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Memoir of George Pinnock1
My sister Mrs Grace March a short time before her death wrote a memoir of her early childhood and as I am now an old man and have in all probability very short time to live I wish to put on record a few words on the theme of my own childhood and early youth and at the same time to correct what I think are one or two errors unto which my sister has fallen.
I was born, according to my father's record in an old family Bible, on the 13th March 1824 at New Shafston in the Island of Jamaica. New Shafston was an estate which contained according to survey an area of 2147 acres and two roads and was part of a larger estate called Shafston which formerly belonged to a Mr Allwood, the father of the Reverend Robert Allwood at one time incumbent of St James Church in Sydney, New South Wales.
New Shafston was bought by my Great uncle Philip and was by him devised to my Grand father George who allowed my father Philip to reside upon it and from the profits thereof to support himself and his family on payment of a yearly sum.
My mother was the youngest daughter of Dr David Grant, who at one time lived at Kingston in Jamaica and afterwards went to practice at Bath in England where my Mother was born. After the death of my Grandfather Grant his widow returned to Jamaica for a few years to look after some estates which her husband had possessed in Jamaica, and took my Mother with her.2
Before she went to Jamaica my Mother had been to a school in Bath and afterwards to one at Clifton kept by Miss Garret. My father had been educated at Westminster and during the holidays resided with his Aunt Mrs Gwynne.
New Shafston is most beautifully situated on the south west coast of the Island of looking over a bay called Bluefields. To the east are wild headlands called Black River Heads and to the west is the most western point of the Island known as Negril Point about midway towards which from New Shafston is the town and port of Savanna-la-Mar. The shore of the bay a beautiful sandy beach abounding with shells is hidden from the view by a few low hills on which the original Shafston House is built; but as our house was on a rising ground above a rich grassy valley we had a very extensive view of the sea beyond, and above the house the ground rose into the mountains which were clothed with great varieties of timber trees. An old friend, a Mr. Senior, was the owner of Old Shafston as also of all adjoining property called Belmont where he lived.
My sister in her memoir says that our family is of Norman descent from whom she got that information I know not; but I am inclined to doubt its correctness. There is no doubt it came originally from France, but I am inclined to the opinion that it was of British not Norman origin. I base my opinion on two reasons. One is that the name formerly spelt Pynnoke has more of a British than a Norman sound, and the other is that in the county of Cornwall, where the inhabitants are chiefly of British origin3 there is a large village or market town not far from Liskeard called St Pinnock. But it is a matter upon which I do not pretend to give any certain opinion.
The earliest event which I can remember occurred when I was about two years old. I had been taken by my father and mother to my Grandfather's place near Kingston to be Christened. I remember being a long way from home, and that I was being borne in my nurses arms when we came close to a windmill. We came very close to it, and when I saw the enormous sails which appeared to be coming over my head to crush me I screamed most lustily. I mentioned the circumstances some years afterwards to my mother and she said that it occurred near Montego Bay on the north west coast of the island on our return to New Shafston after a very fatiguing journey over the mountains.
From this time my memory is a blank until I was about 4 years old when I had my brother Philip as my companion and playmate, and about which time he was christened, he was a daring precocious child, and soon began to talk very boldly. I remember my father saying to him "The clergyman is coming to christen you tomorrow and I hope you will behave quietly" to which my brother putting up his little fist replied "I will say you Sir knock him down." However when the time came for the performance of the rite he behaved with becoming propriety. Another amusing incident was when a woman pedlar came to the house with a basket full of wares of different kinds amongst which were a number of small shoes for children. One of the pairs was of red morocco which seized my brother's fancy but they were alas, too small for him; but he would not be satisfied until he had them, and a slit was made in the insteps of each shoe, so as to enable him to put them on his feet.
Shortly after this my brother was seized with a severe illness, and for a day or two his life was despaired of. At great expense the service of two doctors was obtained and at last a dose of some very powerful medicine was given. Soon after the administration of which he recovered.
Not many months after the occurrence I have above narrated took place, I met with a serious accident. My brother and I got hold of a steel stiletto out of my mothers work basket with which we began to dig at a knot in the dining room floor. My brother was digging and I was looking intently over him watching his operations when unfortunately the instrument slipped up suddenly and the point entered my left eye. I was for several weeks confined in a dark room, with my eyes were tightly bandaged, and I was fed nothing but milk. This was a weary time indeed; but at length the trial came to an end and the bandage was taken off my eyes, and I was allowed to have my liberty once more.
Our life was on the whole a very monotonous one. During the heat of the day we were not allowed to go out of the house; but in the early morning, before sunrise we were dressed and taken a ride on mule back to the seashore to play on the sand and gather shells. On our way we passed along a wall enclosing Old Shafston where there were peacocks and peahens and we sometimes added to our own spoils by telling the Mulatto lad who accompanied us to clamber over the wall to pluck a few feathers from the tails of the peacocks. Sometimes we brought home fruit, such as oranges, sweetsops soursops and mangoes which grew luxuriously in the open ground. For the mangoes the boy Jack had to climb a large tree which grew near the house. We also went occasionally to the cattle yards where the cows were being milked and had a glass of fresh warm milk. At 8 o'clock, after we had returned home we had breakfast and then went hard to work at our lessons. My mother was the teacher and she was most assiduous in her labours. What hard work it was for me to learn the multiplications table! I found it terribly hard and I often thought my dear mother very cruel to put me to such mental torture. However I got over it at last and before I was six years old had learned the four first rules of arithmetic and could also do exercises in long division and the rule of three, and could also read tolerably well.
There was a book called English Stories- Traditions from English History; such as the story of Fair Rosamund Hubert and Bruce Arthur. The murder of Edward the 5th and his brother in the Tower and several other tales in all of which perhaps, there was as much fiction as fact, but they were very platonically told and I shed many a tear over them. I was also much interested in a book called Northern Regions - a narrative of the voyage of Captain Parry to the North Pole. I also used to read to my mother Goldsmith's History of England and his History of Rome; and my father who had a good voice taught me a song of the Kings of England beginning
"The Romans in England they once did away
"The la-ors they after them led the way
"They tugged with the Danes till an overthrow
"They both of them got by the Norman bow."
It then went on through the whole list of English Kings from the time of William the Conqueror to the time of George the third.
It cannot be wondered at therefore that, for my years, I had a fair knowledge of English History. I remember going one day with my father and mother to an estate near our own called Mount Edgecumbe. The dwelling house was a very large one standing on a headland over the bay, and derived its name on account of its situation everything that of Mount Edgecumbe in England.4 The owner at Wedderbern resided in England and the estate was managed by a burly Scotsman named Cameron who showed us over the house in which was a room hung with numerous oil paintings. At one end was a picture which attracted my attention. It represented two boys in bed and asleep and a ruffianly looking man bending over the. I drew my mothers attention to it and said 'Oh Mamma! That is a picture of Edward the 5th and his brother the Duke of York who are to be murdered." Cameron who was standing by quietly said, "The eluel has a laughead". The other books my mother used to make me read to her were Miss Edgeworths' Harry and Lucy, and Rosamund and the book called Landford and Mertor; but I took no interest in them and reading them was somewhat of an infliction to me.
Such was our home life varied occasionally by the arrival of travellers when the services of our mulatto servant who was an excellent cook and had the facility of making a great deal out of a very little at the shortest notice were called into requisition. We sometimes also visited our neighbours the Lewis's and also the Scotts who lived a place called Hopeton about 7 miles inland from Shafston and it was a great pleasure to me to go to the latter place; they were very kind people, added to which Mrs Scott was a very pretty woman and beauty was ever a great attraction to me. Another episode in our home life was the annual visit of my father to his father who lived at a place called Clifton at the other end of the Island near Kingston. He was generally gone for about a fortnight and how we counted the days when he would return! Of course he brought us all presents; but I can honestly say it was not chiefly for that we longed for his return, but because he was so good and kind to us. How soon, alas was this time of happiness to end!
But the evil day was not to come until an event had happened which added to our happiness. On the 27th April 1829 my youngest sister Charlotte was born. My elder sister my brother and myself were sent a day or two before the event occurred to the overseers house on the plea that my mother was ill and wanted the house to be kept very quiet and Ann Prendergast was to take care of us and see that all our wants were supplied. We of course, had great difficulty in spending our time to our satisfaction and the best thing I could find in the way of amusement was in reading a book I got from the Overseers shelf. A book of horrors with numerous illustrations adding much to the horror of the book. Among other stories was one of a living skeleton. It was a particularly dreadful story and the only one in the book of which I have any recollection. But we were not to remain very long in our place of exile. In a day or two we were told we could return to the house if we were very quiet. When we entered we were shown into the room where my mother was lying and were told to go round to the side of the bed furtherest from the door and then to our surprise the sheet was raised and we beheld our newborn sister.
When my mother recovered things took their ordinary course except that for the first two or three weeks our lessons were not attended to as usual. Our little sister grew apace. She had a beautifully fair complexion with golden hair and features very much like those of my father, and when the sad occurrence which I am about to relate took place, was the pride of our house.
But now the time of happiness was drawing to a close. Towards the end of the year 1830 my father died at the age of 45 as my sister Grace has described, and bitter was the grief of my mother and the whole household. It was the first time I had been brought face to face with death; and that I should never again see him whom I so dearly loved was a grief which it was hard to bear. Well do I remember viewing from an upper window with my brother and sisters the procession which bore him to the grave. We all of us wept and sobbed aloud - and often did we go to the place where he was laid- under the shade of a large Shaddock tree5 in the garden behind the overseers house, close beside his uncle Philip and his wife. All consecrated ground to all but ourselves.
At Christmas time in the following year the negro insurrection6 took place which has been described by my sister. I remember the warning sent us by our kind friend Mrs Senior, and as for the reasons stated by my sister all of us could not go that evening, and my life, as heir to the property, was decided to be most in danger advantage was taken of the gig which was sent by Mrs Senior to take me to Savannah-la-Mar the nearest port to Shafston. I was packed in the early morning between Miss Senior and the lad who drove us, and after a sad leave taking, the necessity in which I hardly realised, we went our way: After a journey of between two and three hours we arrived at Savannah la Mar the first town I remember to have been. I remember that the church and the displays in the shop windows although the town was a small one filled one with surprise and I fear, drove away much of the sorrow I had left in leaving my home and the dear ones there. We drove to the residence of Mr Thomas Hill, a retired naval officer, situated on flat ground near the sea a little to the eastward of the town, and entered a room where I was introduced to a beautiful lady [Mrs Hill] and several naval and military officers, among them Captain Owen Commander of the war sloop Blossom which was then in the harbour. The Governor of the Island was not there, as my sister Grace alleges in her memoir. Indeed, at such a time it would have been most improper. The rebellion was wide spread over the whole island and to have left Spanish Town the headquarters of the Government would have been a gross violation of duty and would have been putting his own life in peril.
There was a great disparity that night at Mr Hills' at which of course, I was too young to be a guest and I was sent early to bed in a room which Mrs Hill kindly afforded me. In the morning I became acquainted with my first friend Tommy Hill bigger than my self and rather wild and uncared for, whose acquaintance with me my mother did not encourage.
In the evening of this day, when it was getting dark, my mother and the rest of the family arrived and Mrs Hill intended to them the occupation of the room in which I had slept the night before, until lodgings could be obtained for us in the town. These were fortunate enough to obtain during the following day in the house of a Mr and Mrs Malartre in the principal street and not far from the water. Mr Malatre was a little man and belonged to the militia, and I remember his coming home one night after having had a narrow escape. For the next morning exhibited his military hat the colour of which had almost been torn off by a bullet. The town was under martial law. At the top of the principal street where two roads met, one from the east and the other from the west, two cannons were placed, one pointing down the eastern road and the other pointing down the western road, and all day and night they were in the care of artillerymen; and no one was allowed to go out after nightfall without giving the password. This used to be given to us by the hands of a young midshipman called Hawkey. My mother and I looked upon him as heroes and envied him the small sword which he wore at his side, and which we often got him to put upon us; but as he was a much bigger boy than either of us and the waist straps was too loose for our small bodies be would place it over one should so that it could hang there from and pass over to the opposite side. This arrangement though not comfortable was quite to our satisfaction. The day however Hawkey did not arrive; the reason for which we were told was, that he had been making too free with his weapon, and had been placed under arrest.
We had one night a great alarm. Crowds of people entered the town crying that the rebels were upon us. There was great crying and lamentations and Mr Malartre's house was taken possession of by a mob. Many desired to be taken to the war ships and were very up gregarious because their desire was not complied with the terrible night however passed away without the anticipated catastrophe; and when the morning came the alarm was found to have been a pointless one.
While at Savannah-la-Mar we often heard of the dreadful deeds of bloodshed and murder; but the only case I can remember was one of which a Mr Holmes was a victim. He was nailed to a cross and shot at till he was dead and his unfortunate wife was made to look on at the terrible spectacle and was afterwards, a prisoner, made to work for her husband's murderers; but after a week or two she was rescued.
I remember the death at Savannah-la-Mar of my uncle Sam's widow narrated by my sister - Aunt Louise as we used to call her. There was a large procession to the Church and my brother and I were taken to the funeral in a basket carriage. This was the second time on which I had been brought face to face with death.
While at Savannah-la-Mar my mother received a letter from my Aunt Mary Ann informing her of the riots at Bristol and the ravages of Asiatic Cholera at Gloucester where my Aunt was then residing with my Grandmother Grant.
About the beginning of February the rebellion was well nigh quelled and it was then for the first and only time I saw Sir Willoughby Cotton the Commander of the Island Forces.7 As all was then deemed quiet he was taking his ease at Mr Hill's. He was a stout fat man and lay during the hotter part of the day in a hammock in the verandah twisting a corkscrew. I have not spoken much of Mr Hill. He was a tall broad shouldered man and looked more like a guardsman than a sailor. He was very amusing in his conversation but invective. He tyrannised over his beautiful wife of whom, after exhausting his body by uproarious mirth he would sit and ruminate till he had regained his composure.
In the month of February of 1832 the rebellion was smothered, and it was thought we could return again to our home. About half a dozen of our negroes came and volunteered to row us in a open boat to our place. My mother not wishing to show any fear consented to accept the offer and she, Grace, little Charlotte and myself accordingly went with them and were soon wafted to the beach near Shafston. My brother Philip who was afraid of the water but had a passion for horseback went on his pony under the escort of the mulatto boy Jack, and arrived at the house soon after we did.
My mother was contemplating a return to England where she would join her mother and sister and have our education attended to. The means of course had to be obtained and at length, after reposition with my Grandfather George it was agreed that the necessary funds should be allowed us for the voyage and £200 for our support out of the income of the estate. So all being ready on the 2nd June 1833 we went on board the ship 'Caroline" lying at anchor in Bluefields Bay.
A ship of 700 tons burden bound for Bristol. There were no ocean steamers in these days. The Captain was a Mr Smith a tall quiet well behaved man. His chief Officer a Mr Barker was a little forward man with large black whiskers. The passengers besides ourselves and our old negro servant Susan Scott, were an old lady and a Mrs Daley who was a cripple, and her niece Miss McAdam and a young man of the name of Suttor. During the whole of the 2nd of June and the greater part of the 3rd we were kept lying at anchor in the bay waiting for the Captain who had gone to Savannah-la-Mar on some necessary business connected with the ship. Whilst he was away I observed an optical puzzle which much surprised me. The ship scourging on its anchor appeared to me motionless, but the land appeared to me to be continually shifting its place. At one time it was seen on the starboard side, at another on the port side, sometimes at the stern and at other times at the prow; but before proceeding with the narrative I wish to back a little to mention that all the negroes on the estate accompanied us to the shore to bid us farewell. Many of them shedding floods of tears. Poor Souls! I fear their lot was not as comfortable with the Agent and Overseer as it had been with us and my good tender-hearted father when he was alive, and I have no doubt their hearts were full of anxious foreboding as to the change which was about to take place.
On the 3rd of June, my brother's birthday he was then just 7 years old. The Captain arrived late in the afternoon and the order was given to weigh anchor. This was a novel sight for us little ones and we stood watching the sailors at work at the capstan with the greatest of interest. Then the sails were set and we began to move. The darkness was now coming on apace. There is very little twilight in those regions and we soon had to retire below. My mother and two sisters occupied one of the after cabins, Mrs Daley and her niece the other cabin, and my brother and myself occupied a cabin between us, next to our mothers on the port side of the ship, and on the starboard side opposite to us was Mr Suttor's cabin.
Had we not been children to when all things we saw were new we should doubtless have found the six weeks tossing and tacking about in the Atlantic dreary enough. The [ ] and often seabirds were a great source of interest to us, and we also caught two or three sharks which the sailors despatched with great cruelty when they were dragged to the deck. The sailors beat the animals with lagging rods until, added to the want of their natural elements they were quite exhausted and one of the sailors went behind the animal and cut off its tail with a large knife when is soon died from loss of blood. I felt very much for the shark; not so the sailors for they regarded the brute as their natural enemy and had no sympathy with them.
Our little sister Charlotte was a great nuisance and once she amused all who saw her by strutting up the deck as she had seen the Captain do and addressing the quartermaster said "Hows her head"?
I must now describe our fellow passengers; Mrs Daley was an old lady and as I have before said was a cripple and she remained all day in her easy chair in her cabin. Her niece Miss McAdam was a girl of about 16 or 17 years of age and on account of her Aunts' infirmity had very much her own way and used to make love to the Chief Officer. One day when they were engaged in a flirtation on the deck my brother crept behind the young lady and pinned up her petticoat and as she was leaving the deck after the flirtation was over. The cabin boy who was a bit of a wag went up to see and said "If you please Miss there is a reef in your topsail". My brother and I were very mischievous and on one occasion we managed to get hold of some dress clothes which Mr Suttor had left out to air and stuffed them with straw which the cabin boy procured for us so as present the figure of a man, and put upon it a hideous device like a human face and then eased it up at the end of Mr. Suttor's birth. When we retired as it was supposed to bed, we waited patiently with our cabin door half open to see the result. At length Mr. Suttor entered his cabin and immediately we were petrified by hearing a shout of horror. Mr Suttor however was a good natured man and soon forgave us when he heard who were the culprits.
On another occasion when Mr Suttor was sleeping on the quarterdeck my brother espied a tarpot and brush close by: he could not resist the temptation and immediately began to give Mr Suttor whiskers and moustache. Before the operation was performed however Mr Suttor awoke and catching hold of my brother a tragedy might have been averted had not two or three sailors who happened fortunately to be close by promptly came to the rescue.
Mr Suttor was very fond of eggs and generally had one or two for breakfast; but alas the eggs were not always fresh as they should have been. One morning he broke two or three one after the other only to find them stale and unpalatable. At last he broke another only to find the commencement of animal life. That was too much for him and he sorrowfully declared he had had enough.
When six weeks had just passed we came near to the English coast, when a pilot came aboard. A short plump man, as all pilots should be. He had been beating about all day and night in search of a job and when he came on board was very tired and went at once into a round house at the stern end of the quarter deck for a rest. Grace, Philip and myself not being aware of the pilots arrival went by chance into the round house, where my sister Grace observing what she thought was a soft bundle sat down upon it but was immediately startled by a fierce grunt and the movement of the bundle which was under her found to her dismay that she was sitting on a living body. Thus elicited from her a faint cry and we all skedaddled as quietly as possible from the place.
Thus ended all the adventures and fun we had had upon our voyage. The next day we passed Lundy Island and its light House on our left and quickly entered the muddy Severn.
How different to the sparkling hue of Bluefields Bay! The scene was enlivened however by the green fields and woods of the Somerset coast and gaily dressed people taking their walks on the land. The river now began to get narrower and sailors were standing in the shrouds or either side of the ship throwing leads working out the depth of the water. The pilot, to whom the Captain had some time previously given the charge of the ship, was very busy giving his orders through a speaking trumpet and all sailors were working without a moments spell. We saw smaller craft at a short distance from us stranded in the mud, and as last our ship could go no further as we were obliged to await the return of the tide which did not take place until late in the afternoon of the next day when the pilot with his speaking trumpet; and the sailors renewed their labours and we were turned into the narrow stream of the Avon. This was a spectacle quite new to me. Never had I seen a large ship in a narrow river. On either side were steep banks either of which a stone might have been thrown from the deck. Horses were pastured by a rope on the Gloucestershire side to the ship and the pilot his speaking trumpet were in greater evidence than ever and the sailors toiled with renewed effort until passing the majestic St Vincent's Rocks we were turned into the floating dock at Bristol. Our voyage was at last at an end. The speaking trumpet was heard no more. Our pilot appeared as if he voice had gone in a last effort. All was peace and darkness except over us. As soon as we were fastened to our mooring a tall soldierly looking young man arrived on board. This was Lieutenant Munro a son of Mr William Munro of Druidstoke, an old friend of my mother's family. He came with a pressing invitation to us to come to Druidstoke for a few days before we went to Gloucester visit my grandmother and aunt. Druidstoke was a pleasant place on the other side of Clifton close to the bank of the Avon. There we passed several delightful days. Mr. Munro was a tall young man and very kind. Mrs Munro was inclined to stoutness but was very good looking and also very kind and hospitable. The eldest son, the soldier William was somewhat of a botanist and was very assiduous in attending to the garden shrubbery which was at the back of the house and sloped down to the river. The rest of the family were chiefly girls; but there were two boys, Henry and Lewis, who were about the same age as my brother and myself with whom we soon formed a familiar acquaintance.
At last the day came when we were to take our journey to Gloucester and as there were no railways in those days we were all crammed into a stage coach behind four splendid looking horses. This was another new experience and I longed to be outside with my little sisters' Black nurse Susan instead of the stuffy inside. The four horses however soon took us out of the narrow streets of Bristol and then we began to breath more freely and enjoy a little of the fresh air. It was a fine sunshiny day and the hedges on each side of the road and the rich beautifully green pastureland of the Devon Vale was very delightful. At length after some hours travelling we began to rattle over the stones of Gloucester after changing horses at the Bell Inn in Southgate Street were set down at my Grandmothers house in London Road the house was a large one standing back from the road within iron rails and behind it was a large garden with gravel walks and planted with flowers and scrubs. The apricots, peaches and nectarines trained against brick walls were one of those novelties which attracted me on my arrival in the old country.
My Grandmother Grant was a dear old lady possessed of the kindest heart and always giving so much as her limited means could allow to the poor and afflicted as well as to her grandchildren. My Aunt was considerably older than my mother of a darker complexion and slightly taller. Her figure perfect in her youth she must have been very beautiful. There were two others in the household, the children of a deceased daughter of my grandmother whom she had adopted; Fanny Marsh, three or four years older than my sister Grace, and Milbourne Marsh her brother, who was at a private school at Cheltenham but was at that time at home for the summer holidays. The household was a large one but the house was large so that we were not uncomfortably packed.
My Grandmother and Aunt had some very kind friends to whom we also became attached as time availed. First there was a Major Weymss, a tall good looking old man who had two daughters, Dorothy and Mary, great chums of my cousin Fanny Marsh with whom they and my sister Grace took lessons in French at the school of Miss Rudhall from the Abbé Jose, one of the Jesuit Brotherhood and a refugee from France. The Abbé was then a very old man and full of benevolence even towards protestants. Major Weymss had also three sons. The eldest Frank, in the East India Company's Service was at the time of our arrival in India, James the second son was studying for the law, and John, the youngest was at the Gloucester College School, but soon after quitted it for the Marine Artillery. They were all tall strapping fellows six feet high and over. Their sisters were also tall and strong and Dorothy decidedly pretty. Another friend to whom we were introduced was a Colonel Mason a man some what above middle height and corpulent. Major Wemyss was a Tory. Colonel Mason a Whig and was very strenuous at election time in his efforts on behalf of his party. Then there were Captain Colin Campbell R.N. and Captain Dikes R.N. both of them Tories so we had a round about of Whigs and Tory, but the latter decidedly in the majority.
Gloucester as everyone knows is a very ancient city preserving many traces of Roman occupation. It has four principal streets. Northgate, Southgate, Eastgate and Westgate meeting as a central point where originally was a cross which has long since been removed. The most noticeable building is the proud old Cathedral of grey stone.8 The interior architecture is rather incongruous, the nave being in the Norman style and the choir of florid Gothic. The whole assembly however is very grand. The pillars in the nave are very massive, and passing through a doorway under the organ loft you enter the choir which is I believe one of the loftiest in the kingdom with a magnificent painted window at the east end beyond which is the lady chapel of very ornate Gothic. The cloisters are very perfect, also in ornate gothic. The tower, also gothic rises from the centre of the structure - square in shape and surrounded by four pinnacles, one at each corner. The highest from the ground to the top of the pinnacles is I believe 250 feet. In the interior of the building is a whispering gallery. There is also an effigy of Robert Duke of Normandy in the south transept and in the choir, a beautiful tomb in ornate gothic over the remains of the unfortunate Edward the 2nd who was cruelly murdered at Berkeley Castle.
There are several old parish churches in the city of grey stone; St Nicholas' at the cross at the corner of Eastgate and Southgate Streets. St John the Baptist in Northgate Street. St Nicholas in Westgate Street. St Mary de Crypt in Southgate Street and St Mary de Lode in a square into which you cut through a stone archway from the college green. It was in front of this church facing the doorway where Bishops Hooper suffered martyrdom and in whose memory a tombstone has been erected printed in gold letters. The only public building of note are the Tokay, a square building of brick at the corner of Newgate and Southgate Streets. The Blue-Coat school in Eastgate Street and the Shire Hall where the assize courts are held. This latter building is of grey stone into which you enter by steps from the street under stone pillars with Ionic capitals. On the first floor is a very large room of great width as well as length, with a raised platform at the further end. The Assize Courts are on the basement floor. The houses and shops in Gloucester are in the most part mean almost all of brick; but there are some large mansions in the College Green and one is often astonished to find in some of the narrow streets or rather lanes, which connect the former principal streets, very large houses of some antiquity. In one of these narrow streets called Black Friars are the ruins of an old Church which must have been in its day one of the first in the city called St Catherine's.
The river Severn flows close to the city on the north western side and at the bottom of Westgate Street is crossed by a stone bridge. The river divides itself a little above the crossing so that an island is formed and over the further channel which is shallower and not so muddy as the main stream is a very elegant stone bridge called the Ober bridge or as it is usually pronounced the Oober bridge. The island is a feat which, when the snow melts in the Welsh mountains and the river overflows its banks becomes a large lake. On this island on the right hand side as you leave Gloucester for Hereford and Malvern on the one side South W ales on the other is a patch of ground called the Ham on which I have played many a game of cricket. About three or four miles out of Gloucester on the Hereford Road is the Church and Rectory of Maisemore. The Rector when I was in Gloucester, was the Reverend Charles Martin a very hospitable man who had two fair daughters, one of them was the first wife of Mr afterwards Sir Samuel Baker the African traveller whose father was the owner of a place called Lippiatt Park on the border of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire when I was quite a boy I spent with brother and sister Grace and our Marsh cousins many a pleasant annual Christmas parties to which Mr Martin both young and old. I had a very good idea of dancing and at the parties danced with many an introduced young lady with as much unconcern as any young grown up gentleman of the party, but, in addition to the party there was always a Christmas tree and a sumptuous supper. One night on our journey to Maisemore there was a heavy fall of snow and no moon to as rising and I believe either the coach lamps had gone out or the coachman had forgotten to take any. At all counts nothing could be seen but the snow; and the coachman allowed the coach to fall on its side into a deep ditch, and we were obliged to scramble out of the door on the other side on our thin dancing shoes until the vehicle was set right.
I now go to proper matters. As soon as I arrived in England and being 9 years old and my brother 7, the question of our education arose between my mother, grandmother and aunt. Rugby was very much canvassed, Bedford was also discussed; but at length it was determined that we should have a private tutor in the person of the Rev. Charles Wood a minor canon of the Cathedral of Gloucester and an M.A. from Pembroke College Oxford. I think this was a mistake. We, or at least I was of an age when a public school would have been far better for me. I had hitherto had only my mother for a teacher. I had not mixed with other boys and although fond of reading my reading was of a very desultory character, and the discipline required in a large school would I think, have been very beneficial to me. Rugby was then under the guidance of Dr Arnold who was perhaps in his day, the foremost schoolmaster in England. But Charles Wood was a good classical scholar and my mother wished it to be in the same place as her sons. I had an aptitude of learning Latin and Greek, but none whatsoever for mathematics and I had no clever pupil foster my inculcation. Charles Wood was very kind, too kind in fact so often I fear gave way when he should have been strict. I had some boyish acquaintances of course, among whom my greatest friends were Tom and Charles [Commeline] whom I met at the Rev. Charles Martin's parties; but they were both at the College School. They were great holiday chums and often we went wandering over the country leaping gates, hedges and ditches and playing at hare and hounds, also making fire balloons and sending them off.
We had hardly been twelve months in Gloucester when my cousin Frank Forbes arrived from Australia. He was to go to a Preparatory school for a few months and from thence to Cambridge where his father, Chief Justice Forbes had been a wrangler and was well known. The first information I had of his arrival in England was when in the morning coming into the breakfast room I saw a big woman who was afterwards learnt, came to England to take care of my cousin by the way she was Irish as was evident from her brogue. Her name was Betsy Hunt and she stood opposite the mirror at the end of the room setting up her black hair. A day or two after this came his charge who had been in London making arrangements with his preparatory tutor. He was very tall and slender standing 6ft 3in in his stockings although only a little more than 16 years of age. But we soon found that in sending a caretaker with him his parents had acted wisely for he was the most absent youth I ever knew and when absorbed in one train of thought was actively unconscious of all that was passing around him. Shortly after the arrival of my cousin Frank an Irish man from Australia presented himself with a letter of introduction from my Aunt Forbes. His name was O'Donoghoe which my brother pronounces "I don't' know who". My mother and Aunt took him and us boys to the fair town of Cheltenham about 8 ½ miles from Gloucester, a town of a very different aspect to the old Cathedral city. The houses were more hansom, the shops larger and better furnished with goods, there were old dandies and young, both men and women, many of them in wheel chairs, and many of the old gentlemen who thought they could walk, with tottering feet; but all, both men and women with painted faces and brown or black hair. But what delighted me most was the Monpellier and Pittville Spars. The latter especially with its Grand Pump Room and large dome and its broad gravel walks leading to a large artificial lake.
There is one thing I should mention of which I was a witness in Gloucester - that is the bore - a tidal wave which rushes into the Severn from the sea. It comes with undeviating regularity every year at the time of the first spring tide after the vernal equinox. Just before it is due all boats and small vessels are drawn on shore to avoid its fury.
There are beautiful walks whichever way you may go from the old city. The whole vale is very rich in pastures and orchards besides being well wooded and the fields are divided from the roads and from each other by green hedges where the blackberry grows in great abundance and often have I filled baskets with the luxurious black fruit. When I had grown somewhat my brother and myself became fairly skilful in rowing. We used to take a boat in the Gloucester and Berkley Canal which is a ship canal from Sharpness Point [where the river broadens into the Bristol Channel] to Gloucester. The rowing was attended with considerable danger inasmuch as there were often rafts of timber and levies of rope to encounter but most dangerous of all were the many bridges across the canal to go under which it was necessary that the head should be lowered to the knees. To reject doing so would have been certain death.
I remember on one occasion my brother and sisters entrusting their precious lives to us two and Tom and Chas Commelive in a boat on the canal to a village nine miles from home called Frampton on Severn where we had a picnic. The dishes being roast turkey and a pigeon-pie cold of course; and well do I remember a bottle of porter which contained so much froth that it seemed we should never be able to get the bottom of it. Well it was a delightful day and we all by a merciful providence came home in the evening safe and sound.
But what shall I say of our walks? There was Robins Wood Hill, where was a tea garden and home made bread with the best of butter and milk and cream and strawberries. Then there was Churchdown Hill with a quaint looking old churchyard not at the bottom but at the top of the hill; also Coppers Hill with a maypole on the top of it where on the 1st of May the village rustics had sports and dances; and the Birdlip Hills beyond on the slopes of which were woods where wild strawberries grew in profusion, and seven miles on the Stroud Road was the picturesque little town of Painswick in whose churchyard there were yew trees said to be 99 in number which no one could count.
How it was a certain that there were 99 trees if no one could count them was never appraised true. I rather think that there were not 99 trees to count. Then there was Maisemore on the Hereford road where good jolly old clergyman [Martin] and his excellent wife and daughters resided. But there are so many places which crop up in my memory that I cannot name them all and I must go back to family matters and cut this digression short.
About a year after Frank Forbes arrived in England his younger brother David arrived to join Frank in Cambridge. In the year 1834 or 1835 my Grandfather George Pinnock died and I as heir by entail became possessed of the New Shafston Estate; but as I was a minor the allowance given to my mother continued the same as at first and so great was the deterioration of West Indian property that when I came of age there was a large debt due on the property and we were informed that the £ 200 a year could no longer be sent to us and I was in need to sell the estate for a mere song and to this day one fourth of the stipulated price remains unpaid.
In the year 1839 Chief Justice Forbes and my Aunt Forbes arrived from Australia. Chief Justice Forbes was made a knight, but he and my Aunt Forbes did not long remain in England but returned to Australia where Sir Francis as he was shortly afterwards died a comparatively young man, his health having been shattered by too much mental toil. Frank Forbes cut short his career at Cambridge shortly after his parents left and went to join them in Australia, but David remained at Cambridge until he had taken his B.A. degree.
Shortly after my aunt arrived in England my dear Grandmother Grant died and was buried at the spa Church in Gloucester. She was a dear old lady and very fond of me, as indeed she was of all of her grandchildren. She would call me "Gentle Georgie" and as her sight was failing I often sat by her side on the sofa and read to her the Parliamentary Debates. The speeches of Sir Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, Daniel O'Connell, Roebuck and others. I could read to her from beginning to end and she became much interested in political events and was in for my years somewhat of a politician.
Shortly after my grandmother's death my Aunt Grant went to reside in Clifton where my cousin Milbourne [Marsh] was bound under articles to Isaac Cooke and Son, Solicitors of Bristol and my cousin Fanny went with Sir Frances and Lady Forbes to the continent and then to Australia where she married Mr George Foster Wise and permanently resided. My mother, brother and sisters and myself remained in Gloucester. In the year 1839 my brother and I went to the college school at Gloucester as day boys. The school was the presided over by Dr Thomas Evans a little thin man with a very long nose which turned up at the end and consumed an enormous quantity of snuff. We were about 100 boys among whom was my old friend Charles Comnieline his brother had left school and was then a clerk in the Gloucestershire Banking Company which had its head office in Eastgate Street and where my friend actually rose to the post of Manager but of course many years after I left Gloucester.
At the college school I made some other fast friends, notably Lewis and James Clutterbuck whose father had a place near Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire called Newark Park where I spent some of the happiest days of my life shooting rabbits and birds and hunting deer. I remember going out one June morning with my two friends, Mr Clutterbuck, the father and an elderly gentlemen whose name I have forgotten. The elderly gentlemen had two terriers of the Dandie Dimont kind which he prized very much. They would of course be admirable animals in showing us where the rabbits were found. So off we went with guns and dogs. It was not long before I saw a briar bush stirring and rash and heedless youngster that I was, it flashed upon my mind that there was a rabbit. So quick as the thought flash and bang went my gun sending shot into the midst of the bush. At the same instant the elderly gentleman leapt into the air as if he himself had been shot in the heart as indeed in one curse he was; and I heard the cry "Take the gun from that youngster hands." However the dogs were unhurt and the only damage done was to the bush.
Another of my friends at the College School was Harry Schute. He was somewhat my junior; but after he left school attained a height of more than six feet and married the sister of my friends the Comnielines. He was the youngest son of Dr Schute who married twice. His wife [first] was the Honourable Miss Wolfe the daughter of the Irish Judge Lord Kilwarden who in the time of the Irish rebellion was dragged out of his carriage by a mob and killed.9 By her Dr Schute had two sons; the eldest of whom Arthur became the heir of the Irish Estates of his grandfather Lord Kilwarden- The younger Hardwicke was a clergyman of the Church of England. Dr Schute's 2nd wife was a Miss Gregory by whom he had three more sons. George who went to Oxford took his degree and became a tutor. Edward, who became a lawyer and my friend Harry, who when he left school entered the Customs Department and eventually became collector of Customs at various places. But I must not forget my two very dear friends Edwin and William Maddy whom I met at my tutors Charles Wood. The eldest especially who has been my correspondent during quite half a century. They both took their degrees at Trinity College Cambridge. Edwin went to the bar and eventually became Chairman of the Charities Commission. William became a clergyman and rector of Hatherley and a Canon of Gloucester Cathedral. Hatherley is a place in Gloucestershire and belonged to his uncle the late Lord Chancellor Hatherley. The Maddys' father was Dr Maddy Chancellor of the Diocese of Gloucester. They lived when I first knew them in a remarkable looking old house in the Blackfriars and afterwards at a place called Matson beautifully situated on the road towards Painswick at the back of Robinson Hill about 2 or 3 miles out of the town. The house was the property of Lord Sidney.
A short time before I attained the age of 17 years I left the college school and on the 12 day of March 1841 [the day immediately preceding my 17th birthday] was articled to my friend James Wemyss, a partner in the firm of Whitcombe Phelps and Wemyss, Solicitors, Gloucester. The two senior partners were both Mrs. Wemyss or the contrary was a big fellow 6 feet in height and stout, and muscular in proportions, and could have carried off with his partners one under each arm and run away with them. My fellow articled clerks were Arthur Goodrich [one of a large family whose father William Goodrich handed property, but was rather too pretentious in proportion to his means] and Edward Schute a brother of my school friend Harry, a clever fellow but very cynical and easy going. To these were afterwards added a youth called Malcolm Bruce Browne and another called Farrar.
Shortly after I left school my brother left also having a row with one of the school ushers and then went back to his former tutor Charles Wood for a short time and when he had attained his 16th year went to Australia to join his cousins the Forbes who had a station called Clifton in that part of Australia now forming the colony of Queensland.
I had not been more than a month under Articles when my brother was seized with the small pox and a very severe attack he had of the complacent kind but by dint of good doctoring and nursing he got over it without damage to his facial appearance. This however was only accomplished by the assiduous attitude of his devoted mother and her good and faithful servant Ann Hale who watched over him and incessantly and continually applied a warm lotion whenever they observed his hands being to his face. Of course my sisters and I were sent out of the house and our kind friend Major Weymss went all over the town with us seeking for lodgings. The good old man conscientiously told all who answered to his knocking what the occasion of the search; and at last, when the day was nearly going out we found an old woman who occupied a nice cottage on the London Road who was not afraid to take us in. What was very remarkable was the immense growth of my brother while he was in bed. It was found when he became convalescent that none of his clothes were large or long enough for him and he was obliged to have an entirely new outfit.
Before I leave old Gloucester I must mention one or two things which belong entirely to the past. One is that in the year 1834 when I was ten years old, I saw an old lady, a Mrs Hopkinson then about a hundred years old who said she was a girl at school when Prince Charles Edward invaded England and that she had a vivid recollection of the event and the reaction throughout the country that was thereby occasioned. The other matter which gave me much amusement was the manner in which elections in the Commons House of Parliament were conducted. There were two members for the eastern division of the country. The elections for both of these constituencies were held in the city of Gloucester although for the County elections there were I believe poling places at other centres of population. The elections for the western division of the County were I believe held at Bristol. The nominations took place in the Shire Hall on the morning of that day all the shops were decorated with ribbons and rosettes. Blue for the Tories, orange and grey for the Wigs and purple and violet for the Radicals. The parties decorated in their respective colours with banners and bands of music before they marched to the Shire Hall. The object of each party was to show itself in greatest numbers in the hall and immediately on the door being opened in they rushed helter skelter; some were knocked down, others had their clothes torn some were squeezed up until they appeared on the shoulders of the crowd under them. The room, a very large one, as I have already said, was in a minute crowded to suffocation. The nominators and the Candidates then address the "gentlemen electors" from the platform in the midst of cries of fraud and hisses and cheers and interruptions of all kinds from the crowd below them, many of whom eventually indulged in a fight until the police with the utmost difficulty were able to intervene. The show of hands being at length taken the candidates who were in a minority demanded a poll which lasted for two days. Polling booths were erected in the Market Place in the Eastgate Street and electors were brought up from the different Inns, most of them intoxicated ready to vote for the highest bidder; bands of music and colours before them. Fights were continually talking place in the streets and the Police had an active time of it, using their batons freely and with such force as to make me wonder at the thickness of the skulls on which they hammered. Then came the chairing when the successful candidates were born on men's shoulders in triumphal cars gorgeously decorated in their political colours and addressed the "Gentlemen electors" from the windows of their respective Hotels. The Bell Hotel in Southgate Street being the Tory Hostelry. The Bulls Head in the Westgate Street that of the Whigs and the Booth Hall also in Westgate Street that of the Radicals. During these elections our friend Major Weymss was conspicuous in his blue rosettes, our other friend Colonel Mason in the orange and green of the Wigs; but not content with the rosettes he bedecked himself with a broad orange and green band passing over the right shoulder and round the body to the left hip. In those days the Radicals were not among the political elite [Mr Gladstone had not yet become their leader, but was generally to be found voting with the Tories]. Nevertheless they succeeded on one or two occasions to elect a representative, notably in the person of Mr Chillpotts, brother of the then Bishop of Exeter who was a high Tory.
In the early part of 1846 when my apprenticeship expired I left old Gloucester forever and went to London for my examination. The day of my examination was a very sultry one in the month of June 1846. I was very nervous and very hot and most of the questions were very stiff. Nevertheless I set to work with great determination and in the space of about 2 or 3 hours handed in my paper to the examiner leaving about 20 out of 77 candidates hard at work. I then left the hall my legs were tottering under me from nervous anxiety. I had to wait for two or three days whilst the examiners were looking through the papers and it was a time of great anxiety to me. At length I received a notice that my papers had been approved and that I was to appear at one of the Courts at Westminster for admission. There I appeared at the appointed time and place and took the usual oaths and became an Attorney of the Courts at Westminster. I then had to betake myself to the Rolls Court in Chancery Lane where I was further summoned before the Master of the Rolls [Lord Langdale] and became thereupon a Solicitor in Chancery.
A day or two after this I received a very kind letter from my Father's first Cousin Mr. Senneille Cuthbert congratulating me on my success and enclosing me a cheque for £50. I had two excellent friends at this time in London, one a William [Renales,] a Chancery barrister who had married a cousin of my father's a Miss Mary Pinnock. And Mr Robert Hibbert a distant cousin of my mother. Mr [Renales,] advised me to read with a Conveyancing barrister for six months and introduced me to a Mr Tatham with whom I deposited the £50 I had received from Mr Cuthbert. Mr Tatham had several other pupils besides myself one of whom was a Mr Day, rather tall and cadaverous of complexion [Now Mr Justice Day], and a Mr Bristow a fair young man preferred a hard wooden seated chair to a cushioned one by reason of his particular taste went by the name of 'Brass Bottom."
Whilst I was with Mr Tatham my mother and sisters found me in London [My brother Philip had preceded me to Australia] when my time with Mr Tatham was over I entered the office of a Mr de Grey Carter who had his office near Lincolns Inn in Cary Street a very orderly and stern man. I was to be his managing clerk; but I soon found the work to be too much for me. I had to be at his office at 9 o'clock in the morning to conduct the business [a very large one] in all its branches and to see that his books were healthy and correctly kept. I was not allowed any time for luncheon but had to take my luncheon with me. Generally a few sandwiches and a little water from a bottle in my room for drink. I never could leave the office till past six o'clock and always had to take home with me a number of papers and to sit up till past 12 o'clock at night to get through my days work. My remuneration being at the rate of £100 a year. This would not bear the continued mental strain and as my Jamaica property was not bringing me any income and we were expecting my cousin Marsh from Australia to be married to my sister Grace I resolved to sell the property and go with my sister and her husband to Australia. So I sold New Shafston for a mere song as I have before mentioned and in the meantime my Aunt Grant joined us in London.
On the 26th January 1848 Marsh and my sister were married in St Mary le Bow Church, and in September of that year after a most sorrowful parting from my Aunt, who seemed quite heart broken, we embarked on board the Walmer Castle at Blackwall. I will say nothing of my sea voyage. It was not an agreeable one and lasted 109 days. During the voyage, a little before midnight of the 2nd and 3rd December 1848 my nephew George Milbourne Marsh was born and was a healthy child at his birth but for want of proper nourishment he waisted away so much that we feared he would not live to the end of the voyage.
It was on Saturday the 30th December 1848 that we arrived in the harbour of Port Jackson. The day was terribly hot and the locusts were making a horrible din on both sides of the harbour. Frank Forbes came on board to show us the way to his mothers residence who received us and entertained us very kindly and hospitably until our place were settled. But I do not intend to pursue my narrative during my life in Australia. My career has not been a successful one. I am now 73 years of age without children and having a wife who for some years has been crippled with rheumatism. My business has left me and I am like an old hulk on a sea shore awaiting the last billow that must break me up and scatter my dissected members.10
George Pinnock.
7 June 1899.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 Source: Extant manuscript written by George Pinnock 7 June 1901; from the archive of Betty Harrison. Transcribed 23.4.09.
2 In fact Dr David Grant and his wife Ann Hitchman with some of their children returned to Jamaica some time after 1804. David Grant Died in 1817 and then a short while later Ann Grant and family moved to Gloucestershire.
3 George is probably confusing British with Ancient Britons or Celtic peoples.
4 Edgecumbe is located in Co Devon, not far from Plymouth.
5 A type of citrus tree originating in India.
6 From HISTORY OF THE MORAVIAN MISSIONS IN JAMAICA Excerpts from The Moravians in Jamaica, by J. H. Buchner, 1854 "the planters were so violent in their opposition to the introduction of Christianity among their people. It was different in another of the West-India Islands, where a visitor of rank expressed to the governor his apprehension and fear of living in a slave country. "What security have you against, their rising and really destroying you all?" was his earnest enquiry. The governor led him to the window, and directing his attention to some Moravian mission stations, answered "There is our security. Negroes who are converted will never rise in rebellion, and their number is so great, that the others could never conspire without their knowledge, and they would inform us." Had the planters therefore been sufficiently enlightened, self-preservation and self-interest might have produced very strong impressions on their minds in favour of the labours of the missionaries; but those who encourage the spread of the gospel from such motives, know nothing of that high and holy principle which constrains the disciples of Jesus to preach the good news of God's free grace to every creature. There were, however, several honourable characters among the proprietors, who, from pure motives, truly sought the spiritual welfare of the slaves, Foremost among these was H. Scott, esq., who, with his pious lady, resided on their property at Hopeton, in Westmoreland. They were the owners of several estates, on which hundreds of Negroes were located. Both were born in Jamaica, and had been waited upon by slaves from their infancy; were accustomed to the system, and taught to consider it right and lawful. But even under such circumstances, the light of the gospel, and the personal experience of its saving power, awakened in their hearts feelings of pity and compassion for their people. They felt the claim which their slaves had upon them, and as early as 1822, they applied to the Brethren to have a missionary stationed at Hopeton. The Brethren frequently visited there, and some years after, in 1827, a mission station was established at New Carmel, in the immediate neighbourhood of Hopeton; the land being made over to them by Mr. Scott, who, besides putting up some buildings for their use, largely contributed to the support of the mission for several years. The constant and uniform kindness which the brethren experienced from this pious gentleman and his lady, will always be gratefully remembered by them. At a time when the missionaries were still generally looked down upon, they delighted in honouring them, and were never ashamed to own them before high and low. Their house was a refuge for the missionary to recruit his shattered health, and all that attention and christian kindness could do, were gladly and willingly done by them to cheer the hearts of the missionaries. Two other families in these parts also showed them not a little kindness at that time. Nevertheless, though the brethren rejoiced that their labours began to be appreciated, and favoured by many, still they had cause to complain, as we find from their diary of May, 1825: "One characteristic of our calling," they write, " is to be everywhere much traduced by ungodly neighbours; from which it appears that the spirit and enmity of the wicked one have manifested the same hatred against the gospel in every age of the church, The line of conduct proper for us to pursue under such circumstances, is only to be learned from. the example of our great pattern, Jesus, and the teaching of his spirit."
7 Jamaican Family Search Genealogy Research Library; New-York Spectator; Vol. xxxv, Tuesday, February 14, 1832 No. 46 Pine-Street; (Published by Francis Hall & Co. every Tuesday and Friday); From the Baltimore American of Tuesday; The following proclamation was issued on the 2d Jan.; MONTEGO BAY, HEAD QUARTER; St. James, January 2, 1832; To the Rebellious Slaves.; NEGROES - You have taken up arms against your masters, and have burnt and plundered their houses and buildings. Some wicked persons have told you that the king has made you free, and that your masters withhold your freedom from you. In the name of the king I come among you to tell you you are misled. I bring with me numerous forces to punish the guilty, and all who are found with the rebels will be put to death without mercy. You cannot resist the king's troops. Surrender yourselves and beg that your crime may be pardoned. All who yield themselves up to any military post immediately, provided they are not principals and chiefs in the burnings that have been committed, will receive his Majesty's gracious pardon. All who hold out will meet with certain death. WILLOUGHBY COTTON; Major General Commanding.
8 Christ Church, Brunswick Road, Gloucester
9 Arthur Wolfe 1739-1803 [sometimes Woulfe]; b. Forenaughts, Co. Kildare; 1st Viscount Kilwarden, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland; ed. TCD; bar, 1766; KC, 1778; MP for Coleraine, 1783; Sol.-Gen., 1787; MP Jamestown, 1790; unsuccessful Crown Attorney in the trial of William Drennan, 1792; removed from office by Fitzwilliam, 1795; MP Dublin, 1798; Chief Justice and Baron Kilwarden of Newlands, 1798; supported the Union; created viscount, 1800; dragged from carriage by mob, and most prominent victim of the Emmet Rising, 1803.
10 George Pinnock died of diabetes and Congestion of the lungs; on 18 December 1901 aged 77 years 9 months 6 days in Brisbane at the home of his brother Philip "Eothen" Wickham Terrace, Brisbane. Philip was then retired Police Magistrate of Queensland. George Marsh also studies la and became chief magistrate of the NSW Water Police.
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