Pinsents under “Miscellaneous” are members of ill-defined branches that cannot be worked into the existing trees.
I am sure every member of the “Guild of One-Name Studies” has had to deal with “miscellaneous” characters who have no apparent connection to any established family line. They seem to appear out of nowhere. Some may be accidental misrepresentations of the family name (census records!) and others may be inadvertent abstraction errors, Nevertheless, a few may be legitimate – and all the more puzzling for it.
The “birth”, “marriage” and “death” data used to create the family branches and generate the “GROID” identifiers used in this database comes, in large part, from records filed in the “General Records Office” in London between 1837 and 1964. It should be a complete record of the “Pinsent” family between those dates and most of the people found there do (dutifully) slot into place. However, there are some unassignable individuals, and there are other unknowns who have come to light from other sources.
Some of the latter link together and/or come from a pool of people who most certainly existed but have only a weak connection to the family. They belong to “twigs” that are discussed below. Others are, indeed, anomalies. Perhaps they are Vincents or Pinsons. I have no way of knowing.
Twigs By Location
Huish Farm: Hennock, Devon
Ashburton, Devon
Crediton, Devon
Chudleigh, Devon
Exeter, Devon
Moretonhampstead, Devon
Tiverton, Devon
Totnes, Devon
Plympton, Devon
Kingsbridge, Devon
Stoke Damerel, Plymouth
Dawlish, Devon
High Ongar, Essex
Birmingham, Warwickshire/Staffordshire
Erpingham, Norfolk
London, Middlesex/Surrey
Medway, Kent
Manchester
Huish Farm: Hennock, Devon
The “Pinsents” were fairly thick on the ground in Hennock and the neighbouring parish of Bovey Tracey in the early 1600s and it is not particularly surprising to find that Margery Pinsent, the eldest daughter of Robert Pinsent and Agnes (née Stevens) of Huxbeare Barton in Hennock married George Pinsent, a man who lived in the same parish. He came from Huish; which, like Huxbeare, was a good-sized farm.
George’s family has yet to be fully traced and is a broken “twig” rather than a “branch”. George and Margery had several children (see below). There is not a lot known about them other than that George, himself, went onto become a Churchwarden in Hennock and that one of his sons (William Pinsent) may be the man involved in a court case concerning the catch of a “ketch” (a two-masted sailboat) called “Lucy” in Massachusetts in 1678/9. He was living in Salem at the time of the Witch Trials! His life is (tentatively) discussed with that of his grandfather Robert Pinsent (1589 -1650).
George Pinsent (1639 – 1643)
George Pinsent (1656 – xxxx)
Helen Pinsent (1641 – xxxx)
Joan Pinsent (1645 – xxxx)
Margaret Pinsent (1638 – 1638)
Thomasine Pinsent (1650 – xxxx)
William Pinsent (1647 – xxxx)
Ashburton, Devon
There have been “Pinsents” and “Pinsons” living in most of the parishes in South Devon at some time or other. For instance, there was a branch in Ashburton that died out in the 1740s only to be replaced by another that arrived in the early 1800s. Thomas Pinson married Grace Elliott in Ilsington in 1813 and they had three children there: He was 60-years old in 1836 when he died as Thomas PINSENT. His wife, Grace, also bore the PINSENT name when she died in Ashburton ten years later.
Grace and her family are mentioned in the 1841 census. She lived on East Street in Ashburton with two of her daughters, Grace Pinsent (a “tin miner”) and Sibyla Pinsent (who was a “serge weaver” who died in 1849). Her third daughter, Rachael Pinsent had already died of typhus. Thomas and his family seem to have been “Pinsons” that transitioned to “Pinsents”.
Grace Pinsent (1777 – 1846)
Grace Pinsent (1813 – 1882)
Sibyla Pinsent (1817 – 1849)
Rachael Pinsent (1821 – 1839)
Crediton, Devon
Crediton is a fair-sized county town so it is not surprising to find family members living there from time to time. There was a “Pinson” branch there from the 1740s to the early 1800s; however, it is not fully delineated. We know that a “draper,” Richard Pinson, died there in 1827 and, by his will, he divided his estate between his four daughters “Mary Pinson, Elizabeth Pinson, Rebecca, wife of John Traies and Sarah Pinson. Mary and Sarah Pinson were given an extra L. 4.00 pounds for each year they helped in the shop after his wife (Elizabeth) died”. Mary, Elizabeth and Sarah remained unmarried and the census records show and that they ran the shop into the 1860s. Elizabeth Pinson and her sister Sarah made their way into the database via the Government records.
William Thomas Pinson was a “master baker” in Crediton when he died in 1875. Where he came from I do not know; however, he gave evidence at an embezzlement trial in 1857 (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Saturday 10th January 1857) so he may have had some connection to the family above. His wife, Christiana PINSENT died in Crediton in 1891.
Christiana Pinsent (1821 – 1891)
Elizabeth Pinson (1793 – 1870)
Sarah Pinson (1799 – 1883)
William Thomas Pinson (1824 – 1875)
Chudleigh, Devon
Mary Ann Pinsent was the “child of a spinster” – who exactly is left unstated and unclear! I have yet to find a birth record. She died of measles in the Workhouse at Chudleigh in 1837, and may not have come from Chudleigh itself. The workhouse have serviced other parishes as well.
Mary Ann Pinsent (1835 – 1837)
Ann Pinsent (1801 – 1862)
Exeter, Devon
There seem to have been surprisingly few “Pinsents” and “Pinsons” living in Exeter, given that it is the county town for Devonshire. Nevertheless, they have drifted in and out over the years. A John PINSENT was born and died there, unmarried, in 1939. He was a “coach maker” and the son of a non-conformist “mill wright.” I do not know where his father Richard Pinson came from – but he seems to have married in 1811 and had at least four children, including two sons – including the John Pinsent mentioned above.
Richard’s second son, William Pinson, was the “wheel wright” who married Susan Lightfoot in 1842 and had a late son in 1860. He was the Richard PINSENT “son of William (deceased, coach maker)” who married Elizabeth Ann Bowden in 1885.
Mary Ann Pinson (1772 – xxxx)
John Pinsent (1816 – 1839)
Richard Pinsent (1860 – xxxx)
Richard Pinson (1789 – 1855)
Susan Pinson (1823 – 1904)
William Pinson (xxxx – xxxx)
Moretonhampstead, Devon
There had been “Pinsons” living in the Moretonhampstead and Chagford area since the early 1700s and they were fairly plentiful by the time Mr. John “PINSENT” (DEVONPORT) set up his soap and candle making business in Moretonhampstead in the 1740s. They probably did not mix much. Mr. Pinsent was a middle-class baptist and his family moved in very different circles to the “Pinsons” – who were from the working class, so there was very little confusion between them. Mr. Pinsent died in 1800 and his family had left the parish by 1810. The following are all believed to be “Pinsons.”
Moretonhampstead
George Pinson (1813 – 1872)
Grace Pinsent (xxxx – xxxx)
Grace Pinsent (1785 – 1852)
Grace Pinsent (1823 – 1902)
Dinah Pinsent (1853 – 1853)
Chagford
John Pinson (xxxx – xxxx)
Tiverton, Devon
The main branch of the TIVERTON family is discussed in elsewhere. It shows a possible early connection to the DEVONPORT branch and it suggests that the transition between them had occurred in Tiverton by the early 1800s. James Pinsent had at least three sons by his wife Hannah née Brimson. The eldest, William, probably went up to London and died there in 1844. His brother Thomas married Hannah Johnson and had a large family that grew to include the three sons that gave rise to the Leicester limb of the family branch. Thomas left Tiverton for Loughborough in 1832. The third brother, Richard, was born in 1799 but drops out of sight. He may have married Harriett Dawe and been drawn into a dispute over trespass that her sister Anne had with her landlord in 1845 (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Saturday 26th July 1845).
I have no birth data, so John Pinsent and William Henry Pinson, who were born in the late 1827s may have have been Richard’s sons. Richard and Harriett certainly had an name-not-stated daughter in 1848. However, that is far from certain as there was a branch of the PENSON family living in Cruwys Morchard, only seven miles away in the early 1800s.
Census records show that Robert Pinson from Cruwys Morchard was a servant living in Tiverton in 1851 and a farm labourer living there in 1881. He was in poor physical condition when admitted into the Workhouse in 1893 and died the following morning. The Coroner was not impressed. He made some scathing remarks at the inquest about the condition of Workhouse and then went on to attributed Robert’s death to a heart complaint “accelerated by exposure to cold” (Exeter Flying Post: 21st January 1893).
The arrival of a William PENSON and his wife Eliza from Cruyws Morchard into the parish in the 1860s also complicates efforts to determine the origins of other, more recent, unassigned “Pinsents” and “Pinsons” caught up in the database.
Ann Pinsent (1816 -1845)
Eliza Pinson (1840 – 1881)
Harriet Jane Eliza Pinson (1865 – 1865)
John Pinsent (1827 – 1861)
Not Stated Pinsent (1848 – xxxx)
Robert Pinson (1826 – 1893)
Unknown Pinson (1858 – 1858)
William Henry Pinson (1826 – 1877)
Totnes, Devon
Mary Ann Pinson is, almost certainly, the widow of Thomas Pinson, a “master mariner” who lived and operated out of Dartmouth in the early 1800s. Thomas was the son William Pinson – by his wife Mary (née Studdy) – and the great-grandson of the Andrew Pinsent who, with John Noble of Bristol, had founded the firm of “Noble, Pinson & Sons” an important fishery and mercantile business in Newfoundland and Labrador during the Napoleonic wars. He is referred to elsewhere.
Mary Ann Pinson (1788 – 1868)
Plympton, Devon
The Sarah Pinsent who died at the age of 81 years in Tamerton, near Plympton in Devon was a widow whose’ unnamed husband had been a “tailor”. It is tempting to suggest that she is Sarah née Eales and that she kept her name after splitting from her husband William Pinsent shortly after the birth of their daughter Elizabeth in 1835. It would certainly explain why I have been unable to find a marriage record for this particular William Pinsent and his second “wife” Harriett, née Morgan.
Sarah Pinsent (1791 – 1872)
Kingsbridge, Devon
John Pinsent may be a late son of William Pinsent by his wife, Jane (née Crockwell). His birth records are missing. The 1841 census data show that William was a farmer who was then living in Kingsbridge with his wife and six children. Their seemingly youngest child, Charles Henry Crockwell Pinsent, was born in 1835. John would have been born the following year. He died of croup in December 1837.
John Pinsent (1836 – 1837)
Stoke Damerel, Plymouth
Anna Pinsent married Edwin Hellett in Stoke Damerel (Plymouth) in 1842. She was said to “of age” at the time and the daughter of a farmer, William Pinsent; however, it is not clear which farmer William this actually was.
Anna Pinsent (xxxx – xxxx)
Dawlish, Devon
Caroline Jane Pinson or PENSON was the daughter of a sea captain, Francis Hamlyn. She married Thomas Pinson (or Penson) and the Census records show that they farmed in Dawlish in 1851. Thomas must have died that year, or the next, as Caroline Jane seems to have married Thomas Tripe – another farmer – in 1852.
Caroline Jane Pinson (xxxx – xxxx)
High Ongar, Essex
There are several examples of “Pinson” and “Penson” families becoming “Pinsents” and the arrival of Richard PINSENT in Essex seems to be an example. He was a gardener who married Sarah Symons in Surrey in 1833 and had a son, William Richard PINSENT in 1840.
William Richard was a “carpenter” and “joiner” who lived next door to the King’s Head pub in High Ongar. When the pub was put up for sale in 1838 (before he was born), it was sold along with the adjoining TENEMENT “containing two parlours, two chambers, one attic, kitchen dairy scullery and buttery, productive garden and fore-court in the occupation of Mr. Richards Pensent at a yearly tenant of £7 per annum.”
William shows up in the early Census Records. He married a girl called Harriet Potter in 1872 and settled in Walthamstow, where he was to become a well-known and admired ringer of the bells of St. Mary’s Walthamstow. “Change Ringing at St. Mary’s: On Tuesday evening ten members of the St. Mary’s Society of Change Ringers will ascended the ancient tower of St. Mary’s Church and ring in capital style a true and complete peal of “Grandsire Caters” consisting of 5,120 changes in three hours and nineteen minutes, The ringers standing as follows … includes … William Pinsent, eighth … … This is the first peal that has been rung upon the bells since their augmentation to a peal of “ten” was rung as a compliment to Messrs. William Shurmur and William M. Beck, churchwardens … continues …” (Walthamstow and Leyton Guardian: Friday 14th May 1897). I am not aware that William Richard and Harriet ever had children.
There was another Richard Pinsent (a “farmer”) who died in Romford, in Essex, in 1841 and he refers to two sons Richard and William, and a daughter Sarah in his will. Perhaps he was the father of the above Richard Pinsent. However, the Prerogative Court of Canterbury has wills for other Pinsent’s who have died in Essex as well, so it is far from clear. There was a Richard Pinsent who died in June 1775, a John Pinsent who died in 1776 and an Elizabeth Pinsent who died in 1799. The linkages are far from certain and there is no evidence for a single, well entrenched, family.
On the other hand, a Richard and Sarah “Penson” had a large family starting with a son Richards born in Epping in Essex (8 miles from High Ongar) in 1726 and there were quite a few “Pensons” entrenched in the the neighbourhood of High Ongar by 1840. Whether they originally came down from Shropshire or up from Devonshire, I do not know. It would probably take DNA to establish one way or another!
Harriet Pinsent (1844 – 1872)
Richard Pinsent (1803 – 1849)
Sarah Pinsent (1794 – 1879)
William Richard Pinsent (1840 – 1913)
Richard Pinsent (1775 – 1841)
Birmingham, Warwickshire/Staffordshire
Birmingham is a large conurbation in the west-midlands of England. It straddles the county line between Warwickshire and Staffordshire and is a long way from Devonshire. The DEVONPORT and HENNOCK “Pinsents” who are known to have lived there are discussed in the text. They clearly come from Devon stock. However, that can not be said of the “PINSONS.”
A quick look for “Pinsons” and “Pensons” in the English parish records (findmypast.com) shows that both families occur throughout the midlands – and they have been around since the 1500s. The “Pinsons” are particularly well represented in Staffordshire and the “Pensons” in Shropshire and, to a lesser extent, in Warwickshire – where there is considerable overlap. Predictable, the numbers start to increase in-and-around Birmingham during the industrial revolution. It is seems reasonable to assume that the Birmingham and (West Bromwich) families in the database are local “Pinsons” rather than imports from Devon.
Birmingham
Joseph Pinson (xxxx – xxxx): Joseph, son of Thomas Pinson, a locksmith, married Mary Homer in Edgbaston, Birmingham in 1840.
Mary Pinson (xxxx – xxxx)
William Pinson (xxxx – xxxx)
West Bromwich
Anna Maria Pincent (1838 – 1839)
Bath, Gloucestershire
Elizabeth Pinson (1840 – 1903)
Erpingham, Norfolk
The Census records show that Edward Samuel Pinson was a “carpenter” from Dorset who had moved to Aylmerton, near Erpingham, by 1841. Presumably, he was the son of John and Sarah Pincen. However, there were a large number of “Pinson” and “Pinchens” in the district later in the century, which complicates matters.
Christian Pinsent (1831 – 1894)
Edward Samuel Pinson (1786 -1863)
John Pincen (1764 – 1844)
Sarah Pincen (1761 – 1844)
London, Middlesex/Surrey
London, as the nation’s capital and the largest and most important city has always been a magnet that has attracted people from distant counties: so, it is no surprise to find “Pinsent” and “Pinson” families turn up there from time to time. In fact, most of the “Pinsent” branches discussed here have had some connection with the place and their family linkages can be traced. However, there are “Pinsents” and “Pinsons” in the “General Records Office” data that cannot be reconciled with what is otherwise known.
A few of the following may be loose ends – for instance the William Pinsent who died in St. Pancras Workhouse in 1893, is probably from the TIVERTON branch but others are hard to place. The London “Pinsons” are just as likely to be from the Midlands as they are from Devonshire and they may be completely unrelated.
London
Annie Pinsent (1871 – 1952)
Charles Pinson (xxxx – xxxx)
Eliza Pinsent (1814 – 1892)
Eliza Mary Pinson (xxxx – xxxx)
Emma Pinsent (1857 – 1857)
Emma Pinsent (1839 – 1889)
Esther Pinsent (1848 – xxxx)
Hannah Pinson (1811 – 1878)
Jane Pinsent (xxxx – xxxx)
Jane Pinsent (xxxx – xxxx)
John Pinson (xxxx – xxxx)
John Pinson (1790 – 1863)
Mary Pinsent (1772 – 1845)
Thomas Pinsent (1838 – 1842)
William Pinson (xxxx – xxxx)
William Pinsent (1806 – 1850)
William Pinsent (1813 – 1893)
Zachariah Pinson (1795 – 1878)
Surrey
Doris May Pinson (1907 – xxxx)
Medway, Kent
Several recognizable “Pinsent” and “Pynsent” families have lived in Kent at some time or other but there is nothing to suggest that Francis Pincent or Elizabeth come from any of them. It seems more likely that they are either one-off “Pinson” or “Penson” settlers in the area that includes a broad swath of land on the south bank of the Thames, near its estuary, or they are related to a “Pinson” family that seems to have lived and farmed in-and-around Swanscombe. Doubtless the naval base at Chatham brought many branches of the family into the area.
Gravesend
Francis Pincent (xxxx – xxxx)
Medway
Elizabeth Pinsent (1837 – 1910): Elizabeth, widow of James, aged 73, died in Gillingham, in Kent in 1910. Unfortunately we do not know where she was born – or which James she had married. The most likely candidate seems to be James Pinsent [GRO0924 Bristol] – a Royal Marine who married Elizabeth Ann Perkins in 1852 and later became a publican in Plymouth. He was a Greenwich Pensioner when he died in 1886.
Manchester
Winifred Hannah Pinsent is of unknown parentage. She was living with a man man by the name of Smith in Buxton, in Derbyshire, when the Wartime Register was compiled in 1939. She was later to become a cook in Wythenshawe, near Manchester. Winifred seems to have been the wife of a “George Pinsent” – although which one I do not know. She died from a cooking accident in 1961 – from a blood clot that formed while she was having a skin graft following a severe burn. The Manchester Evening News (Saturday 22nd December 1962) shows that she was then a wife and mother. Perhaps her children were by Mr. Smith?
Winifred Hannah Pinsent (1905 – 1961)
Irvine Carlyle Pincent [GROxxxx Unknown] and George Carlyle Pincent are down in the General Records Office records as being the twin sons of an “engineer”, William Pincent, by his wife Margaret née Wallace. They were born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1880. There is no record of “Pinsents,” “Pinsons” or “Pensons” in the area. The 1881 Census suggests that they may be “Vincents!”
Irvine Carlyle Pincent (1880 – xxxx) [Newcastle upon Tyne]
George Carlyle Pincent (1880 – xxxx)