Vital Statistics
John Pinsent: 1799 – 1878 GRO0509 (Schoolmaster, Teignmouth, Devon)
Susanna Morrish: 1799 – 1875
Married: 1829: Kingsteignton, Devon
Children by Susanna Morrish:
Joseph Pinsent: 1830 – 1840
Mary Pinsent: 1833 – xxxx (Married Elias Dawe, Newton Abbot, Devon, 1863)
John L. Pinsent: 1833 – xxxx
Susan Morrish Pinsent: 1836 – 1889 (Married Henry Rabbich, Chudleigh, Devon, 1866)
William Pinsent: 1837 – 1881 (Married Susanna Rebecca Harvey, St. John’s Newfoundland, 1867)
James Pinsent: 1839 – 1905 (Married (1) Mary Louisa Morrish, Starcross, Devon, 1866; (2) Selina Loney, London, Middlesex, 1875)
Melissa Pinsent: 1841 – xxxx (Married Charles Creedy Truman, Newton Abbot, Devon, 1877)
Family Branch: Teignmouth
PinsentID: GRO0509
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John Pinsent was the eldest son of another John Pinsent by his wife Sarah (née Hill). He was born and brought up in Bovey Tracey where his grandfather (Joseph Pinsent) had originally farmed part of a large block of land in “Yeo” that had been in the Pinsent family for several generations. As Bovey Tracey grew, Joseph started to develop land and John’s father owned several houses that were probably let out to craftsmen and others working in the brick and pottery trade.
John’s father probably died when he was ten years old and his mother probably either took her young children back to her home parish of Lustleigh or went to live with John’s grandfather Joseph. He lived to be 89 years old, eventually dying in 1838.
John was apprenticed to a “baker” in Kingsteignton and married Susanna Morrish in the Anglican Church there in 1929. They had seven children in the years that followed. Susanna was from a Non-conformist family and her children were probably christened according to Baptist rites. They are not to be found in the Anglican records. The two youngest children, James Pinsent and Melissa Pinsent were born in 1839 and 1841 respectively and their births were also registered with the Central Government.
John and Susanna’s eldest son (Joseph Pinsent) died in 1840; he was ten years old. When the census takers came calling the following year, they found that John was a “baker” living in Kingsteignton village with his wife Susanna and their then five children, Mary, John, Susan, William and James. Susanna was pregnant with her youngest child, Melissa, and she was born later that year.
John must have had a reasonable education as he switched from being a “baker” to being a “schoolmaster” sometime in the 1840s. It was a risky move and he was a “debtor”, lodged in the “Sheriff’s Ward for Debtors” on Cowick Street, in St. Thomas’s Parish, Exeter when the Census takers returned in 1851. Susanna and his eldest son, John Pinsent, were “gardeners” in Exminster supporting some the younger children (William, James and Melissa) who were still scholars.
John’s two elder daughters were probably both “in service”. Certainly, Mary was an unmarried “child’s maid” working for Philip S. Mitchelmore, a well-off “linen-draper” in Newton Abbot. His wife, Ann (née Morrish) ran a large household that included five young children, three “assistant drapers”, an “apprentice”, Philips’ widowed mother-in-law (Ann Morrish) and three other servants. Mrs. Mitchelmore needed all the help she could get! Ann Morrish was Mary Pinsent’s grandmother. I am not sure where her sister Sarah was but she was likely also “in service” somewhere.
John must have resolved his financial problems. Perhaps he had property in Bovey Tracey he could sell, or perhaps the more affluent Mitchelmore’s helped out. Anyway, somehow he managed to pay his debts and open a small school in Teignmouth. According to Kelly’s Directory, he was running a “Day School” on Upper Brook Street by 1857. The 1861 census records are in agreement. They show that he was a “schoolmaster” living on Brook Street with his wife and their unmarried daughters Susan (aged 24) and Melissa (aged 19) – who helped out at the school.
John’s daughter Mary, meanwhile, was still with the Mitchelmores. The 1861 census tells us that she was a “draper’s assistant” working for her uncle, (Philip Mitchelmore), in his store on East Street in Newton Abbot. Evidently, he was doing well: he had several “assistants” and no less than four “apprentices” – in addition to a full quota of servants. Mary married Elias Dawe, a “railway store-keeper” in the Baptist Chapel at Newton Abbot in January 1863.
The same year (1863) the owner of the house that John rented – and presumably used for his school – put it up for sale at auction at Holcombe’s “White Horse Inn”, in West Teignmouth. He place an advertisement in a local paper that said the house was “now in the occupation of Mr. Pinsent, as tenant thereof, containing four bedrooms on the upper floor, and sitting room, kitchen, back kitchen and offices on the ground floor, with a side entrance and a convenient courtlage behind, well supplied with water. The premises are eligibly situated near the railway station, and have a frontage in Brook Street of forty feet, and are fifty-six feet in depth” (Exeter Flying Post: Wednesday 23rd September 1863). It was said to be well located on a corner lot in Upper Brook Street. Presumably it sold with John a sitting tenant.
John’s daughter Susan Morrish Pinsent went looking for for greener pastures and took a job in Chudleigh as a “schoolmistress.” She married Henry Rabbich, a widowed “master builder” in “Brookfield Chapel” in Chudleigh in September 1866.
John’s school met with limited success. When the citizens of West and East Teignmouth met “to consider the new Education Act (In November 1870); E. Gulson, Esq., who presided, pointed out that the two parishes of East and West Teignmouth only had one school, and whether one school would be sufficient for the two parishes for the future, it would not be for them to decide. He certainly considered additional accommodation necessary. The Rev. A. Lawson stated that the school accommodation in East and West Teignmouth would provide for 390 children. The Athenaeum School, which was termed a private adventure, was sufficient for 147 children, the Roman Catholic School 80, Mr. Pinsent’s school 56, and the school under the patron’ of Mrs. Wrey 30, making in all 703; but to provide for one-sixth of the population there would be a deficiency in school accommodation for 300 children. From Mr. Howard who inspected their schools last week (he might be right or wrong) he learned that the school accommodation at the Athenaeum and Mr. Pinsent’s would never pass the requirements of the Education Department. Taking into consideration the number of poor in West Teignmouth, he thought accommodation would be required for one-fifth rather than one-sixth, and if that were so they would have to provide for 500 instead of 300” (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Friday 25th November 1870).
There was considerable discussion as to the relative merits of the private or voluntary system of schooling then in place and the proposed state sponsored or compulsory system enshrined in the “Education Act.” The Rev. A. Lawson moved a motion in favour of the former and it was seconded but later withdrawn – after wiser heads recommended that the citizens should form a committee to look into the relative merits of the two systems. The committee was to report back in a week
The 1871 census records tell us that John’s school was next to the brewery on Brook Hill in West Teignmouth, and that he was still running it with the help of his youngest daughter Melissa who was an unmarried “assistant teacher”. John and Susanna were over seventy years old by then and Susanna (née Morrish) died at Brook Hill a few years later, in December 1875. Her widowed husband soldiered on. White’s Directory tells us that John was still running his “Day School” at High Brook Street in Teignmouth in 1878, the year he died.
Melissa had married Charles Creedy Truman, a “painter and gilder” in Newton Abbot a few months previously and her father was probably living with them, when he died on Teign Street in West Teignmouth. It was his daughter, M. Truman, who registered his death.
John and Susanna had fours sons. Joseph Pinsent, the eldest, died of “scarlet fever” in Kingsteignton in 1840. His brothers, John, William and James were still alive ten years later, when their father was incarcerated in the “Debtors’ Ward” in Exeter in 1851. They were living with their mother in Exminster. John “junior” helped his mother out as a “gardener” while the others attended school. John drops out of sight after that. Presumably he died, or perhaps he emigrated.
His brother William Pinsent is easier to trace, although there is a slight complication here as there was another William born in Bovey Tracey at roughly the same time and they both took to the sea. John and Susanna’s son, William Pinsent seems to have joined the Merchant Navy, married in St. John’s in Newfoundland in 1867, and settled in the United States. His life is discussed elsewhere. The other William Pinsent was the son of Thomas Pinsent and Mary Mugford. He appears to have joined the Royal Navy and his life and times are discussed with other members of the BOVEY TRACEY Branch of the Pinsent family.
John and Susanna’s son James Pinsent stayed closer to home. He became a professional “house painter” who married and settled in Torquay. His life is also discussed elsewhere.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: Joseph Pinsent: 1748 – 1837
Grandmother: Mary Berry: 1751 – 1825
Parents
Father: John Pinsent: 1773 – xxxx
Mother: Sarah Hill: xxxx – 1839
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
John Pinsent: 1773 – xxxx
Thomas Pinsent: 1776 – 1856
Sarah Pinsent: 1779 – xxxx
Unknown Pinsent: 1781 – xxxx
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1785 – xxxx
Male Siblings (Brothers)
John Pinsent: 1799 – 1878
Joseph Pinsent: 1800 – xxxx
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1804 – 1851
Mary Pinsent: 1807 – 1854
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