Instead, influenced by his mother, a devout Methodist, in 1831 he entered Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey to study for the ministry.

[2] Maryland's bishop, the Right Reverend William Murray Stone ordained Pinkney to the diaconate on April 12, 1835, and to the priesthood the following year.

Pinkney was initially assigned to Somerset and Coventry parishes on the Eastern Shore, but his health soon failed.

[4] On April 24, 1883, he officiated the wedding of Donald McLean and Emily Nelson Ritchie at All Saints Church in Frederick, Maryland.

[5] In 1870, the Diocese of Maryland held its convention in the Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C., and Pinkney was elected as coadjutor to the ailing Rt.Rev.

The windows behind the altar at St. John's Episcopal Church, Zion Parish, where he had once served and whose rebuilding in brick he had secured, were also donated in his memory.