Sarah Catherine Pinnock (née Brown)

Daughter of John George Brown and Elizabeth Boon Brown of the Cottage, Portland, Jamaica. Married to Rev George Pinnock.

1. John George Brown registered 13 enslaved people as guardian of his daughters Jane E. and Sarah C. Brown. In 1823 Sarah C. Brown registered 5 enslaved people in owner, acquired by reversion and Jane E Bunting and Sarah C Brown registered 3 enslaved as joint owners, acquired by reversion. She registered ownership of 5 enslaved people again in 1826.

2. The exact date of her marriage has not so far emerged, but it would seem likely to have been in 1828. The first child is recorded as having baptised in St Mary, in 1829, George William, had been born at Hopewell House, St Mary, 02/06/1829. George Pinnock 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. George Pinnock was rector in St Mary; his 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. Sarah Ann Pinnock nee Brown 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.

1. T71/151 81; T71/153 35; T71/154 41.

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.

We are grateful to David Barker for his assistance with compiling this entry.