Pinckney, Miss Mary

Pinckney, Miss Mary, Stoke Lyne, Withycombe, Exmouth

Mary Pinckney (1843-1921) was born in Overton Wiltshire. Her father was George Henry Pinckney BA who was a solicitor. She spent her early years in Wiltshire until the family moved to London. In 1871 they were living in Hanover Square and Mary’s father’s income was by then derived from investments. Mary lived with her father until he died in 1883 at Tawstock Court. It may be that Mary inherited enough money to live comfortably after that; her father’s personal estate was about £4 million in today’s money. By 1891 she had moved into Stoke Lyne, Withycombe, Exmouth, a large house with nineteen rooms set in seven acres of land, where she employed six servants. Her gardens were evidently productive as she – with the aid of her gardener, Mr Burton – regularly won prizes at the annual Exmouth Horticultural Show for a variety of produce. These included Blenheim Orange, Newton Wonder and Bramleys Seedlings apples; Duchesse D’Angouleme pears; nectarines; scarlet runner beans; carrots; potatoes and spring-sown onions.[1]

Mary served on the first committee of the Exmouth Women’s Suffrage Society which was formed in October 1904.[2] Her active involvement in her local church, Withycombe, where the vicar (Rev M.S. Shaw) and his wife were also supporters of the Women’s Suffrage Society may have reinforced her believe in a fairer voting system.

She was someone who fully participated in the life of the town; when she was appointed the new vice-president of Exmouth Choral Society in 1905 the Chairman commented that ‘her practical sympathy with, and support of, all public movements in the district being too well-known to be further commented on’.[3] Aside from her participation in the Women’s Suffrage Society she gave practical support to various Exmouth organisations: the YMCA; the RSPCA (she had a special interest in the welfare of cats); the Withycombe Recreation Rooms; the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; the Withycombe and All Saints Mothers’ Meetings (who presented her – in 1908 – ‘with a handsome silver-backed hairbrush in recognition of her kindnesses to themselves’); the Grand Western Archery Society; the Exmouth Cottage Hospital and the Exmouth District Nursing Association. Politically she was a Conservative and supported Sir John Kennaway at meetings in Exmouth and was at one of his garden parties at Escot Park in 1906.[4]

Mary moved from Stoke Lyne into a nearby house, The Old Vicarage Withycombe. in 1918 and in 1919 Stoke Lyne was opened for the care, treatment and training of boys with mental health problems; a change of which she presumably approved. She died on 11 March 1921 and was buried in St John in the Wilderness churchyard, Exmouth. Her funeral was reported on the front page of the Devon and Exeter Gazette and included this detail: ‘Miss Pinckney was of a generous disposition, she manifested warm interest in church matters in Withycombe parish, and was a prominent supporter of Exmouth Choral Society, while she gave ready assistance to the various local charities…’[5] She left a legacy of £100 to the Exmouth Cottage Hospital and to the Exmouth District Nursing Association.[6]

 

 

Entry created by April Marjoram, June 2018


[1] Exmouth Journals 1892-1905

[2] ExJ, 8 Oct 1904.

[3] ExJ, 14 Oct 1905.

[4] Exmouth Journals, 1900-1910

[5] DEG, 16 Mar 1921.

[6] WT, 36 May 1922; DEG, 27 Jul 1922.

 

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