Vital Statistics
George Pinsent: 1840 – 1875 GRO1048 (East India Company Army & Public Works Department Supervisor, India)
Mary Ann Louisa Payne: xxxx – xxxx
Married: 1865: Bombay, India
Children by Mary Ann Louisa Payne:
George Augustus Pinsent: 1866 – 1921
Charles Alfred Pinsent: 1866 – 1914
Frederick Henry Pinsent: 1868 – 1937 (Indian Telegraph Service, Clerk; Married (1) Florence Maud Platel, in Karachi, 1893; (2) Constance Hilda Platel, 1906)
Annie Mary Louisa Pinsent: 1869 – 1951
Arthur Edwin Pinsent: 1871 – 1939 (Married Annie Louisa Brennan, 1898, Bombay)
Harold Edmund Pinsent: 1872 – 1872
Alice Mabel Pinsent: 1873 – 1874
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO1048
George Pinsent was the second eldest son of a “cheese-monger,” Charles Pinsent by his first wife, Mary (née Fullick). He appears to have been born in London in 1840; however, I have yet to determine when, or for that matter, where. George, like his older brother Charles, was in training to become a “clerk” when the “Sepoys” (Indian Soldiers) belonging to the “East India Company Army” rebelled in 1857. India must have been much in the news the following year as the Company’s army aggressively stamped out what the British called the “Indian Mutiny”. Being a soldier must have seemed a far more exciting prospect than selling cheese, and George’s brother Charles enlisted in 1859. George followed on a few months later. He signed on as a 2nd Corporal with the Army Engineers in the “Sappers and Miners” section (troops that blew things up) for a period of twelve years. The two brothers were shipped out to India together on the “S. S. Monteagle”and arrived in Bombay in April 1860 (IOR Reference L/MIL/12/116). What their father thought about loosing the help of his two eldest sons, particularly given his brush with bankruptcy in the early 1850s, has not been recorded.
The British Government nationalized the “East India Company’s” holdings in India in November 1858 and took control of its army. George transferred to “Her Majesty’s Royal Artillery” in 1861, and was promoted to “Sergeant” in the Army’s “Public Works Department” a couple of years later (IOR Reference L/MIL/12/116).
George and his brother Charles were both originally assigned to the “East India Army” base at Poona (Pune), southeast of Bombay (Mumbai) on the northwest coast of India. George married Mary Ann Louisa Payne while there in 1865, and they had seven children over they next ten years. They had no less than five sons and two daughters. Two of the sons, George Augustus Pinsent and Charles Alfred Pinsent were twins (whether identical or fraternal I do not know) born in Satara, near Poona, in Maharashtra State in January 1866.
After Poona, George was posted to Karachi in what is now called Pakistan but was then part of British India. His next two children Frederick Henry Pinsent and Annie Mary Louisa Pinsent were born while he was there. George’s term of enlistment ended in 1871 and he was back in London in time for that year’s census. It describes him as being an “unmarried private in the army”. Clearly, he had left his pregnant wife and young children back in India. Presumably they were in Deolali, a hill-station northeast of Bombay, as that was where his next son, Arthur Edwin Pinsent was born, in April 1871.
George seems to have returned to India as a quasi-civilian. He returned to Ahmedabad on the coast of India north of Bombay, and his fifth son, Harold Edmund Pinsent was born and died there, in 1872. By then, George was a “Supervisor” at the “Public Works Department”. George’s second daughter Alice Mabel Pinsent was born in Ahmedabad in 1873; however, she died in Bombay shortly afterwards. There was a high mortality rate for infants in India in those days and it was not much better when it came to adults. The “Commander in Chief” in Bombay granted Serjt. George Pinsent of the “P.W. Department” a year’s furlough in Europe on grounds of ill-health in December 1874 (Indian Statesman: Friday 18th December 1874). George Pinsent died on board “S. S. Crocodile” at Malta on 9th January 1875, whilest in transit back to England. He left his wife with five young children to look after.
Mary Ann Louisa carried on to England but arrived back in Bombay on the “S.S. Macedonia” in May (Indian Statesman: Sunday 9th May 1875). She stayed on in India and was granted a pension of Rs 5-9-5 per month from 9th Jan. 1876 – twelve months after her husband’s death (Indian Statesman: Friday 17th September 1875). The “Families in British India” Website shows that Mary Ann Louisa married Henry S. Duke in Bombay five years later. Perhaps surprisingly, only two of her five children, Frederick Henry Pinsent and Arthur Edwin Pinsent married and only one, Frederick Henry had children.
Charles Alfred Pinsent, one of George and Mary Ann Louisa (née Payne’s) twin sons would have been nine years old when his father died on his ill-fated trip back to England in 1875. There is not much known about him; however, he spent his whole life in India and ended up working as a civilian “cutter” in the “Government Harness and Saddlery Factory” at Cawnpore (Kanpur), a British Garrison town in Uttar Pradesh, southeast of Delhi. It had seen one of the worst incidents of violence during the “Indian Mutiny” (albeit this was before he was born). The entire British garrison, men, women and children was massacred in June 1857.
Charles never married. Like his grandfather before him, he chose to end his life through suicide, by hanging. Why is unknown: the Coroner put it down to “temporary insanity”. In the absence of immediate family, the Government, who were in charge of all the Europeans in India, processed and preserved his will. It is now visible on-line (British India Office: Wills & Administration Transcripts: Findmypast.com). Charles made his twin brother, George Augustus Pinsent his executor and left to him the bulk of what little goods and chattels he actually had. George Augustus was employed by the “Eastern Telegraph Company.” He proved his brother’s estate, which was worth less than Rs. 1,700 (rupees), in Bombay, in March 1914.
George Augustus Pinsent never married either. He had stayed on in Bombay and joined the “Eastern Telegraphic Company” as a “clerk”. He was living on “Mazajan Terrace, Nesbit Road, Bombay” when taken to St. George’s Hospital in Bombay. He died of natural causes on 25th April 1921. The Government duly processed his will, and it too is available on-line (British India Office: Wills & Administration Transcripts: Findmypast.com). George Augustus had appointed his godson George Eardley Robinson (a railway company “clerk”) and yet another brother Arthur Edwin Pinsent (a “docks manager”) as joint executors and trustees. His estate amounted to around Rs. 81,000 (rupees). He gave his jewelry and ornaments to his unmarried sister, Annie Mary Louise Pinsent and his clothes to his servant, Sukla Mikla. He gave Rs. 20,000 (rupees) to his brother Frederick Henry Pinsent (“Freddie”) and Rs. 20,000 (rupees) to his brother Arthur Edwin to hold in trust to provide income for their sister Annie during her life, and he gave his godson Rs. 10,000 (rupees) to provide income for his erstwhile servant and his wife. The rest, he gave to his godson. The will was proved in the High Court at Bombay in July 1922.
Annie Mary Louisa Pinsent witnessed her brother Frederick’s marriage in Karachi, in 1893, but never married. She seems to have been brought up in India and become an “Army School Mistress.” In the summer of 1904, she was attached to the “1st Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment” at one of the “hill depots” (Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore): Saturday 12th March 1904). Presumably she was given other postings in other years. Eventually, she retired back to England. I am not sure when; however, she was living in Milton, in Hampshire in 1921, at the time of the census. It tells us that she was a “retired army school teacher” who had been born in Karachi. She was living on her own.
Annie Mary Louisa died in Southsea, near Portsmouth (where there were several other completely unrelated Pinsent families) in 1951. In the apparent absence of any family, administration of her estate (which was valued at approximately £580) was granted to “H. M. Treasury”. However some doubts must have remained as a firm of solicitors in Southampton issued a plea for any remaining kin to contact them about her estate a few years later (Hampshire Telegraph: Friday 22nd July 1955). Why her solicitors had been unable to locate her brothers Frederick Henry and Arthur Edwin – who were living in London – I am not sure! One has to wonder if they heard about the newspaper item and got in touch.
Arthur Edwin Pinsent, the youngest of the surviving brothers, did marry but he had no children that I am aware of. He married Annie Louisa Brennan in Bombay, in 1898. Arthur was employed as the “Dock Manager” for the “Bombay Port Trust” and it was as “Deputy Superintendent of Prince’s and Victoria Dock” that he was invited to witness the crew of “S.S. Aberlour” demonstrate their newly installed “Clayton Disinfecting and Fire Extinguishing Apparatus.” No doubt he were impressed (Indian Daily News: Thursday 6th November 1902).
Annie Louisa was an impressive lady in her own right. The Medical Register for 1913 shows that “Annie Louisa Pinsent of Gymkhana Chambers, Fort Bombay was licensed by the Royal College of Physicians, in Edinburgh and by the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow in 1896.” She would have been approximately twenty-three years old at the time.
Arthur and Annie Louisa must have made at least two trips to England between the wars. Ships’ manifests show them returning to India – leaving London on the “S. S. Merkara” on 8th August 1919, and the “S. S. Narkunda” on 6th January 1922. Perhaps Annie had professional business to attend to, or perhaps they were trying to find a place to retire to. The Electoral Registers show that they they occupied a flat in Redcliffe Square, in Kensington from 1924 to 1926. They had moved to Woodstock Road, in Hendon near London by 1927, and to Quadrant Close, the Burroughs, in Hendon, by 1936. Interestingly, Arthur and Annie timed their move back to England to coincide with Arthur’s brother, Frederick Henry Pinsent and his wife, Constance Hilda (née Platel).
Arthur and Annie Louisa took a trip to America in 1937. They arrived in Boston on the “S. S. Sameria” on 28th May and they arrived back in Liverpool on the “S. S. Scythia” on 26th July. Why they went, I am not sure. On arrival, the American officials described Arthur Edwin Pinsent as being “5ft 9in, dark in complexion, having grey hair, blue eyes and a scar on the base of his left thumb”. They described Annie as being “5ft 2in, dark in complexion, having brown hair and blue eyes:” [List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States Immigrant Inspector at Port of Arrival: Massachusetts, Boston Passenger Lists: 1820-1943].
Arthur Edwin Pinsent died in January 1939 and his widow was granted probate. His effects were valued at approximately £9,000. Annie Louisa was still living in Hendon later that year, when the pre-war Register was taken; however, she moved up to London after the War and was at Rodney House, in Dolphin Square, in Hampstead when she died in October 1952 (Westminster and Pimlico News: Friday 14th November 1952). Her estate was valued at approximately £7,500. She had no immediate Pinsent relations, so who her beneficiaries were, I do not know.
Only one of George Pinsent and Mary Ann Louisa Pinsent (née Payne’s) five sons, Frederick Henry Pinsent, had children and his only child, Hazel Ella Pinsent died while still a young child. His life is described elsewhere.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent: 1754 – 1841
Grandmother: Elizabeth Pridham: 1763 – 1821
PARENTS
Father: Charles Pinsent: 1812 -1863
Mother: Mary Fullick: 1812 – 1852
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Maria Pinsent: 1797 – 1864
John Pinsent: 1799 – 1870
William Pinsent: 1808 – xxxx
George Pinsent: 1814 – 1894
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
Thomas Pinsent: 1836 – 1838
Charles Pinsent: 1837 – 1862
George Pinsent: 1840 – 1875
Alfred Pinsent: 1848 – 1919
Henry James Pinsent: 1850 – 1853
Frederick Pinsent: 1852 – 1929
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