Family and Education

b. 27 Jan. 1719, o. surv. s. of John Pinney of Nevis by Mary, da. and h. of Maj. William Helme of Antigua and Nevis.1  suc. fa. 1720, and cos. Azariah Pinney of Bettiscombe 1760.  unm.

Offices Held

Biography

Pinney inherited one of the largest estates in Nevis, but was brought up in England and scarcely regarded himself as a West Indian. He visited the island for the first time in 1739, merely to put his plantations in order, and stayed only till 1742.

Pinney was returned unopposed for Bridport at the general election of 1754. In Dupplin’s list drawn up soon after he was classed as a Tory, but his letters describing political events are remarkably detached. On 11 Dec. 1755, in a letter to his cousin Azariah Pinney, he wrote:2 ‘We have had very fine debates upon several things and at each Mr. Pitt has spoken like an angel’; but gives no indication of his political alignment. Pinney, who seems to have suffered increasingly from gout, did not stand again in 1761.

He died 11 Nov. 1762.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes

• 1. On the Pinney family see Pares, A West India Fortune.
• 2. Pinney mss.