Back to the beginning: So far, we have looked into the descent of three of Thomas Pinsent of Huxbeare’s sons and Julian Stidstone’s four sons – Robert Pinsent (1624 – 1671) who stayed on at Huxbeare and whose line died out; John Pinsent (1626 – 1663) who fathered the prominent DEVONPORT line; and Thomas Pinsent (1633 – 1701) who founded the HENNOCK line.
Thomas and Julian had a fourth son, William Pinsent (1638 – xxxx) who may also have founded another major line; although this does require a few assumptions – most notably, that William’s absence from the Hennock Records is not because he died young but because he moved out of the parish. Some online [Ancestry.com] sources have suggested that he moved to Tiverton which is to the north of Exeter and outside of the Teign valley . Certainly, a William Pinsent of Tiverton did marry Elizabeth Helmore in 1663; however, there are other semi-legible “Pingstons” or “Pinkstons” mentioned in the parish records around then and this William could come from another family. The same online sources suggest that the above William had a son, John Pinsent who married Elizabeth Pennington in Tiverton in 1697 and that he, in turn, had a son, Thomas (1709 – xxxx) who married Mary Nott in Tiverton in 1735. These links are reasonable; however, there are still plenty of unclaimed Pinsents on the books – as it were – waiting to be assigned to trees and it is hard to be sure that the links are correct. The above mentioned Thomas Pinsent may have been appointed to the Petty Jury at Tiverton Quarter Sessions on several occasions between 1767 and 1770 (LDS-Film#1526424). If so, he had some standing in the community. He is taken to be the official founding father of the TIVERTON branch – which split into two major lines within a couple of generations.
The John and Elizabeth (neé Pennington) named above may have had a younger son, William Pinsent born in 1714. If so, he could be the William who brought an action against a Mr. Jarman at Tiverton Quarter Sessions in 1763. Also, it was probably his father, John Pinsent who foolishly agreed to act as surety for Mary Richards at the Quarter Sessions in 1747. She failed to show up (LDS-Film#1526424)!
The Thomas who married Mary Nott was a carpenter in Tiverton, a community that had grown rich on the wool trade. It had strong links to both Bristol and London and it is perhaps not surprising that Thomas’s descendants were the first to leave the green fields of Devon and move to the smoke and squalor of the cities in the north, and to London in the east. Thomas’s son, Benjamin (1776 – 1819) was also a carpenter. He went up to London and, despite the somewhat inhospitable nature of the place in those days, established a family line that has come down into relatively modern times – largely through a succession of tradesmen.
Thomas and Mary (neé Nott) also had a son James (1769 -1833) who stayed on in Tiverton. However, one of his sons moved to Leicestershire. Thomas was a shoemaker (“cordwainer”) who married a girl (Hannah Johnson) from Loughborough and, after a few years spent in Devon, moved up to her home county of Leicestershire, which was at the heart of the shoe-manufacturing business during the industrial revolution. Given Hannah’s connections, it must have made sense to make the move. Thomas and Hannah had three sons (James, John and Charles) each of whom established their own family lines. A generation or two later, some of the family moved from Leicester to Nottingham, which also played a prominent role in the leather industry.
Most of Thomas and Hannah’s descendants remained in the shoe trade and the service industries. They were, with a few notable exceptions (Alfred Pinsent, the lecturer in Education at Aberystwyth University in the 1950s [see below] comes to mind) “working class” families many of whom supplied sons to the forces during the First World War. The family has diversified considerably since then and spread out throughout the country.
The following is a brief summary of the TIVERTON Branch of the Pinsent family. For a full list of members visit the FAMILY BRANCH page and for more information on selected sons click through and read their biographies.
Tiverton, London, & Leicester
Thomas Pinsent (1738 – 1825)
The Tiverton Pinsents probably started out as farmers but an old history of Tiverton mentions a John Pinsent who was born in 1698. He was a wool-comber who took part in a riot brought on by the loss of employment caused by the importation of Irish Serge in 1723. John probably had a younger brother (?), Thomas Pinsent (1709 – 1773) who was also in trade or commerce. Thomas married Mary Knott in 1735 and from here on we are on reasonably secure ground. They had a son, another Thomas Pinsent (1738 – 1825), who was a carpenter when he married Anne Wright in Whimple in 1768. Thomas and Anne had two sons, James Pinsent (1769 – 1833) who stayed on in Tiverton and Benjamin Pinsent (1776 – 1819) who, as mentioned above, went up to London. We will visit James and his family shortly. In the meantime: …
London Calls …
Benjamin Pinsent was a “carpenter” from Tiverton who married a hometown girl, Esther Best, in St. George’s Parish Church in Hanover Square in 1792. They had eleven children between 1794 and 1816. Some were born in the recently opened “British Lying in Hospital”. Unfortunately, very few survived and we find three sons were named “William Pinsent” and two “Benjamin Pinsent” (- three if you count a “Samuel Benjamin”) before the names actually stuck. Both of Benjamin’s surviving sons grew up to be woodworkers of one sort or another. The elder, Benjamin Pinsent (1808 – xxxx) became a “cabinetmaker” like his father and the younger, William Pinsent (1812 – 1893) (who we will meet later), a “wheelwright”.
Some of Benjamin and Esther’s daughters, including their youngest, Amelia Pinsent (1818 – xxxx) also survived. Amelia had an illegitimate son, William Thomas George Pinsent (1838 – xxxx) before settling down to marry John Moffat in 1856. What became of the child is unclear. He may have died young, or he may have taken his stepfather’s name of Moffat. This name transference seems to have occured fairly frequently where young illegitimate (or even legitimate) children are taken into a later marriage. The Pinsent family seems to have acquired children as well as lost them through this re-naming process – which obviously confuses the DNA “Y” chromosome distribution in the receiving family!
The younger Benjamin married Sophia Hewett, in 1827 and had a daughter. Unfortunately, Sophia appears to have died shortly after (or possibly in childbirth) and Benjamin married Mira Burgoyne, in St. Pancras Old Church in 1832. He had another eight children, including six sons from this union; however, only one is definitely known to have reached maturity, married, and had a family of his own. James Pinsent (1837 – 1912) was born in Clerkenwell, not far from Soho in London which was infamous for infant deaths. He defied the odds.
Living conditions in Central London were extremely poor in the early to mid-1800s and the mortality rate was extraordinarily high. The working-class lived in crowded and sometimes wretched conditions with poor food and sanitation. To make matters worse, the so-called “fresh” water that was available to them from pumps in the street was easily contaminated by water-borne pathogens, so diseases such as typhoid and cholera spread rapidly when contamination occurred. There were cholera epidemics in the City of London in 1832, 1841, 1848/9 and 1854. In the latter year, a Dr. John Snow examined the morbidity returns for the parish of Soho and identified one particular water pump as the source of the infection. He realized that the problem arose through contamination of drinking water and argued that the City needed better drainage. 1858 was a particularly hot summer and the River Thames became so polluted and stank so badly that the City of London was finally shamed into rebuilding its sewage disposal system. The City Engineer, Joseph Bazalgette designed a method of pumping sewage into the Thames downstream of London, below the influence of the in-coming tide. It was an engineering challenge and, when finished, the Victorians were extremely proud of London’s new and improved sewage disposal system. H.R.H. Prince of Wales opened one of the main pumping stations in 1865. It was actually completed in 1869; however the effects were felt sooner and the mortality rate had started to decline.
James Pinsent, Benjamin and Mira (née Burgoyne)’s son, sold fruit and vegetables and certainly needed access to clean water. James married Sarah Savage in 1858 (the year of the “Great Stink” referred to above) and they had a very large family. In all, they had fourteen children, including ten sons; however, only five grew up and had children of their own. Even this was a testament to the improved living conditions in the City. James and Sarah’s eldest son, James Walter Pinsent (1861 – 1948), did very well for himself: he became an “insurance office manager”. He married Hannah Brooks and had three daughters, two of whom married. As far as I know, he had no sons.
His younger brother Joseph Benjamin Pinsent (1865 – 1897) seems to have been apprenticed to a jeweller and then to have become his assistant. He married Elizabeth Fanny Boulter and had four daughters before he died at the age of thirty-two years. James’s third son, William John Pinsent (1868 – 1918), worked with his father before joining the army in 1885. He married Rose Emmeline Parsons in 1891 and also had a large family that we will return to shortly (see below). William John served with the Middlesex Regiment before the First World War and re-joined in 1914. He served in the Royal Army Service Corps but was discharged in 1916 for undisclosed “medical reasons.” He would have been 48 years old at the time. William John died of pneumonia two years later. Perhaps he was an early casualty of the 1919 flu epidemic. Alternatively, he may have contracted tuberculosis while in the Army.
William John’s younger brother Thomas Henry Pinsent (1873 – 1910) started out working for the Wesleyan Methodist Society as a “bookseller’s warehouseman”. However, in 1888, he followed his elder brother’s example and joined the army. He signed on with the 2nd London Rifles, a Territorial Army unit. He later transferred to the 6th Battn City of London Rifles – a regular army unit. Thomas Henry agreed to a two-year engagement and he was discharged in 1910. He died a few months later, so missed out on the First World War. Thomas had married Bessie Ada Penn in 1892 and they too had a large family that we shall revisit later (see below).
James and Sarah (née Savage’s) youngest productive son, George Hibbard Pinsent (1879 – 1953) trained as a Methodist or Baptist Minister and went out to Canada in 1907. There, he seems to have married an English girl named Amelia (surname unknown) and had three sons while living and working as a store manager in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan and Marwayne, Alberta in the 1910s. Of the three sons, Herbert Frederick Pinsent (1917 – 1992), Clifford George Pinsent (1916 – 2002) and Roy J. Pinsent (1912 – 1975), I know that Herbert married and moved to Edmonton in Alberta and had a family. I am not sure about Clifford and Roy. They may have had families in Canada who have offspring living today. However, I have yet to differentiate them from a host of Newfoundland derived Pinsents.
James and Sarah’s final son, Alexander Sidney Pinsent (1884 – 1911), became an “auctioneer’s clerk”. He did not marry. He died of tuberculosis in 1911. Despite the improved survival rate, only three of James and Sarah’s sons (William John, Thomas Henry and George Hibbard) appear to have extended the family line.
William John Pinsent (1868 – 1918)
James and Sarah’s (neé Savage) third son, William John Pinsent (mentioned above) married Rose Emmeline (née Parsons) and had ten children (five boys and five girls) between 1892 and 1913. Three of their sons went on to have families of their own. Their third son, Henry Thomas Pinsent (1896 – 1897), died an infant and their fourth died unmarried. The family lived in London and Leonard Charles Pinsent (1898 – 1974) helped out as a “porter” in Covent Market as a youth and then joined the South Lancashire Regiment at the onset of the First World War. He was wounded in June 1918 but survived. What happened to him after that I do not know – other that that he was living with his mother in 1938 (London Electoral Registers) and 1939 (War-time Register). In the latter case he was referred to as being “incapacitated”. He died, apparently unmarried, in 1974.
Of the three boys who married and had families, Bertram Horace Pinsent (1904 – 1967) was a “commercial van driver” by trade. He married Kathleen Croney in 1924 and they had a daughter later the same year. Kathleen died after four years and Bertram Horace married Lillian Mary Hynes in 1930. The second marriage produced two daughters and a son, Bertram Pinsent (1932 – 2003). He married in 1961 and had two sons and a daughter who are, presumably, still alive today.
William John and Rose Emmeline’s second son, Sidney Henry Pinsent (1895 – 1979), was also a “porter” who helped his father in the market. Like his brother, he signed up at the start of the First World War. He joined the Essex Regiment. However, he was later transferred to the Bedford and Hertfordshire Regiment. Perhaps they were looking for non-commissioned officers to help out with new recruits. Sidney Henry was promoted from private to Lance Corporal. He served overseas and, along with so many others, was discharged in 1919. He married Louisa Elizabeth Sophia (name order varies – she is sometimes referred to as Elizabeth Louise Sophia) Kaylor in 1921 and they had three sons and three daughters who may still have family members alive today. One son appears to have become a research scientist and another most likely immigrated to New Zealand. I am not sure about the third. The family line likely continues.
William John and Rose Emmeline’s eldest son, William George James Pinsent (1892 – 1963) served as a Guardsman with the Scots Dragoon Guards during the First World War – or he did until they realized that he was too deaf for active service. He was discharged but later joined the Labour Corp. After the war, he became a “wholesale spice merchant” and founder of the firm of “W. G. Pinsent, Spice Merchants of St. John’s Lane, in Smithfield”. William married Maud Eleanor Spall in 1913 and they had three sons and a daughter before she died in 1939. Their eldest son, William Thomas James (1914 – 1996), followed his father into the spice trade and took over the firm after his father died. The business is still around (2019) although it is now focused on “Butchers’ Sundries”. William Thomas James Pinsent married Ethel Mary Fearnley in 1938 and they had two sons in the 1940s. Presumably, they and their offspring are still alive today.
William George James and Maud Eleanor’s second son, Leonard Albert Walter Pinsent (1916 – 1995) joined the Royal Air Force at the start of the Second World War and trained in the United States. He served as a Leading Aircraftsman and then as a Flight Officer. On leaving the armed forces, he joined the Metropolitan Police Force and held the rank of Detective Sergeant in 1955. Leonard Albert Water married Theresa Nazer Warren in 1939 and had a daughter. The marriage ended in divorce and Leonard married Enid Taylor in 1955. They had two sons who, with their own children, are still going about their lives in England.
William George James’s third and youngest son, Ronald Bertram Pinsent (1921 – 1942) joined the Royal Air Force at the start of the War and also went out to the United States for flight training. Unfortunately, he never returned. He was one of seven English cadets who died in a four-way mid-flight collision that occurred during a training flight in Florida, in 1942. Ronald Bertram had married Pauline Marie Potter, in East Barnet the previous year; however, there were no children and Pauline later married a Flight Officer in the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
Thomas Henry Pinsent (1873 – 1910)
James and Sarah’s (née Savage) fourth surviving son, Thomas Henry Pinsent (1873 – 1910), (referred to previously) married Bessie Ada Penn in 1892 and they had four sons and two daughters while living in Shoreditch and Holborn in the 1890s and early 1900s. Two of the boys lived to maturity and married. Thomas William Pinsent (1895 – 1974) and Alfred Pinsent (1902 – 1977) both had families of their own.
The younger of the two, Alfred, married Annie Henrietta Brightman in 1930. He had been too young to serve in the First World War and was a little old for the Second; however, he joined the Royal Corps of Signals. The couple had a late daughter in 1944, while he was still serving in the army. Alfred’s elder brother, Thomas William Pinsent (1895 – 1974) was a “driver” for a Signals Squadron in the Royal Engineers during the First World War. However, he transferred to the Royal Air Force as an “Aircraftsman” when it was over. Thomas William left and joined the General Post Office as a postman in 1937. He had married Florence Perkins in 1916 and they had three sons and two daughters during and after the First World War. Their firstborn son, another Thomas William Pinsent (1916 – 1923) died young but his brothers, Alfred James Pinsent (1920 – 1992) and George Albert Pinsent (1924 – xxxx) both survived. Their mother, Florence (née Perkins), died in 1947 and Thomas William married Eleanor Mabel Eileen Littlefield in 1953. He was around fifty eight years old at the time and there is nothing to suggest that they had children.
Thomas William and Florence (née Perkin)’s son Alfred James was a “sergeant” in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War and became a welder’s fitter when it was over. He married Jane Barlow, in Wigan, in Lancashire in 1945. They divorced in 1960 but quickly reconciled as they remarried the following year. Alfred James and Jane (neé Barlow) had a son and a daughter who are both now married with children.
Thomas William’s other son George Albert had two sons by Phyllis May Durham. They too are presumably alive today. Unfortunately, the marriage broke down in the early 1950s. I can find no mention of a second marriage, but George Albert seems to have had two daughters by Hilda Vera Martha Toogood in the early 1960s.
Bloomsbury …
Going back five generations to Benjamin and Esther Best (who were the first of the Tiverton branch to settle in London) we find that their second surviving son, William Pinsent (1812 – xxxx) became a “wheelwright” in Bloomsbury. William married Mary Ann Bright and had a large family between 1833 and 1857. Although I say he “married”, I have yet to find a record for it and it could have been a common-law relationship. London’s drains had yet to be dug (see above) and they lost several of their children in infancy. Once again, family names were re-used. Of those children that did survive, one – William Pinsent (1847 – 1871) – worked with his father as a “wheelwright” but died unmarried at the age of twenty four-years. Sadly, his mother, Mary Ann Pinsent (née Bright) seems to have died a pauper in the Chelsea Workhouse.
In the end, there was only one son, Alfred Frederick Pinsent (1851 – 1902) to carry this particular family line forward. He appears to have been the general labourer who “married” (again, no record) Frances Jane Dunk and emigrated to New Zealand. They settled in Wanganui on the North Island. Interestingly, Alfred Frederick and Frances Jane would have been there at roughly the same time as Charles Pitt Pynsent from the HENNOCK branch of the family. Admittedly, they would have moved in very different social circles! Alfred Frederick and his family had its troubles. He was in court on an assault charge in 1873 and he went through bankruptcy proceedings in 1883. Alfred Frederick and Frances Jane (neé Dunk) had a son, Alfred Frederick William Pinsent (1879 – xxxx) and a daughter. The former worked on the railway and married Margaret Melville Anderson in Wanganui in 1905. They had two daughters; however, one of them, Margaret Pinsent (1909 – 1920) died young. She accidentally drowned while bathing in a river in 1920.
Leicestershire Lives …
Thomas Pinsent (1739 – 1825), the carpenter who married Anne Wright in Whimple, in 1768 had two sons. The elder, James Pinsent (1769 – 1833), stayed on in Tiverton and the younger, Benjamin Pinsent (1776 – 1819), went up to London. His descendants are reported on elsewhere. James married Hannah Brimson and had three sons – William Pinsent (1792 – 1844), Thomas Pinsent (1795 – 1860) and Richard (1799 – xxxx); however there is not much known about two them. William, the eldest, may have been the porter who died in St. Giles Workhouse, in Vinegar Yard, London in 1844; however, that is far from certain. His younger brother Richard may have “married” Harriet Dawe and had a sister in law, Ann Dawe who was involved in an acrimonious eviction dispute in Tiverton in 1845. However that is also uncertain. There were other Pinsents and there were Pinsons and Vincents living in and around Tiverton at the time. What we do know, however, is that Thomas Pinsent, the third brother, was a “cordwainer” or shoe–maker. He married a girl from Loughborough and moved to her hometown in the early 1830s.
Loughborough, Leicester and Nottingham
Thomas Pinsent (1795 – 1860) married Hannah Johnson in 1820 and they had had eleven children by 1842. The first six were baptized while the couple were living in Tiverton. However, the others, who were born after 1834, were christened in Loughborough in Leicestershire. It is not difficult to see why Thomas and Hannah moved to Hannah’s hometown: he was a “cordwainer” (shoe-maker) and it was near Leicester, the heart of Britain’s then thriving leather goods manufacturing industry. Thomas and Hannah had three (or possibly four) surviving sons, James Pinsent (1831 – 1902), John Pinsent (1836 – 1899), and Charles Pinsent (1842 – 1882) who all followed their father into the boot and shoe business, and William Pinsent (1822 – xxxx) who is unaccounted for. He may have died young.
The three elder sons had large families that later produced generations of male and female boot and shoe “stockers”, “cutters”, “clickers”, “riveters” and “finishers” – as well as a fair number of “lace-clippers,” (foot-operated hydraulic) “Hoffman press operators” and “hosiery” and other cloth trade workers. It was not an enviable life, being a slave to a machine during the industrial revolution, and some of the family eventually realized that selling beer was far more profitable and more rewarding than just working hard and drinking it. They became “licensed victuallers” – food and liquor vendors of one sort or another. All three of Thomas’s sons have descendants who have made it through to recent, if not modern, times. The Leicester sub-branch of the TIVERTON branch of the Pinsent family started to take on its current, more socially diverse, form after the Second World War. However, that period is largely beyond the scope of this study. We will follow the descent of each son in turn.
James Pinsent (1831 – 1902)
James Pinsent, Thomas and Hannah’s eldest producing son, was a shoe-finisher in Loughborough for about ten years before moving to Leicester in 1865. He must have thought the opportunities for employment would be better there than in Loughborough, as it was a larger centre of the shoe-making business. He married Emma Jackson in Nottingham in 1856 and they and had three sons and several daughters who married and had families of their own. The sons included another James Pinsent (1862 – 1936), Adrian Pinsent (1864 – 1945) and Arthur Edwin (1872 – 1938).
James and Emma’s eldest son (another James Pinsent), worked for his father in the shoe trade before joining the Leicester Militia when nineteen-years old. He served for six years and then married Emma Elizabeth Poxon, the daughter of a licensed victualler, in 1884. They moved to Nottingham and had several children – probably including six surviving sons – between 1884 and 1890: Henry Pinsent (1884 – xxxx), Thomas Pinsent (1885 – 1976), George Pinsent (1886 – xxxx), James Pinsent (1886 – 1886), Arthur Pinsent (1888 – 1889) and Ernest Pinsent (1891 – xxxx). However, there is some uncertainty here as the only mention of three of them (Henry, George and Ernest) is in the Census records for 1901 and 1911. They are probably “adopted sons” brought into the family by a second marriage.
James and Emma Elizabeth (née Poxon) split up in 1891. The local papers in Nottingham report that the Magistrates ordered James to pay Emma 6s per week as maintenance. James married a widow, Emma Hubbard, in 1898 and it is quite possible that Henry, George and Ernest are children from her earlier marriage. If so, they likely kept their true father’s name for most purposes – which would account for them not showing up anywhere other than in the Census records. Two of James’s legitimate sons by Emma Elizabeth Poxon, James and Arthur, died in infancy leaving Thomas Pinsent (1885 – 1976) as their only surviving son. We will return to him shortly
James and Emma Hubbard (James’s second wife) probably lived together for some time before they married as they told the Census takers doing the rounds in 1911 that they had been married for 19 years (i.e. since 1892) and they had had five children together. This suggests that the first three children named in the census, James Pinsent (1893 – xxxx), Arthur Pinsent (1894 – 1940) and Albert Pinsent (1896 – 1980) are Pinsents – even though they were born before their parents married. It is, however, possible that James, the eldest, was brought into the marriage as his life also becomes hard to track. He has not been assigned a GROID number.
The two youngest children, Lawrence Pinsent (1899 – 1991) and a daughter (Florence May Pinsent) born in 1900, are certainly legitimate. Life got very complicated in close-knit communities. It does not seem to have been that unusual for relationships (and genes for that matter) to become mixed up and for surnames to be switched around. It is not clear what happened to Emma’s (née Hubbard) son James. We know he was a coal miner in 1911, but what happened to him after that is uncertain.
His brother, Arthur was also a coal miner in his youth, although he later became a stoker in a power station. He died, unmarried, in 1940. His younger brother Albert may also have been a stoker. He married Linsey Jane Sarby in Nottingham in 1920. He died, apparently childless, in 1980. James’s youngest son by Emma (née Hubbard), Lawrence, became an electrical engineer. He did marry and have children – so, although James may have had as many as ten sons by his two wives, it looks as if only two of them, Thomas by his first wife and Lawrence by the second, extended the family line.
The elder of the two stepbrothers, Thomas Pinsent (1885 – 1976), became a “joiner,” a skill he seems to have acquired and developed while on active service with the Labour Corps during the First World War. He was loaned out to several regiments, including the Royal Engineers, the West Yorkshire Regiment and the Durham Light Infantry at various times while in the army. Thomas married Lily Gertrude Elliott in 1906 and had four sons: Arthur Edward Thomas Pinsent (1908 – 1964), Frederick Henry Pinsent (1910 – 1999), James William Pinsent (1912 – 1999) and Frank Pinsent (1926 – 2001), all of whom married and had families.
Thomas and Lily ‘s (née Elliott) eldest son, Arthur Edward Thomas was a “lorry (truck) driver” and a “motor mechanic” who married Dolly Blood in 1937. They had two sons. The elder of the two, Neville Arthur Pinsent (1938 – 2001), appears to have died without children. However, the younger may well be alive today. He married and had children, including at least one son who has had a son of his own. Thomas and Lily’s second son, Frederick Henry, was an “engineer” of some sort. He married Doris Hutton in 1936. There were two daughters from the marriage but I am not aware of any sons born into this particular family.
Thomas and Lily’s third son, James William Pinsent became a “mechanic”. He married Elizabeth Brunt in 1936 and they had a daughter who later married. Their fourth son, Frank Pinsent seems to have been a “municipal worker”. He married Alice Insley in 1949 and had no less than five sons, of whom at least three married and had children, so his line very likely continues.
Lawrence Pinsent (1899 – 1991), James’s younger productive son (by his second wife Emma Hubbard) served as a “private” in the Nottingham and Derby Regiment during the First World War and became an “electrician” after being released from service. He married Florence Clementson Collingham in 1926 and they had a son – who married, and also two daughters. His son had at least two sons of their own and they too have probably added to the gene pool.
Going back a generation or two, James Pinsent and Emma (née Jackson) had a second son, Adrian Pinsent (1864 – 1945) (a.k.a. George) who rose to be a foreman-finisher in the shoe trade. He had a long life but must have found old age extremely difficult (as it would have been for most working-class people in those days). He committed suicide at the age of 81 years. Adrian had married Hannah West in 1887 and they had two sons, both of whom succeeded in breaking away from the factory floor.
The eldest, Arthur Pinsent (1888 – 1978), was – for some reason – educated in North Wales and he obtained a Bachelor of Science at the University of Aberystwyth. He married Hilda Mabel West, a schoolmistress in 1916 and rose to the rank of “Captain” in the Royal Engineers during the First World War. This was quite an achievement. It probably reflected his educational background rather than his valour in the trenches. After the war, he taught at a variety of schools and colleges and then re-joined the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth as a lecturer in its Education Department. He was a respected authority on the subject of Education and, among his many accomplishments, he published a book entitled “Principles of Teaching Method” in 1941. Arthur had two sons who in turn married and had children. One, Philip James Noel Pinsent (1921 – 2007) was a veterinary surgeon and lecturer at Liverpool University. The other, Brian Roy West Pinsent (1925 – 1997) was a research chemist. They both married and had children who are alive today. This line too is likely to continue.
Arthur’s younger brother, Harold West Pinsent (1900 – 1962) worked in the leather-business in Nottingham in the 1950s. He married Lilian Mary Kirk in 1925, and they had a son and a daughter who both, in their turn married. James and Emma’s (née Poxon) third son, Arthur Edwin Pinsent (1872 – 1938) also stayed on in the leather business and made a success of it. He ran the firm of “Pinsent A. E., Leather Offal Dealer of 26 Gladstone Street, Leicester” in the 1920s. Offal, in this instance, refers to leather off-cuts, not bovine innards! Arthur Edwin married Elizabeth (Lizzie) Memory in 1901. They had a daughter but, in this instance, I am not aware of any sons.
John Pinsent (1836 – 1899)
Stepping back to Thomas Pinsent and Hannah (née Johnson), we find that their second son, John Pinsent, married Elizabeth Johnson in 1855. She was probably somehow related to his mother; however, I do not know how. They had several children who were baptized in Loughborough. Nevertheless, the family followed John’s brother James Pinsent down to Leicester in 1868.
Although John started out in the shoe trade, he later became a “licensed victualler” or publican. He managed the “Sir Robert Peel” Inn on Bedford Street in Leicester. The Leicester Chronicle reports that P.C. Peberdy (who would probably have been called a “bobbie” or a “peeler” by the patrons of the pub in honour of Sir Robert Peel, who founded the Metropolitan Police Force in 1829) was called to eject a drunken “shoe hand”, George Burley, on 7th May 1894. It was probably a fairly routine occurrence.
John and Elizabeth (née Johnson) had six sons (and numerous daughters) who married and had their own families. Thomas Johnson Pinsent (1856 – 1925) their eldest son started out in the shoe trade but eventually left to become a “hairdresser”, “perfumer”, and “tobacconist”. He probably helped his father out at the “Sir Robert Peel” as well. Thomas Johnson married three times but only had children by his first wife, Sarah Ann Ellis, whom he married in 1875. They had two sons John Arthur Pinsent (1875 – 1942) and Harry Pinsent (1877 – 1905) who survived. Sadly, Sarah Ann, died in childbirth in 1882. This left Thomas Johnson Pinsent with a very young family, so he married Caroline Deakin, who was a widow, shortly afterwards. They had no children of their own but Caroline may have brought a son, Robert E. C. (Ernest Chaplin) “Pinsent” into the family from her first marriage as he gets a mention in the 1891 census. Thereafter, he drops out of sight. He probably reverted to his proper surname of Chaplin. Caroline died in 1921 and Thomas Johnson married his third wife, Emma Jarvis in 1922.
Both of Thomas Johnson Pinsent’s sons by Sarah Ann Ellis married and had offspring of their own. John Arthur Pinsent (1875 – 1942) married a “shoe finisher” named Ada Solomon in 1895 and they had four sons, Joseph Pinsent (1895 – 1896), Frank Pinsent (1896 – 1899), Samuel Thomas Pinsent (1897 – 1898) and Thomas Johnson Pinsent (1905 – 1906). Unfortunately, they all died as infants. The couple eventually adopted a boy Joseph Herbert Robertson. Whether he was part of Ada’s extended family I do not know. Thomas Johnson Pinsent’s eldest, John Arthur Pinsent, may have been technically too old to fight during the First World War but he joined up anyway. He joined the Royal Army Veterinary Corps and served as a “horse-keeper” at Aldershot Barracks. How much he knew about horses, I am not sure but it is true that they would have been a part of most people’s everyday life in those days – in Leicester and elsewhere. I don’t believe the Army has a sense of humour, but his uncle, George Pinsent, managed a pub called the “Wagon and Horses”.
Thomas Johnson Pinsent’s younger son, Harry Pinsent (1878 – 1905), was yet another shoe finisher. He married Florence Hannah Clayton in 1899 and they too had a son, another Harry Pinsent (1899 – 1900) and a daughter who both died as infants. When Harry died, in 1905, his wife remarried. Thus, Thomas Johnson’s line seems to have died out.
Thomas Johnson’s younger brother George Pinsent (1861 – 1932) also started out in the shoe trade; however, he later followed in his father’s footsteps and became a “licensed victualler” and “publican”. George ran the “Old Ten Bells” in Sanvey Gate in 1901, the “Wagon & Horses” in Belgrave Gate in 1912, and the “British Lion” in Russell Square in 1925. In his youth, George Pinsent was evidently a bit of an athlete. The local papers show that he took part in 130-yard sprint handicaps at the Blackhorse Grounds, in Leicester, in the early 1880s. This is around the time that his DEVONPORT “Cousins” were playing rugby football in Devon. George’s brothers indulged in the more northern sport of whippet or greyhound racing. The family owned “Pincent’s Turpin”, a dog that did pretty well for itself in the early 1880s. The spelling PINCENT was in common use in Leicester family in those days.
George married Elizabeth Norman in 1879 and they had a large family (thirteen children) from which only three sons survived. The eldest two, Tom Pinsent (1883 – 1935) and George William Pinsent (1885 – 1939) stayed close to home. Tom was a barman, although whether in his father’s establishment or elsewhere is not specified. He married Portia Thompson in 1905 but had no children – as far as I know. His brother George William, predictably started out working in the boot and shoe industry. He most likely went on to serve in the South Staffordshire Regiment during the First World War. George William married Ada Merson in 1920 but they had no children either. Sadly, Ada died in 1937 and George William committed suicide two years later.
George and Elizabeth (née Norman)’s third and youngest surviving son, Horace James Pinsent (1896 – 1972) rose through the ranks and eventually served as a Second Lieutenant in the Leicestershire Regiment in the First World War. This was an impressive feat, as the son of publican would not have been considered “officer class” in those days. After the war, in 1922, he went out to Australia where he married Elvie Selina Quarry in Melbourne in 1928. Their three sons have added another important thread to the Australian tapestry.
One of John and Elizabeth (née Johnson)’s younger sons, John Arthur Pinsent (1869 – 1930) also started out as a “shoe hand” but, like his father, he too became a “licensed victualler”. He managed the “King’s Head” pub in Burley’s Lane in Leicester in 1912 (the year that George Pinsent, above, was in charge of the “Wagon and Horses”). John Arthur married Harriet Hunt in 1891. She seems to have brought a child, Ernest “Pinsent” (1889 – 1966), into the marriage. It is not clear if he was John Arthur’s child or not. Life gets complicated! Ernest grew up to be a “barman”. He married Mabel Braimridge in 1910 and served in the Leicestershire and 19th London Regiments during the Great War. Ernest and Mabel had a son, Horace Pinsent (1913 – 1913) who died in infancy and two daughters who grew to be adults and went on to marry. The death of Horace cut Ernest’s Pinsent line short, so there should be no genetic confusion coming from that source.
John Arthur and Harriet (née Hunt) also had a son and daughter of their own. Sadly, as the local newspapers attest their son, Horace Pinsent (1893 – 1913) committed suicide after being rejected by a girl a few months before his namesake nephew was born. After being rejected while they were out walking, he took out a pistol and shot at his girlfriend. Fortunately, he missed and only clipped her hat! With another shot he wounded a cyclist who was coming to her aid and he then ran away and shot himself. It caused quite a stir in the press.
John and Elizabeth’s (née Johnson) second youngest son, Henry Pinsent (1871 – 1939) left the shoe trade to become a “wheelwright”. He married Elizabeth Phillis in 1890 and had at least nine children. However, once again only a few survived and only one son, another Harry Pinsent (1896 – 1957), had children of his own. Harry senior’s marriage to Elizabeth (née Phillis) broke down and at the time of the 1911 Census he was living with a Lydia Wilkinson. They had both been married so the two children they had together, a daughter (Violet Pinsent Wilkinson) born in 1909 and a son John Pinsent (1911 – xxxx), were technically illegitimate. Harry married Lydia Wilkinson (née Spriggs) in October 1914, shortly after his first wife (Elizabeth née Phillis) died. Harry and Lydia had a daughter about a month later. She was legitimate.
The younger Harry Pinsent (the son of Harry and Elizabeth (née Phillis) – see above) was a “shoe hand” in early life but, like so many of his Leicestershire “cousins,” his life was interrupted by a war that did considerable damage to the social fabric of the community. He joined the Leicestershire Regiment in 1914 and later transferred to the Royal Horse Field Artillery as a “gunner”. Harry was released from military service in 1919 and became a “coal trimmer” and later a “hospital porter”. Harry married Dorothy Gladys Hope shortly after leaving the army and they had five children (four daughters and one son) who were born in Southampton in the 1920s and 1930s. Harry’s marriage to Dorothy eventually failed and he had a relationship with Dora Lockwood (née Clark) that produced another son, in 1942. The latter married in 1963 and may well have had children. In 1954, Harry’s father married for a third time. He married Minnie (née Copsey).
The Leicester Chronicle shows that John and Elizabeth (née Johnson)’s youngest son Horace Pinsent (1879 – 1949) was cautioned by the magistrates for playing football in Bedford Street in 1895. There were few parks around to play in and not much fun in life. Nevertheless, the magistrates had a point – football is not exactly compatible with a random mix of pedestrians, cyclists and horse-drawn wagons. Horace became a “riveter” in a shoe factory and stayed on in the industry – eventually retiring as a “factory examiner”. Horace married Eveline Maude Holt and they had eight children, including three sons, John Holt Pinsent (1904 – 1970), James Leonard Pinsent (1908 – 1978) and Thomas William Pinsent (1912 – 1986) who married and had children of their own.
The eldest of their sons, John Holt, was another “shoe-hand”. He married Florence May Haywood in 1929 and they had a son and a daughter who both married in their time. Horace’s second son, James Leonard, became a “motor mechanic”. He married Irene Bradshaw in 1927 and the young couple had two sons and two daughters of their own who also went on to marry. Horace’s third son, Thomas William, was an “engineer’s fitter”. He married Iris Winifred Bliss in 1940 and had two daughters. Horace’s sons and daughters could all have children and grandchildren who are still living. For all I know, they probably do.
Charles Pinsent (1842 – 1882)
Going back to Thomas and Hannah (née Johnson)’s productive sons, the youngest – Charles Pinsent (1842 – 1882) was born in Loughborough but later moved to Leicester, and it was there that he married Susanna Bagshaw in 1864. He was a (shoe) “pattern cutter” who graduated to become an independent “shoe and boot maker”. Charles had three sons who survived childhood and followed him into the shoe trade.
The eldest, George Henry Pinsent (1867 – 1934) was a “shoe-clicker” who, like at least two of his London “cousins”, joined the army before the First World War. He signed up with the Leicestershire Regiment in 1886. However, he returned to civilian life three years later after buying his discharge. George Henry married Sarah Ann Brewin in 1890 (shortly after his release from the army) and they had three children, including one son, William Henry Pinsent (1892 – 1892) who, unfortunately, died an infant. George Henry formed a partnership with Charles Alfred Allen and they manufactured boots and shoes under the name of “G. H. Pinsent & Co. of Paradise Lane, Leicester”. The partnership ended in 1920 but George Henry continued on in the business by himself.
Charles and Susanna’s second son, Walter Pinsent (1869 – 1950) also made shoes, or at least he did until he married Clara Black in 1893. Clara ran a general grocery store and Walter helped her run the business as an “off license”. Walter and Clara had three sons, two of whom married and had children. Their eldest son, Charles William Pinsent (1896 – 1918) was yet another “shoe-clicker” who joined up. He served in the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment throughout the First World War. He survived but, sadly, fell victim to the influenza epidemic that followed. He never married.
His brother, Arthur Ernest Pinsent (1899 – 1969) was yet another lad who got caught playing football in the streets. In 1914, the City Magistrates fined him three shillings and sixpence! He was a “shoe finisher” who later became a “shopkeeper”. It is not stated, but he probably worked in his parent’s store. Arthur Ernest married Lily Gallifant in 1925, and they had a son in 1926. He married in 1951 and his children may well be alive today.
Walter and Clara’s youngest son, Wilfred Pinsent (1901 – 1970) was also a “shoe clicker”. However, he too presumably helped his parents run the family grocery/off-license. Wilfred is described as being a “retailer” in 1925 and it seems likely that he eventually took over the running of his parent’s store. He married Louie Irene Bassford in 1922 and they had no less than six sons and two daughters. However, only four of the sons, Charles William Pinsent (1923 – 2001), Bernard Wilfred Pinsent (1924 – 2009), Neville Pinsent (1932 – 2009) and Brian Pinsent (1934 – 2000) survived and eventually married.
Wilfred and Louie Irene’s eldest son, Charles William (see above) became an “engineer’s draughtsman”. He married Daisy Fryer in 1941 and they had two sons who are may conceivably be alive today. His brother, Bernard Wilfred became a “construction engineer”. He married Kathleen Hilda Goodwin in 1945 and they too had two sons who married. Wilfred and Louie Irene’s third son, Neville, was a “bricklayer”. He married Rita Richmond in 1954 and they had at least three sons who also married. The youngest of the brothers, Brian, married Margaret Rose Havens in 1957. They had at least one son who later married. Altogether, Wilfred and Louie Irene’s four sons have added several new twigs to this particular branch of the family tree.
Meanwhile, Charles and Susanna (née Bagshaw)’s third and youngest son, Ernest Alfred Pinsent (1877 – 1902) grew up in Leicester, where the papers show he cause an unfortunate accident in 1891. He was playing ball in the street with some other boys when he accidentally knocked over an old man who later died from his injuries. Perhaps the Magistrates had a point when they fined young lads for playing football in the street! Perhaps they should have provided parks for them.
Ernest Alfred worked in the shoe trade for several years before becoming a “lorry (truck) driver”. He married Florence Oram in 1897 and they had a son, Walter Pinsent (1897 – 1947) who enlisted as a “driver” in the Royal Field Artillery, in April 1912. He later transferred to the Lancashire Fusiliers. He was and was discharged in February 1919. Walter married Mabel Annie Wright later the same year. They had a son who died in infancy two years later. Mabel Annie (née Wright) died in 1931 and Walter remarried in 1934. He married Doris Osborne but had no more children that I am aware of.
The outlines given above show the struggles of the London and Leicester sub-branches of the TIVERTON Pinsent line as they worked their way through the industrial revolution into more recent time. The early families tended to be large but mortality rates were high. The survivors in both branches contributed to both War Efforts and came through surprisingly unscathed. The DEVONPORT branch suffered greater damage. The present day TIVERTON Pinsents are the largest sub-branch on the family tree now living in the United Kingdom.
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