Vital Statistics
James Pinsent: 1862 – 1936 GRO0450 Tiverton (Soldier, Publican and Licensed Grocer, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire)
1. Emma Elizabeth Poxon: 1865 – 1892
Married: 1884: Leicester, Leicestershire
Children by Emma Elizabeth Poxon:
Thomas Pinsent: 1885 – 1976 (Married Lily Gertrude Elliott, 1906)
James Pinsent: 1886 – 1886
Arthur Pinsent: 1888 – 1889
Florence Annie Pinsent: 1890 – 1890
2. Emma Hubbard: 1863 – 1939
Married: 1898: Snenton, Nottinghamshire
Children by Emma Hubbard:
James Pinsent: 1892 – 1972 (Married Rose Croft, 1914, Basford, Nottinghamshire)
Arthur Pinsent: 1894 – 1940 (Married Marie Cassidy, xxxx xxxx)
Albert Pinsent: 1896 – 1980 (Married Linsey Jane Sarby, 1920, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire)
Lawrence Pinsent: 1899 – 1991 (Married Florence Clementson Collingham, 1926, New Basford, Nottinghamshire)
Florence May Pinsent: 1900 – 1999 (Married Walter John Perkins, 1927, Sherwood, Nottinghamshire)
Also:
Henry Pinsent: 1884 – xxxx (?)
George Pinsent: 1886 – xxxx (?)
Ernest Pinsent: 1891 – xxxx (?)
Family Branch: Tiverton
PinsentID: GRO0450
James Pinsent was the eldest son of James and Emma (née Jackson). He was born in Loughborough in 1862 but grew up in Leicester – after his parents moved there, in around 1865. James’s family lived on Syston Street and he went to a school nearby until he was about twelve years of age. He was then put to work. Predictably, he followed his father and his grandfather into the boot and shoe business. He was a nineteen-year old “shoe finisher” by the time of the 1881 Census.
James joined the Leicester Militia [Leicestershire Regiment – 17th Foot] later that same year. The “Attestation Papers” (findmypast.com) that he signed show that he had previously worked as a “shoe finisher,” first for his father and then for a Mr. Hinton. The papers also tell us that he was 5 feet 8.5 inches tall; he had a fresh complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. James had had his appendix removed, but beyond that he displayed no obvious distinguishing features. He served with the militia for five years, between 1880 and 1885.
James moved to Nottingham and married Emma Elizabeth Poxon, the daughter of a licensed victualler, in 1884. Her father and mother ran the “Four Arms” public house on Plumtree Square in Nottingham, and Emma Elizabeth died there a few years later, in 1892. She had split up with James and returned to live with her family. It must have been an acrimonious split as she had had to ask the Court for a maintenance order. James failed to prove misconduct on her part and the Magistrates instructed him to give her an allowance of 6s a week (Nottingham Evening Post: Thursday 24th September 1891).
In 1898, James (rather confusingly) married another Emma (Emma Hubbard). This was several years after his previous wife died, in March 1892. Emma II was a widow and a “lace hand.” She was approximately the same age as James and she seems to have brought some of her own children into the marriage.
James and Emma Elizabeth (née Poxon) had had at least four children before they split up; however, three; James, Arthur and Florence Annie Pinsent had died young. Florence was, sadly, only eleven weeks old when she was accidentally suffocated while sleeping in her parent’s bed (Nottingham Evening Post: Tuesday 28th October 1890).
Their remaining (and eldest) son, Thomas Pinsent, was listed as a “scholar” in the 1891 Census. However, he was notably absent from James’s family when the Census takers returned ten years later. His mother, Emma Elizabeth, had taken him with her when she went back to live with her parents, the Poxons. In 1901, he was an “errand boy” living with his grandmother, Elizabeth Poxon – who was a retired Inn Keeper. Thomas kept the Pinsent name. He grew up and married and is life is discussed elsewhere.
The 1901 Census shows that James was by then living with his second wife Emma (née Hubbard) a “lace clipper,” and with a blended family composed of their children AND (most likely) with several children from Emma’s first marriage. The 1901 Census shows that James’s eldest putative son, Henry Pinsent, was a seventeen-year-old “collar maker.” This is the only reference I can find to him, so he likely reverted to using his birth father’s surname. Similarly, the Census refer to George Pinsent, a “pasteboard maker” aged fifteen years. This is also the only mention of him that I can find and he too may have reverted to his original family name – whatever that was. James’s third putative son Ernest Pinsent was a “scholar” aged eleven at the time of the 1901 census. His parentage is debatable. My guess is that he was not a Pinsent by birth. James’s younger children; James Pinsent aged eight; Arthur Pinsent aged six and Albert Pinsent aged five were also “scholars” living in the family home on Lower Eldon Street. They probably are Pinsents; although James fathered them before he married Emma in 1898. The couple went on to add two more children after they married.
James and Emma Hubbard clearly lived together for some time as they told the census taker in 1911 that they had been married for 19 years (i.e. since 1892 – not since 1898!) and had had five children. If this is correct, it suggests that the first three children named in the census that year (James, Arthur and Albert) are Pinsents, even though they were born before their parents married. James and Emma had two perfectly legitimate children, Lawrence Pinsent and Florence May Pinsent.
The boys are discussed below. The 1921 census tells us that James was employed by R. Moore, jnr. of Front Street, in Arnold, as a “boot and shoe finisher.” His wife, had household duties at 25 Osborne Street, in Sherwood, to attend to and three of his children, Arthur, Lawrence and May were at home but by then in the work force. Arthur was a “coal miner” employed by “Manvers Main Colliery Company”, near Rotherham, in Yorkshire. Lawrence was a “fitters mate” working for the “Locomotive Running Department of the Great Central Railway” at Annesley and May was a “cotton slip mender” employed by “Ashwell and Co. Hosiery Dyers & Finishers”, in Basford. Florence May married a “tram car conductor,” Walter John Perkins, in 1927.
Ernest Pinsent had left home by 1911. The census records for that year show that he was a “coal miner” lodging with a family in Nottingham. The records also show that his half brothers, James, Arthur, Albert and Lawrence were also employed in Nottingham. They were working as “miners” and or “loaders” at one or other of the collieries. Whether they worked at the same one as Ernest, I do not know.
James (junior) married Rose Croft. He served in the army during the First World War and then returned to working in the coal mines. His life is described elsewhere. His brother Arthur Pinsent went on to become a “stoker.” He was living in Nottingham with his wife Marie (nee Cassidy) and their two daughters in 1939 but died the following year “after suffering patiently borne” (Nottingham Evening Post: Monday 22nd January 1940). Stokers were extremely susceptible to silicosis and other dust-related diseases. After his death, Arthur’s sister-in-law, Linsey, acknowledged the support the family had received from “all at North Wilford Power Station” (Nottingham Evening Post: Saturday 27th January 1940). His widow Marie (née Cassidy) put an “In Memoriam” notice in the same paper – on her own behalf, and of that of their two children, “Dorothy and baby Audrey” on 21st January 1943. She did so again in January 1949 (Nottingham Evening Post: Friday 21st January 1949); however, she was by then ready to remarry. She married William Anthony Wing, in Nottingham, in June 1949. Dorothy May married a Mr. George Middleton, who was serving in the Royal Air Force, in August 1944. Her younger sister Audrey Jean was a bridesmaid at the wedding (Nottingham Journal: Monday 28th August 1944). She too was later to marry.
Arthur’s brother Albert Pinsent was a “stoker” when he married Linsey Jane Sarby in 1920. According to the census the following year he was employed by the “Nottingham Corporation Electricity Department” and was living with “Tiny Jane” on Queen’s Grove, in Nottingham. Albert was later, more fancifully perhaps, referred to as a “pulverized fuel steam operator” at an electrical power station when the war-time register was compiled in 1939. I am not aware of any children by the marriage. Linsey died in 1971, after a painful illness. Her husband posted an acknowledgment of the support he had received during her illness and in the wake of her death (Nottingham Evening Post: Saturday 27th November 1971). Albert died in Nottingham in 1980.
Lawrence, the youngest son of James by Emma Hubbard also served in the army during the First World War. He went on to become an “electrical engineer”; he married and had three children, including a son. His life is described elsewhere. It is worth noting that Lawrence and Albert were both living on Owthorpe Grove, in Nottingham at the outset of the Second World War and their mother, Emma Pinsent, was living with Lawrence when the 1939 Register was compiled. She died shortly afterwards. Lawrence’s discussion also refers to his brother Albert.
By 1911, James Pinsent (senior) was a “grocer”, living with his wife Emma and their five children on King Meadow Road in Nottingham. However, he was acknowledged to be “formerly a boot and shoe finisher” when he died of cancer in the City Hospital in Nottingham in June 1936: his “suffering patiently borne” (Nottingham Evening Post: Tuesday 26th May 1936).
Emma Pinsent (née Hubbard) went to live with her youngest son, Lawrence and his wife Florence on Owthorpe Grove in Nottingham. She died there in 1939 (Nottingham Journal: Friday 22nd December 1939). The Calendar of Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration shows that the Probate of her limited estate was granted to two of her sons, James and Lawrence.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent: 1795 – 1860
Grandmother: Hannah Johnson: 1800 – 1871
PARENTS
Father: James Pinsent: 1831 – 1902
Mother: Emma Jackson: 1831 – 1903
FATHER’S SIBLINGS AND STEPSIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Fanny Pinsent: 1820 – 1880
William Pinsent: 1822 – xxxx
Thomas Pinsent: 1824 – 1831
Caroline Pinsent: 1825 – 1864
James Pinsent: 1831 – 1902 ✔️
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1833 – 1833
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1833 – xxxx
John Pinsent: 1836 – 1899
Henry Pinsent: 1838 – 1846
George Pinsent: 1839 – 1857
Charles Pinsent: 1842 – 1882
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS, STEPBROTHERS)
James Pinsent: 1862 – 1936 ✔️
Adrian Pinsent: 1864 – 1945
Arthur Edwin Pinsent: 1872 – 1938
Please use the above links to explore this branch of the family tree. The default “Next” and “Previous” links below may lead to other unrelated branches.