George Pinnock

Awardee of compensation for 9 enslaved people on the Esher estate in St Mary, held in right of his wife, Sarah Catherine nee Brown (1805-1846), daughter of John George and Rebecca Ann Brown of The Cottage in Portland, Jamaica.

George Pinnock doesn't appear to have been related to the long-established family of Pinnocks in Jamaica and there seems to be no evidence of any contact with them in Jamaica.

1. George Pinnock was baptised in Fenny Stratford, Buckinghamshire, 03/11/1801. He was the third son (and fifth child) of Rev. William Pinnock, rector of Great Woolstone, Buckinghamshire, between 1786 and 1806, and his second wife Sarah nee Tall. William Pinnock, (by then no longer a rector but from 1814 stipendiary curate jointly of Pitchcott and Oving, near Aylesbury), died in 1824, and in 1826 George sailed for Jamaica on passage paid for by public funds as a catechist under the auspices of the Bishop of London. He was ordained Deacon in 1827, and priest in 1828 by the Bishop of Jamaica. The 1828 Report of the Incorporated Society for the Conversion, Religious Instruction, and Education of the Negro Slaves in the British West Indian Islands, of which the Bishop of London was chair, besides indicating that it was hoping to increase the availability of catechists, stated that George Pinnock (“since ordained”) was both a catechist in St Mary and in charge of a school in Portland.

2. The exact date of his marriage has not so far emerged, but it would seem likely to have been in 1828. The first child he is recorded as having baptised in St Mary, in 1829, was his own first son, George William, who had been born at Hopewell House, St Mary, 02/06/1829. He appears in the slave registers for St Mary from 1829 with his slave-ownership "in right of wife". A second son, Charles Henry, was baptised in St Mary in 1830. Pinnock's last recorded baptism in Jamaica was in the spring of 1833.

3. The Pinnocks seem likely to have sailed for England in the late spring of 1833 and by June George was stipendiary curate at Stogursey, in Somerset. Two more sons were baptised at Stoguesey: Charles (1835) and Edward (1836). In 1837 they were at Madron, near Land's End, in Cornwall, for the baptism of their fifth son Reginald Heber Pinnock, moving by 1839 to Wyre Piddle in Worcestershire, where Adelaide Augusta and Henrietta Frances were baptised in 1839 and 1841 respectively.

4. The 1841 census lists six children, George aged 12, Charles, 10, William 6, Edward (transcribed age of 8 but later records show he would have been 5), "Richard"(probably Reginald Heber), 4, and Fanny, 2 months. Missing in the 1841 census is Adelaide Augusta, who appears in the census of 1851 in the household of Sarah's elder sister, Jane Elizabeth Bunting (q.v., 1795-1857) whose late husband had been island curate in Portland.

5. A daughter, Sarah Ann, was born in Bath, Somerset, c. 1844, but no birth record has been found for her. Another possible daughter is Jane Elizabeth, baptised in Rye, Sussex in 1845 with the parents George Pinnock and Sarah Catherine, and who died shortly afterwards. Pinnock's wife may have been the Sarah Catherine Pinnock who died in Holborn, London, Q3 1846; certainly George Pinnock was widowed by 1851 and no other matching death record has been found for her.

6. In 1846, Pinnock became vicar of East Dean with Friston, near Eastborne in East Sussex. In the 1851 census he is in the vicarage at East Dean, a widower, with sons William age 17 (born Stogursey) and Reginald, 14 (born in Madron, Cornwall) and two female servants. His sister Mary and her husband William Gleadah, an epithen manufacturer, were visitors in the vicarage at this time. In 1853 Pinnock officated at the marriage of his eldest son George William to Mary Jane, eldest daughter of Henry Coates, Esq., of North Petherton, Somerset. He is still at the vicarage at East Dean in 1861, this time with his son William age 27 (farmer of 37 acres employing 2 labourers - his is possibly the glebe), daughter Sarah Ann, 17 (born in Bath, Somerset) and two female servants.

7. Also in 1861, Pinnock was suspended for nine months by the Court of Arches on allegations of indecent assault on a female parishioner. He did not defend the allegations, the court hearing from his proctor a statement of his financial circumstances. He resumed duties following the suspension.

8. The census of 1871 shows George with his son Edward, age 35 and daughter Henrietta F., age 30, his now-widowed sister Mary Gleadah, a 17 year old governess and 4 female pupils, a groom, a cook and a housemaid.

9. The will of Rev. George Pinnock, late of the vicarage, East Dean, Eastbourne, clerk, who died 25/11/1880 at the vicarage was proved at the Principal Registry 25/11/1880 by George William Pinnock of 18 Kings Arms Yard, Moorgate Street, City of London, Assessor of Fire Losses, the sole executor. Personal estate under £200.

10. George Pinnock wrote a series of educational books in the 1850s and 1860s, some of which were still being reprinted in the 1870s. The series was generally titled Pinnock's First Steps to Knowledge. These included: Common Things (in 3 parts), Scientific Things (in 3 parts), History of England, History of Greece, History of Rome, History of France, Bible and Gospel History, German and English Primer, Book keeping single entry, Geography, Natural History, English Grammar, Astronomy, French Primer and German Primer. He was also author of The New London Expositor, bring a collection of the most useful derivative words in the English language (1872).

We are grateful to Jim Brennan for compiling this entry and to William Norton for his assistance.

T71/856 St Mary claim no. 147.

1. Findmypast, England, Births & Baptisms 1538-1975 [database online]. CCEd ID 38922 for William Pinnock. Report of the Incorporated Society for the Conversion, Religious Instruction, and Education of the Negro Slaves in the British West Indian Islands (1828) pp. 23, 42.

2. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]. Bucks Gazette 08/08/1829. T71/40 [slave register for St Mary, 1829, unpaginated but given in the index as p. 387].

3. CCEd ID 43499 for George Pinnock. See separate LBS entry for Jane Elizabeth Bunting. Baptisms of children from Familysearch.

4. 1841 and 1851 censuses online.

5. 1851 and 1861 censuses online. FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Births and Deaths, 1837-1983 [database online]. 1861 census online.

6. Crockford's Clerical Directory (London, 1865) p. 499. 1851 census online. Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette 03/11/1853.

7. "In the Arches Court articles have been admitted in a suit instituted by the Bishop of Chichester, Vicar of East Dean and Triston (sic - should be Friston), in Sussex, by which the defendant was charged with several indecent assaults on a lady who resided in his parish. The defendant did not resist the proceedings, but his proctor, Mr Teller, read an affidavit made by Mr Pinnock, having reference to his pecuniary circumstances, and the learned judge pronounced sentence of suspension for the period of nine months, with costs", Ecclesiastical Gazette 08/01/1861.

8. 1871 census online.

9. National Probate Calendar 1880.

10. British Library shelfmark 12203.c.27. The New London Expositor edition on Googlebooks contains a list of Pinnock's First Steps to Knowledge series, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=C1sRAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false [accessed 11/03/2016].