom were children.” It held annual bazaars to raise funds and the Mayoress of Marylebone opened one of them in 1911. Evidently, it proved a great success: “Miss Mary E. Pinsent, the matron, presided at a stall that had upon it many pretty goods dear to the hearts of the gentler sex, such as exquisite table covers, miniature cushions and picture frames” (Marylebone Mercury: Saturday 4th November 1911).
The former Great Portland Street site (1909-1984) of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital via Wikipedia.
At the outset of the war, Mary switched to war-work (Southwestern Star: Friday 28th August 1914). She was appointed assistant matron at the “3rd London General Hospital” on Wandsworth Common and was called upon to help escort the King and Queen around when they made a surprise visit in October 1914 (London Evening Standard: 7th October 1914). She later worked at the “Military Hospital” at Bagthorpe, in Nottingham before joining the “Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve” (Q.A.I.M.N.S. R.), (London Gazette: 2nd June 1916). From there, she went out to Alexandria, in Egypt, as a resident “Matron” (National Archives: WO 372/23).
After the war, Mary Eliza returned to the “Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital” (234 Great Portland Street, London W. 1), as its Matron. There is a photograph of her with Lord Denbigh, Lady Dorothie Moor and some of the children from the Orthopaedic Hospital who were involved in an event on behalf of crippled children at Devonshire House shown in the Nottingham Journal: Friday 14th January 1921.
“Miss” Pinsent, as assistant matron, is presented to the King. London Evening Standard, October 7, 1914.
Mary Eliza retired back to Devon. She was there by 1933. Interestingly, Mary took trips into the Mediterranean on ships bound for Suez in 1932, 1933 and 1935. Perhaps she was going back to Alexandria to see friends. She died at “Seaway” in Torquay in 1960 (livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/5152960). She left about a third of her estate to the “First Church of Christ Scientist” in Torquay (Torquay Times and South Devon Advertiser: Friday 22nd July 1960).
Mary Eliza Pinsent’s badge.The back of Mary Eliza Pinsent’s badge.
A nurse, possibly Mary Eliza Pinsent.
Mary Eliza’s life and her career as a Nurse has been studied in considerable detail by Sarah Rogers. Her work is available on line under “Collecting Nursing History”: Mary Eliza Pinsent 1869 – 1960: (www.schoolof nursing.co.uk/collections/ … Mary Eliza’s photograph comes from a Pinsent family tree found on Ancestry.com. It does not specifically identify the individual as Mary Eliza; however, there are facial similarities with lesser quality photographs and, given the nurse’s uniform, it seems likely.
It is not clear what happened to her sister Ellen. However, she may well have been the Ellen Pinsent who testified during the “Tasker Divorce” proceedings in 1895 (Gloucestershire Echo: Wednesday 10th July 1895). If so, she “formerly (was a) chambermaid at a Plymouth hotel (and) said that when the parties stayed there Mr. Paton occupied a bedroom opposite Mrs. Tasker’s. Two or three nights Paton’s bed was not occupied, and Mrs. Taskers looked as if two had slept there.” I can not speak for Mr. Paton, or Mrs. Tasker for that matter but, but by the sound of it, Mr. Tasker was not the best of husbands. I am not sure what happened to Ellen.
“Miss” Pinsent performs as part of a vocal duet. East & South Devon Advertiser, February 10, 1894.
Catherine Ann, or“Katie” as she was known gave singing and music lessons in the Romsey area in 1891 (Romsey Register and General News Gazette: Thursday 22nd January 1891) and likely continued to do so until she married in 1898. I can not be sure, but I suspect that she was also the “Miss Pinsent” who gave two mandolin solos (“Blue Eyes” and “Rialto March”) at a Literary and Musical Society meeting at Axminster in February 1895 (Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser: Tuesday 26th February 1895). She was definitely the “Aunt Katie” that John Pinsent, the “Senior Lecturer in Classical Studies at Liverpool University”, corresponded with in the early 1960s. Catherine would have been in her 90s at the time and, hardly surprisingly, her memory was a bit faulty. John and Catherine’s only surviving son, another John Pinsent, had no interest in farming. He became a clergyman and married Edith Mary Lane in Portsea, Portsmouth, in 1921. His life is described elsewhere.
John Pinsent, senior, retired from farming and auctioned off his lifestock and farming implements in September 1913 (Salisbury Times: 19th September 1913). He died at “Gambledown” three years later and the “Calendar of Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration” show that the administration of his estate was granted to his son, Rev. John Pinsent, “clerk”. John’s widow, Catherine went to live with her daughter Lucy Whidmore May, and her husband Harry John May, who was a retired “physician and surgeon” in Romsey. She was there, as were several visiting members of the May family, when the census was taken in 1921. Catherine died in Romsey in July 1923. Her son, the Reverend John Pinsent, probated her will.
Gambledown was and still is a mixed-farm on the edge of the New Forest. On-line sources say that it has diversified in recent years and the current owners run holiday lets and host events and meetings.
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