Vital Statistics
William Pinsent: 1527 – 1601 GRO1773 (Huxbeare Barton)
1. Joan Unknown: 1535 – 1590
Married: xxxx: Hennock
Children by Joan Unknown:
Robert Pinsent: 1562 – 1626 (Woodhouse Down and Huxbeare Barton)
2. Joan Lambshead: xxxx – xxxx
Married: 1590: Hennock
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO1773
An Inquisition Post Mortem for Christopher Chudleigh taken in 1570 refers to Huxbeare as a farm in Hennock “which William Pinsent now holdeth”. Ten years later, in 1581, Subsidy Roll Records show that a William Pinsent (“of Hennock”) paid tax on “G” (goods) valued at £6. Presumably they refer to the same man. £6 was quite a large sum back then, so he seems to have had some wealth and standing in the parish.
Although there are no records to link them, William was probably the son of a John Pinsent of “Huxbeare” who died in 1561 and the grandson of a Richard Pinsent who died there in 1549. There are documents in the Public Records Office in London that show that Thomas Harvy (a “clerk”) filed a suit of trespass in the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster against Richard and William Pynsent, “husbandmen” of Hennock in Hilary Term 23 Hen. VII (1507/8). They were probably from “Huxbeare” as it was the principal farm in the parish. What the case was about, I am not sure. It was Richard Pinsent of “Huxbeare” who made Subsidy Roll payments on goods valued at £10 in 1524 and £8 in 1544 – a few years before he died.
For the sake of argument, William Pinsent has been designated the founding father of the DEVONPORT and HENNOCK branches of the Pinsent family. The DEVONPORT Pinsents can be linked back to him with a reasonable degree of certainty. The HENNOCK Pinsents can too — albeit with one conjectural link!
William is presumed to have married twice, although it is hard to be sure as there were other William Pinsents living in the district at the same time (circa. 1590). His first wife, Joan, died in Hennock in August 1590 and William Pinsent “of Huxbeare” probably married another “Joan”, Joan Lambshead, in November 1591. Given the dates, it seems likely that William’s son Robert Pinsent was the son of his first wife.
According to Hennock’s Churchwardens’ Accounts, William and his son Robert Pinsent paid the parish rates for “Huxbeare” in the late 1590s, in fact until William died in 1601. His widow Joan (née Lambshead) would have had a life-interest in part of his estate and Joan and Robert then paid for their respective shares or “moieties” until Joan died in around 1605. The “Churchwardens’ Accounts” show that Robert held “Huxbeare” in his own right from then on. His father (William) evidently had a sister, Cicely Shubrook, who died at “Huxbeare” shortly before he did. I am not sure where she fits in.
The Pinsent family was well established in-and-around Hennock in the early 1600s and William and Robert may both have had brothers and sisters scattered throughout the district. Unfortunately, they are hard to identify among the many other Pinsent families then living in Hennock and Bovey Tracey. There were Pinsents living on farms at “Warmhill”, “Huish”, “Clayparkes”, “Combe” and “Yeo” as well as “Huxbeare” and some of them had probably been in residence for decades, if not centuries. The “Huxbeare” family owned property and were moderately well off; however, at this point (early 1600s) they were considerably lower in social status than the Pynsents who farmed at “Combe” in the neighbouring parish of Bovey Tracey.
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