Vital Statistics
Thomas Pinsent: 1738 – 1818 GRO1296 (Agricultural labourer, Bovey Tracey, Devon)
Jane Glanville: 1757 – 1827
Married: 1772: Bovey Tracey, Devon
Children by Jane Glanville:
Thomas Pinsent: 1773 – 1799
Unknown Pinsent: 1782 – xxxx
Mary Pinsent: 1784 – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1786 – xxxx
Jane Pinsent: 1788 – xxxx
Jane Pinsent: 1791 – 1831 *
Samuel Pinsent: 1793 – 1798
* Illegitimate son: Thomas Pinsent: 1806 – 1839
Family Branch: Bovey Tracey
PinsentID: GRO1296
Thomas Pinsent “aged 80 years” died in Bovey Tracey in December 1818. That being the case, he was probably born in 1738. Unfortunately, there is a break in the Bovey Tracey birth records between 1739 and 1755, and I have not yet identified his parents.
Thomas appears to have married Jane Glanville, “by banns”, in Bovey Tracey on 21st April 1772 (Devon Banns and Marriages: 2160A/PR/1/3: Findmypast.). They were both “of this parish.” Thomas signed the register but Jane only left her “mark”. The marriage seems a bit of a miss-match – as Thomas (based on his reported age at death) was 34 years old and Jane, (based on hers) was only 15 years old.
The couple may have had at least seven children over the next twenty-five years. However, with the possible exception of their first son, Thomas, born in 1773, there is not a lot known about any of them and it is difficult from the state of the parish registers to confirm that they even belong to a single family. The two children that are relevant to this story; however, are Thomas Pinsent and Jane Pinsent. Thomas “senior” lived to be an old man – he died in 1818 and his wife, Jane died also lived to a good age. She was 70 years old when she died in 1827.
Thomas Pinsent (“junior”) was probably the 24 years old “able-seaman” in the Royal Navy who served on H.M.S. Captain and reported sick with vertigo on 20th July 1797 (ADM 101/93/2A/3: H.M.S. Captain 27th May – 1797 to 1st December, 1797: Cadiz Bay: Medical Journal of James Farquhar: Ship’s Surgeon). Vertigo on a ship-of-the-line in Nelson’s day would have been a serious complaint indeed!
H.M.S. Captain was Horatio Nelson’s ship when the British fought the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent in February 1797. That was the famous occasion when Nelson, seeing an opportunity, took his ship out of the designated line of battle and attacked a group of Spanish ships that were then in trouble. He led a boarding party that captured the “San Nicholas” and then used it to board and capture the “San Josef” which had become entangled with it (“Nelson’s Bridge”). He took four ships as prizes and accepted the surrender of several Spanish officers. Hardly suprisingly, he was promoted to “Rear Admiral” a few days later. H.M.S. Captain was badly damaged during the attack and it did not able to return to active service until after a refit. It sailed for the Mediterranean on 6th May 1797 (www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_horatio_nelson.htm). I do not know for sure that Thomas Pinsent was aboard during the battle; however, he was definitely aboard after the refit.
According to James Farquhar’s diary, H.M.S. Captain was employed in the English Channel from September 1798 to May 1799. It was on patrol duty on 13th March when, sadly: “this afternoon the fore topmast went over the side when we were in chase, by which unfortunate accident two of the seamen were thrown over board and drowned, James Bourne able seaman, and Thomas Pincent able seaman”. Thomas never married, and left no descendants.
One of Thomas’s sisters (?) is entered in the Bovey Tracey parish register as: “daughter of Thomas and Jane Pinsent baptized 13th February 1791.” She could be the Jane Pinsent apprenticed to William Hellier in 1799 (Devon Records Office: Bovey Tracey Apprenticeship Records) who likely died in 1831, aged 40 years. However, I think it was “Jane Pinsent, daughter of Thomas and Jane baptized in Bovey Tracey” in November 1788 who was apprenticed. Either way, we seem to be dealing with one of Thomas and Jane’s daughters.
The latter Jane (born in 1788) appears to have had an illegitimate son, Thomas, in February 1806. Other than that, there is not much known about her, except than that she was likely still unmarried and living in the “town” of Bovey Tracey when she died, aged 40 years, in 1831. It is through her son that the “BOVEY TRACEY” branch of the family continues down to modern times.
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