John Pinsent: 1532 – 1615 (DRO0003) (Merchant & Inn Keeper, Chudleigh, Devon)
Alice French: xxxx – 1612
Married: Bovey Tracey, Devon: 1557
Children by Alice French:
Mary Pynsent: 1558 – xxxx
John Pynsent: 1560 – xxxx
Johanna Pynsent: 1563 – xxxx (Married Thomas French, Bovey Tracey, Devon, 1588)
Gylinglye Pynsent: 1564 – xxxx
Margaret Pynsent: 1565 – 1568
George Pynsent: 1566 – 1566
John Pynsent: 1570 – 1570
John Pynsent: 1571 – 1643 (Married Joan Downham, Chudleigh, Devon. 1596)
William Pynsent: 1573 – xxxx
Bennett Pynsent: 1575 – 1575
Joan Pynsent: 1580 – xxxx
Family Branch: Combe
PinsentID: DRO0003
John was the eldest son of John and Johanna Pinsent “of Combe”. He was born before birth records were kept but stated in a deposition taken in the Exchequer Court in 1602, that he was “70 years old, born in Bovey Tracey and dwelt there 30 years … prior to moving to Chudleigh” (Special Commissions and Depositions Exch. K. R. Chester – Devon: 44 Eliz., Hilary, No. 15). This implies that he was born in 1532.
John was the eldest son of a wealthy yeoman who may also have had an interest in a tin mine. He married a widow, Alice French, in Bovey Tracey in 1557 and they had their first three children there, before moving to Chudleigh. John was said to be “of Combe” when his son “Johnes” was baptized in 1560. What happened to that child is a little uncertain as the couple went on to have other sons they also named John a few years later.
Nevertheless, a “John Pinsent of Bovey Tracy,” who was about the first John’s age was called to testify during some Exchequer Court proceedings held in 1602. However, it is not clear who he was, or if he was related. Were there two sons called John?
The rest of John and Alice’s children were born in Chudleigh. Several died young, but there was another John Pynsent born in 1571 who appears to have lived to middle-age. John Pynsent “senior” seems to have to switched to trade, so that, when his second to youngest child, Bennett Pynsent, died in 1575, the burial record tells us that his father was “John Pynsent, Merchant.”
Dr. Sellman (author of “Aspects of Devon History”, Devon Books, 1962) periodically sent my father notes about the Chudleigh Pynsents he gleaned from the parish records in the 1960s. They show that John was a churchwarden in 1572, a constable in 1592, and that he contributed to the parish in other ways – including through the purchase of “things for soldiers” in 1574 and “smocks and kerchiefs for the poor” in 1577. He was a man of some wealth and influence and one of the “Seven Men” who were either elected or appointed to run the business of the town at the end of the 16th Century. For instance, he was one of the signatories of an order in 1603 that included the following:
“Item pd to Mr Clyfford, to bestowe in building of an almes house; or he to paie up for itt, if he bestowe itt not so, L7. It was ordered that the use of the parson of Chudleighs monie L10:16s., should be yearely distributed among the poore of the parish upon Whitson daie. Item, that on any generall account daie, two shalbe apointed for the putting out of the L10, wch was now pd to Mr Clyfford and Mr Hoare to be lent to the poore.” (History of Chudleigh: Mary Jones & William W. Snell: 1873).
John was responsible for collecting the Poor Rate in 1599 and he, himself, contributed 12d per year in the early 1600s (Parish Taxpayers: 1500-1650: Vol. 2 Bere Ferrers to Chudleigh: Todd Gray.)
John lived in turbulent times and experienced the trauma that came from the changes in religious worship brought about by Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth I. It would have been a very difficult time for everyone. Nobody likes being told what he should believe! Nevertheless, some of the old ways continued as they had done “time out of mind”. One of these was the reliance on oral testimony when it came to legal matters. John (or perhaps it was his son – John?) seems to have been appointed to the juries of several “Inquisitions Post Mortem” held in Exeter in the early 1600s. They were to determine what hereditary rights and obligations a deceased “tenant in chief” had to the various parcels of land in his or her possession. Documentation was poor, so oral testimony was important.
Similarly, in 1602, John and his brother Hugh and another John Pynsent (who was born around 1560) were called to depose by a Special Commission set up to determine if ten local tenant farmers (including a John Pynsent of Yeo – who came from a completely different branch of the family) were obliged to grind their grain at the Queen’s Mill in Bovey Tracey, or if they were free to take it wherever they wanted. They sided with their neighbours and said they and the predecessors had had that right for “time out of mind” (Special Commission and Depositions Exch. K.R. Chester – Devon: 44 Eliz. Hilary, No. 15).
John Pynsent rubbed shoulders with the local gentry, so it was important that he be accepted as a “gentleman.” To facilitate this, either he or (perhaps more likely) his father applied to the College of Heralds and received a grant of a coat of arms: “gules, a chevron engrailed between three etoiles argent”. This was a good move as his grandson, another John – later a Prothonotary of the Common Pleas (a senior court official – see elsewhere) – was then free to marry into the socially more significant Clifford family in the 1630s. This considerably enhanced his family’s social standing! John, doubtless with the Clifford’s help, went on to become a lawyer and a senior “prothonotary” during the Civil War. Sometime late in his life, he submitted a signed copy of his family tree to the heralds for inclusion in the “Visitation of Surrey in 1662-1668,” [British Library: D.15, fo.63b]. It shows that his grandfather (our John) had been a “gentleman, in commerce”.
The prothonotary became a wealthy man who, through his Will, founded “Pynsent’s Free School” in Chudleigh. John’s life, and his founding of “Pynsent’s Free School” has been discussed on-line by the “Chudleigh History Group” and it is also reviewed in “The Pynsent Baronetcy: The Trials and Tribulations of a Litigious Family: 1687-1765” (see attached). The prothonotary’s brothers also did well for themselves – Robert as a lawyer in London; William as a merchant in London, and Humphrey as a merchant running the family business in Chudleigh. Their lives – and those of their descendants are also discussed in the attached book. Note that it was Humphrey who had to deal with both Cavalier and Roundhead soldiers during the civil war. As an aside, William’s son, William Pynsent, was the only surviving male heir of the four brothers and their principal legatee. He benefited enormously from the aggregate wealth of all four. He used his inheritances to purchase a baronetcy and a large estate at Urchfont in Wiltshire. He was responsible for his share of the “Trials and Tribulations” mentioned above.
Our John Pynsent (he seems to be the first in his line to formally adopt the spelling “Pynsent”) transferred the “tenement, orchard and herb garden” he had been given by his father back to his brother Hugh Pynsent shortly after his father died, in 1575. In his various depositions he referred to himself as being “John Pynsent, of the City of Chudleigh, in the County of Devon, merchant.”
Nevertheless, John may have still owned property in Bovey Tracey, as the parish poor rates show that a “tenement at Combe and ground at Cleyparkes” were valued at 3s in 1596. Maybe this was just a large dwelling house, however, Norden’s 1615 survey of Bovey Tracey manor (London Metropolitan Archives: CLA/044/05/041) tells us that a John Pinsent held by “copy of the Barton one Tenement called Combe Parks, two gardens and curtilage by estimation: 0a 2r 0p: One Meadow called Le Moare now divided: Once in two by estimation: 2a 0r 0p: Hill Parke by estimation 1a 3r 0p: One Close one Two by estimation 2a 2r 0p and Little Close next to the Yate by estimation: 1a 0r 0p.” This property, which amounted to over seven acres, was held on two lives, and by John Berriman in reversion.
John’s brother Hugh had moved out of Bovey Tracey by then (see elsewhere) and the rest of the family’s erstwhile extensive lands at Combe seem to have been held by the Bennett, French and Conant families. Perhaps the French holding may have been given them as part of John’s marriage settlement.
John was a merchant and not a farmer. His focus seems to have been the running and “farming” as it was called, the Chudleigh market – which he later did with his eldest son, another John (born in1571). Dr. Sellman’s notes shows that one or other of them was “marketman” from 1603 to 1613, and that they then took out a five-year lease on the market and St. Mathew’s Fair for £100. John’s son, John “junior” presumably took over the business when his father died in 1615. It must have been a profitable business at the time as Chudleigh was an important centre for Devon’s woolen industry.
John Pynsent also ran an Inn in Chudleigh, and it is interesting to note that on 1st May 1602 William Honneywell, a gentleman who lived at Ridden in Kingsteignton, went to Chudleigh market, bought a few things, and “lay at Pinsentt’s that night.” They were clearly friends as John was named as a token beneficiary in a draft will that William prepared later that same year: “To my acquaintances and withal my good friends, Mr. Thomas Clifford, Mr. John Staplehill, Mr. Henry Estchurch, Mr. Richard Estchurch, Mr. Humphrey Spurway, Mr. Hugh Osborn, Mr. J. Pynsentt, Mr. Richard Prowse and six others, 20s each to make them rings:” Rings were a common sign of mourning. It is interesting to note that an undated and currently unobtainable document that I came across on line referred to Hugh Pinsent as being the Innkeeper. It may have been a family venture.
John and Alice had several children but many of them died young and only two or three can be shown to have married. His daughter, Johanna married Thomas French in Bovey Tracey, in June 1588. This was just a month before the Spanish Armada was sighted near Plymouth, off the Devon coast. Thomas presumably came from Johanna’s mother, Alice’s family and creates another French connection. John’s daughter Joan may have married Thomas Stowell in 1599. Two other girls (Mary and Gylinglye) and one of his boy’s, (William) are still unaccounted for.
John’s son, John, was probably born in 1571; however, an Exchequer deposition taken in 1602 suggests that an early son John (baptized in 1560) may still have been alive and living in Bovey Tracey. Nevertheless, it was probably the younger John Pynsent who worked with his father in Chudleigh and married Joan Downham there in 1596. There is not much known about his early life as he grew up in the shadow of his father. It is hard to distinguish between them; nevertheless, he came into his own after his father died. His life is discussed elsewhere.
Family Tree
Parents
Father: John Pinsent: xxxx – 1575
Mother: Johanna Unknown: xxxx – 1570
Male Siblings
John Pynsent: 1532 – 1615
George Pinsent: xxxx – 1598
Thomas Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
Hugh Pinsent: 1540 – 1626
Walter Pinsent: 1544 – xxxx
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