Vital Statistics
Richard Pinson: 1745 – 1825 GRO0620 (Agricultural Labourer, Lustleigh, Devon)
Elizabeth Gregory: 1748 – 1837
Married: 1775: Lustleigh, Devon
Children by Elizabeth Gregory:
Thomas Pinson: 1776 – xxxx
Richard Pinson: 1778 – 1868
Elizabeth Pinson: 1780 – xxxx
John Pinson: 1782 – 1849 (Married Mary Follett, 1808, Hennock, Devon)
William Pinson: 1784 – xxxx
Mary Pinson: 1786 – 1873 (Married Thomas Northway, 1824, Highweek, Devon)
Joseph Pinson: 1788 – xxxx
Abraham Pinson: 1787 – 1871 ((1) Mary Willmington, 1819, Dawlish, Devon; (2) Anne Unknown, xxxx, xxxx, xxxx)
Rachael Pinson: 1796 – xxxx
Loyalty Pinson: 1799 – xxxx (Married James Prowse, 1831, Lustleigh, Devon)
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0620
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Richard Pinson has the distinction of being the patriarch of the BRISTOL branch of the family. His parentage is, for now at least, uncertain. He married Elizabeth Gregory in Ilsington in 1775, and this was the first sign of family-related activity in the parish since an apparently unrelated marriage took place there in 1754. He seems to have been an “agricultural labourer” and a recent arrival in Ilsington. He died at “Mapstone” in the nearby parish of Lustleigh, aged 80, in 1825. His wife died there in 1837.
There is no sign of any Richard being born in Ilsington, Lustleigh or any other neighbouring parish in-or-around the calculated date of his birth (1745). There are, however, breaks in the relevant parish records and he may have been missed. Alternatively, he may have been a Baptist. Perhaps his birth will turn up in one of their registers. He may be the son of another Richard Pinson/Pinsent – if so, the BRISTOL family could link up with one or other of the BOVEY TRACEY or the TEIGNMOUTH branches. I suspect they are all related.
When Richard married Elizabeth Gregory, the parish “clerk” wrote down his name as “Pinsent” (albeit, he clearly seemed uncertain about it). Richard signed his name “by mark” (which tells us that he was illiterate) so was not in a position to comment! Another Richard (probably his father?) rather clumsily and laboriously signed the register as a witness. He wrote his name as “Pinson” – which suggests that he had been taught the old spelling (Devon Banns Register: Findmypast). They names would have sounded much the same. However, the “clerk,” along with the other better educated parishioners in Ilsington would have been more familiar with the “Pinsent” spelling as there were substantial land-owning “Pinsents” living in Hennock (HENNOCK branch) and Bovey Tracey (DEVONPORT branch) and elsewhere. This may have led to the change in spelling used by the English members of the BRISTOL branch of the family.
Richard and Elizabeth had ten children (six boys and four girls) over the next twenty-five years. Most were baptized as “Pinsons” but nearly all of them made the conversion to “Pinsent” and were buried under the latter name. However, there is on throw-back; one of Richard’s grandchildren Joseph Pinson reverted back to “Pinson” and took that name out to Australia where he started a substantial “Pinson” tree in New South Wales!
The lives of Richard’s children are hard to follow; however, most of them seem to have survived childhood and been apprenticed out to local landowners at the age of nine or ten. John Wills took four of them at about that age and his brother (?) Joseph Wills took another (Apprenticeship Records: Devon Records Office). Thereafter, three of the boys (Thomas, William and Joseph) are hard to trace as they either died or left the parish. Still, we know something about the other three (Richard, John and Abraham). They reached maturity and John and Abraham married and had children. Their lives are described elsewhere.
The Census Records show that Richard “junior” was living with the Easton family at his (then deceased) parents home in “Mapstone”, in Lustleigh in 1841. A few years later, he was the subject of a “Settlement Examination” that was held in Lustleigh in 1845 (Manor of Lustleigh: H. M. Preskett: 1970). The tribunal established that Richard was born in Lustleigh and that he had been bound as an apprentice to John Wills and later to his brother until he was about twenty-one years old. He then worked at “Knowle” for a couple of years as a “day labourer”. After that, he became an “ostler” (read “stable-hand”) and worked for an “Innkeeper” in East Teignmouth. He lived there for eleven or twelve years before returning to Lustleigh on account of poor health. Since then, he had either worked as a “day labourer” or been on parish relief. Thirty-three years or so on, the Lustleigh “Guardians”, who were responsible for allocating that relief, seem to have lost patience with him. They checked to see if he was, in fact, eligible.
Richard was living with his sister Mary and her husband Thomas Northway at “Higher Gabwell” in Stokeinteignhead when the Census takers dropped by in 1851. He was almost eighty years old by then, and (understandably) still on relief. Ten years on, Thomas Northway had died but Richard and his sister Mary were still living in Stockeinteignhead. Richard Pinsent “junior” never married – at least as far as I know. He was over ninety when he died in 1868.
It is not clear what happened to Richard’s sister Elizabeth, but Mary, as noted above, married a Mr. Northway of Stokeinteighhead in 1824. Rachael was “in service” in London when the 1841 Census was taken. She may have married there; however I think it is more likely that she was the Rachael Pinsent, “the faithful servant of the late Mrs. William Jackson” who died in London in 1862 (Morning Herald (London): Monday 29th December 1862). Loyalty Pinson married James Prowse of Bovey Tracey in 1831. I have not followed their descent but Richard’s brothers John and Abraham are discussed elsewhere.
Richard “senior” and Elizabeth (née Gregory) named one of their sons Abraham and two of their daughters Rachael and Loyalty, so they may have had “Baptist” or other “Independent Church” leanings. Despite this, they were buried in the local, Anglican, parish churchyard.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Grandmother: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
PARENTS
Father: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Mother: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
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