Vital Statistics
Charles Pinsent: 1883 – 1937 GRO0125 (Brewer, Newton Abbot and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
Henrietta Perraton: 1883 – 1968
Married: 1905: Cardiff, Glamorganshire
Children by Henrietta Perraton:
Doris Sybil Pinsent: 1906 – 1963 (Married Harold Ward Turner, Strathcona, Alberta, 1929)
Gerald Arnot Pinsent: 1917 – 2013 (Dental Surgeon, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Married Elsie Louise Smith, xxxx; Married Shirley Gruerin, xxxx)
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0125
References
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Charles Pinsent was the younger of John Ball Pinsent “junior’s” sons by his second wife, Jane Maye. He was born at “Buckland” in Newton Abbot and was only a few months old when his mother committed suicide, in January 1884. His father, understandably, moved house shortly thereafter. Both of John Ball Pinsent‘s wives died tragically so he never remarried. Charles probably spent his early years living with his father, his brother Robert Maye Pinsent, their older half sister, Edith Jane Pinsent and a bevy of servants at “West Holt”, on the Powderham Road in Newton Abbot.
John Ball Pinsent “junior” died in December 1890 and his family was disrupted, once again. According to the 1891 Census, Edith Jane (13) and Charles Pinsent (7) went to live with their widowed grandfather John Ball Pinsent in his house on Highweek Street, and their brother Robert Maye (9) went to Totnes to live with his aunt Mary Maye and her husband, Thomas Maye. He was a prosperous “cider and beer merchant”. From this point on, the brothers lives diverged dramatically. Robert was sent to “Blundell’s School”. He became a well-known sportsman in-and-around Totnes and joined “South African Constabulary” towards the end of the “Second Boer War.” On his return to England, he bought into a “green grocery” in Plymouth but he had trouble adjusting to commerce and the business failed (see elsewhere).
Charles, on the other hand, stayed on in Newton Abbot. He was educated at “Wellingborough”, a “Public” (private) School in Northamptonshire (Personal Communication: Dr. G. A. Pinsent) and later helped his uncle William Swain Pinsent manage the family brewery. In 1901, the Census takers describe him as being a seventeen year-old “brewer” who was, at that point, lodging in Plymouth.
Charles left the brewery and moved to Wales, where he married Henrietta Perraton, the daughter of a “confectioner” at Cardiff Registry Office in July 1905. They had a daughter, Doris Sybil Pinsent, the following year. Charles and Henrietta managed a grocery store on Station Road in Radyr (a suburb of Cardiff) in 1910 (Kelly’s Directory: South Wales) but Charles may still have hoped for employment in a brewery as the census takers described him as being a “disengaged brewer,” living in Cardiff, when they came calling in 1911.
For whatever reason, Charles had left his uncle William Swain Pinsent to handle the decline of the family brewery and negotiate its sale to the Exeter firm of “Heavitree Breweries” in 1920. Charles and one of his brother Robert Maye’s brothers-in-law were appointed trustees of a marriage settlement agreed to when Robert married Mildred Adams in 1908. However, Charles, Henrietta and their daughter Doris emigrated to Canada in 1911 and he was not around to help his brother out when he got himself into financial difficulties in 1912.
Henrietta’s father and mother had emigrated to Canada sometime before she married, and she went out to see them in Edmonton (Alberta) shortly after her wedding, which was in July 1905. She crossed the U.S. Border, heading for New York and her ship home in January 1906. Henrietta was pregnant at the time. Based on her visit, Charles and Henrietta decided to join her family in Edmonton and they left Liverpool on the “S.S. Victorian” with their daughter Doris on 9th June 1911. They arrived in Montreal a week later and traveled out to Alberta where Charles became a Civil Servant. He was working as a “clerk” for the “Postal Service” when the Canadian Census was taken in 1921. By then, the family had settled near to the Perraton home in Edmonton and Charles and Henrietta had had a son, Gerald Arnot Pinsent.
Charles seems to have made a trip back to England and returned to Montreal on the “S.S. Ascania” on 14th September 1929. Why he went back then and why by himself is not clear. The following year, Charles took his family down to Vancouver. He returned to Edmonton via the United States and crossed the border into Idaho with his mother-in-law in tow on 1st July 1930. The American officials described Charles as being 5ft 10 ½” tall, with medium complexion, dark brown hair and brown eyes. He gave his address as #109 48th Street, Edmonton, Alberta.
Charles died in Edmonton and the Edmonton Bulletin published his obituary on 1st July 1937. It tells us that he arrived in the city and joined the civil service as a postal clerk in 1911. He was promoted to senior clerk in charge of registration in 1919. It also tell us that he was a very enthusiastic hockey fan. There is a photograph of his memorial stone shown on the “Find a Grave” website. It confirms his dates and confirms that he was born in Newton Abbot. It has a banner with the Latin tag “sidus adsit amicum.” engraved on it. The tag, which harks back to a coat of arms used by Sir William Pynsent (an eccentric Somerset gentleman who died in 1765), has been much used in the family although it should have died with Sir William. It is ( I admit) on my ring – which has come down several generations. His son, Gerald Arnot Pinsent, served in the “Royal Canadian Air Force” during the “Second World War” and then qualifying as a “dental surgeon”. He settled in North Vancouver in the early 1950s. His sister, Doris Sybil Pinsent married Harold Turner in 1929 and they too moved down to the coast. Doris lived in West Vancouver and her mother came down to join her in around 1952. Doris died in West Vancouver in 1968.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: John Ball Pinsent: 1819 – 1901
Grandmother: Hannah Davie Swain: 1815-1887
Parents
Father: John Ball Pinsent: 1844 – 1890
Mother: Jane Maye: 1847 – 1884
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Thomas Pinsent: 1842 – 1889
William Swain Pinsent: 1843 – 1920
John Ball Pinsent: 1844 – 1890 ✔️
Frederick Richard Steele Pinsent: 1855 – 1856
Male Siblings (Brothers)
Robert Maye Pinsent: 1881 – 1944
Charles Pinsent: 1883 – 1937 ✔️
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