John Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx DRO0026
Alice Rackcliffe: xxxx – xxxx
Married: 1606: Ilsington, Devon
Children by Alice Rackcliffe:
John Pinsent: 1619 – xxxx
Agnes Pinsent: 1621 – xxxx
Family Branch: Combe
PinsentID: DRO0026
John Pinsent’s birth date is unknown; however, we know from a Chancery deposition taken in 1650/1 (C10/7/115 & C78/1283) that Hugh Pinsent did have a son of that name and that he was old enough to help his father work in the Owlscombe tin mine, in Bovey Tracey, by 1607. “Hugh Pinsent and William Pinsent and John Pinsent, two of his sons had on or about the third day of June in the said year of one thousand six hundred and seven taken and carried away out of the said tin works tin and tin stones to the value of three score pounds more that did belong unto them.” John and William had to live with the consequence of this action until his father’s dispute with Stephen Collings and Thomas Small (his sureties) was finally resolved in the Court of Chancery, in 1652.
There is a John son of Hugh Pinsent down in the parish register as being buried on 19th December 1579 – could that be a mistake for baptized that day? In any event, our John is likely to be the man who married Alice Rackcliffe in 1610 and had two children baptized in Ilsington approximately ten years later. One has to wonder if there were other children born elsewhere, or with baptisms that were not recorded. Awkwardly, John Pinsent “of Yeo” married Alice Hodge in Bovey Tracey in 1607 so there were two families in the parish. The latter John is from a different branch of the family.
John’s father, Hugh, either owned or leased three “doles” or shares (out of thirteen) in a presumably extensive open-cut and underground mine at Owlscombe, in Bovey Tracey, and Chancery Documents seems to show that he did a considerable amount of development work before taking a small quantity of ore from the mine in the early 1600s. The dispute arose when one of Hugh’s partners in the venture, Stephen Collings, disputed his ownership of one of his three doles, and also from Hugh’s belief that Stephen took more ore from the mine than his share allowed – especially as he, Hugh, had yet to recover his costs. The dispute was first aired in the Stannary Court in 1611. It then continued in an intermittently manner up to and beyond the death of the principal protagonists – Hugh and Stephen.
In 1651, one of Stephen’s sureties, took William and John Pinsent to Court at Chancery to recover a £200 bond (C10/7/115 & C78/1283/9). The “complaints” and “answers” filed at the National Archives at Kew in London are creased and badly worn in many places; however, they do provide some indication of what happened. In 1611, the vice-warden of the Stannary Court ordered Stephen, and his sureties, Simon Hore and Hugh Smalle, to issue a bond for £200, and Hugh Pinsent to give Stephen a counter-bond for the same amount while matters were being address in the court. The dispute then simmered on acrimoniously and at one point the depositions seems to show that although Hugh was right about his ownership of the dole, he may have been mistaken about the value of the ore Stephen Collings removed. It was decreed that they make up their difference and give up their bonds for cancellation.
Hugh Smalle gave up his, but Hugh Pinsent, who still felt that some of his tin ore had been stolen, refused to do so until forced to by the courts. He died in 1626, while still holding the bond. Johanne, his wife and executrix, and his sons John and William, were later to put the bond in suit in the Stannary Court however, they lost and were forced to hand it over in 1638. The dispute should have ended there; however, Hugh Smalle seems to have forgotten to cancel the bond, and it somehow made its way back into the Pinsents hands.
In 1648, long after their father and mother died, John and William took Hugh and Thomas Smalle to the civil Court of Common Pleas where they seem to have won on a technicality! There may have been a two-gallon discrepancy in the accounting of the tin. Somehow, matters did not even end there. In 1652, the Chancery Court finally forced the two brothers to turn over the Smalle’s bond for cancellation. … The dispute must have kept a lot of lawyers very happy over many years (C10//7/115 & C78/1283). At one point, their brother, “Mr. Jonas Pinsent” a King’s Bench lawyer was forced to testify as a witness!
Chancery depositions also show that John administered that part of his father’s estate that his mother, her husband’s executrix, had failed to administer. This suggests that he was actively involved in her affairs up to her death. When that was I do not know: perhaps she outlived her lawyer son, Jonas, who died in 1638.
What happened to John and Alice and their children I am not sure – particularly as there is the complication of having the “Yeo” family in the district. Nevertheless, he is probably the John Pinsent who died in 1664, and she the Alice Pinsent “widow” who died and was buried in Ilsington in 1679; however, this is conjecture. Our John and Alice may even have had interests outside of the parish and lived and died (?) elsewhere.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: John Pinsent: xxxx – 1575
Grandmother: Johanna Unknown: xxxx – 1570
Parents
Father: Hugh Pinsent: 1540 – 1626
Mother: Johanna Woodley: xxxx – xxxx
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
John Pynsent: 1532 – 1615
George Pinsent: xxxx – 1598
Thomas Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
Elizabeth Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
Hugh Pinsent: 1540 – 1626
Margaret Pinsent: 1542 – xxxx
Walter Pinsent: 1544 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: 1546 – xxxx
Johanna Pinsent: 1549 – xxxx
Male Siblings (Brothers)
Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Peter Pinsent: 1576 – 1597
John Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1580 – xxxx
Thomas Pinsent: 1586 – xxxx
Hugh Pinsent: 1591 – xxxx
George Pinsent: 1593 – xxxx
Matthew Pinsent: 1596 – 1616
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