Individual Details
Capt Albert Andrew Pinson
(14 Feb 1832 - 29 Sep 1915)
On the 1851 census the Albert Andrew Pinson, Jane's son, Charles stepson is my great great grandfather and he is The Albert Pinson that Adele the daughter of Victor Hugo notoriously persued from, depending on where you read it, from Guernsey or Jersey to Nova Scotia when his unit was posted there and then to Barbados. I don't know if you are familiar with the story? The film The Story of Adele by Francois Truffaut follows their story as does the book Adele Hugo La Miserable by Leslie Smith Dow both say she was obsessed with him and, I am totally biased of course, he is portrayed as a scoundrel etc but both have mistakes that I know to be untrue so I don't know how many other mistakes they have made, having said that they will have researched their subjects to some extent. Getting back to the film, in it theres one scene where Lieutenant Pinson's is discussed and they are questioning his honesty because he has stated that he comes from a family of wealth and that his father was a clergyman but they can find no proof of this. This is picked up in the book and Dow remarks that there was no truth in this and so Pinson was a fraud and a liar etc. It is also said that when he took part in one of Victor Hugo's famous seances that his brother "Andre or Andrew" came through to him,
http://www.hugo-online.org/junjul04.html
The quote below is taken from this page
At first glance, this was certainly a "skeptic's" conversion to believing in the spirits. That is, if your knowledge is limited and you want it to stay that way. The fact is that Pinson was something of a con man. As Smith Dow explains in Adéle Hugo -- La Misérable:
"But there is no record of the mysterious André (or Andrew) Pinson. Later, rumours that Albert Andrew Pinson was not using his real name were rampant; perhaps, worried lest someone in the Hugo family had found out that he was trying to hide his identity, he concocted this tale of a lost brother as a cover story."
In the postscript, Smith Dow concludes:
"Checks of several British genealogy and clerical guides did not reveal any references to the Pinsons. The absence suggests that the family was not well-to-do, and leads me to suspect that Pinson was not truthful about his family background."
They are all incorrect as Albert Pinson's biological Father Andrew Pinson, who died while Jane was pregnant with him was the 3rd generation of Pinson merchants, ship owners, Gents and traders to Labrador and Newfoundland and they where a wealthy and well known Dartmouth family, so that part was true, however as Albert wasn't born when his father died he wasn't provided for in his Will. Andrew Pinson, Albert's father, had from his first marriage a son called Andrew who was 16 years older then Albert and so was his half brother .
Of course the "father was of the clergy" comment was, I believe, referring to Charles Templer his stepfather who would have raised him from the age of 3 if they married in 1835.
Dow would have searched any clergy records for the name of Pinson not knowing it was in fact Templer so found no results.
Julie Johnson - Aug 2010
http://www.hugo-online.org/junjul04.html
The quote below is taken from this page
At first glance, this was certainly a "skeptic's" conversion to believing in the spirits. That is, if your knowledge is limited and you want it to stay that way. The fact is that Pinson was something of a con man. As Smith Dow explains in Adéle Hugo -- La Misérable:
"But there is no record of the mysterious André (or Andrew) Pinson. Later, rumours that Albert Andrew Pinson was not using his real name were rampant; perhaps, worried lest someone in the Hugo family had found out that he was trying to hide his identity, he concocted this tale of a lost brother as a cover story."
In the postscript, Smith Dow concludes:
"Checks of several British genealogy and clerical guides did not reveal any references to the Pinsons. The absence suggests that the family was not well-to-do, and leads me to suspect that Pinson was not truthful about his family background."
They are all incorrect as Albert Pinson's biological Father Andrew Pinson, who died while Jane was pregnant with him was the 3rd generation of Pinson merchants, ship owners, Gents and traders to Labrador and Newfoundland and they where a wealthy and well known Dartmouth family, so that part was true, however as Albert wasn't born when his father died he wasn't provided for in his Will. Andrew Pinson, Albert's father, had from his first marriage a son called Andrew who was 16 years older then Albert and so was his half brother .
Of course the "father was of the clergy" comment was, I believe, referring to Charles Templer his stepfather who would have raised him from the age of 3 if they married in 1835.
Dow would have searched any clergy records for the name of Pinson not knowing it was in fact Templer so found no results.
Julie Johnson - Aug 2010
Events
| Birth | 14 Feb 1832 | Devon, England, United Kingdom | |||
| Christen | 7 Dec 1832 | Townstal or Saint Clement, Dartmouth, Devon, England, United Kingdom | |||
| Military service | 1852 - 1872 | ||||
| Marriage | 1 Mar 1870 | Hampstead, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom - Catherine Edith Roxburgh | |||
| Death | 29 Sep 1915 | South Brent, Devon, England, United Kingdom |
Families
| Spouse | Catherine Edith Roxburgh (1836 - 1905) |
| Father | Andrew Pinson (1787 - 1831) |
| Mother | Jane Capon (1794 - 1878) |
| Sibling | Julia Pinson (1827 - 1850) |