Richard Pinsent: 1647 – xxxx DRO0111
Family Branch: Combe
PinsentID: DRO0111
Richard Pinsent was one of the two known son of Jonas Pinsent of “Henstreete,” in Bovey Tracey by his wife, Grace (nee Langdon). I have yet to locate Richard’s birth record but, from his age (17) at entry at University College, in Oxford, in 1664, he was probably born around 1647. He had an elder brother, Jonas, and may have had other siblings that I do not know about.
The boys’ grandfather, Richard Langdon, of “Outer Hexdowne” in Bigbury parish, wrote a will in which he appointed John Aishford and Richard Luke to be his executors, and made them responsible for looking after his estate, and the well being and education of his two grandsons while they were still minors. His daughter, Grace Pinsent (nee Langdon) valued the estate at £1,000. Sadly, the will is missing. Jonas Pinsent, Grace’s husband, had died a few years previously (in 1658) and left her in charge of their children and likely given her the usual dower rights to the family home, at Henstreete in Bovey Tracey.
Grace must have voiced doubts about her own father’s executors, so when her sons came “off-age,” around the time she died (in around 1666) – they sued Aishford and Luke in the Ecclesiastical Court for “subtraction of Legacy”. The details of the case are lost; however, notes made by Olive Moger [Dean and Chapter Bundle 193 etc.: Moger Abstracts]. show that Richard Langdon’s will had stated: “I bequeath to said Grace Pinsent, Jonas Pinsent and Richard Pinsent, her sons, all my lands and tenements in Bigberry called Outer Hexdowne from my death ….”. It then stipulated that the executors would have tillage rights until 1660, at which time the rights would pass to Richard. Also, Grace and Jonas would have the household goods and the plough stuff until Jonas became twenty-one. The plough stuff would pass to Richard on Grace’s death. She appears, from construction, to have died around 1666 “about the time Jonas attained the age of 21 years”. In 1670, the executors claimed to be innocent of misdealing and they said that all the money had been spent during the brothers’ minorities.
Bundle 215 provides a list of expenditures incurred by John Aishford and Richard Luke. They included payment of debts, payment for farm repairs, costs for the boys schooling – (including Richard’s University education), – costs incurred attending meetings, etc. but they felt unable to put a value on household goods that Mrs. Grace and Jonas “carried away (to his house in Bovey Tracey) from Hexdowne”. If Grace was still living at “Henstreete” when her father died it is not surprising that she moved items there from her old family home.
What happened to Richard, I am not sure; however, a “Richard Pinson” was Custom’s Officer for Plymouth in 1684 and is referred to as being “Custom’s Boatman at Plymouth – lately deceased” on June 6th, 1685 (Calendar of State Papers, Treasury Books Vol VIII pt. 1 p233). This was an educated man, so they may be one and the same. I have seen no evidence of a marriage or of children.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: Jonas Pinsent: 1575 – 1637
Grandmother: Elizabeth Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Parents
Father: Jonas Pinsent: 1609 – 1658
Mother: Grace Langdon: xxxx – 1670
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Jonas Pinsent: 1609 – 1658
Edward Pinsent: 1611 – 1652
Amy Pinsent: 1613 – 1615
Thomas Pinsent: 1615 – 1690
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1616 – 1693
Ellis Pinsent: 1619 – 1681
John Pinsent: 1622 – 1648
Johanna Pinsent: xxxx – xxxx
Male Siblings (Brothers)
Jonas Pinsent: 1649 – xxxx
Richard Pinsent: 1642 – xxxx
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