mentioned as attending the council under Henry IV (Nicolas, Proc. Privy Council, ii. 7, 99, 156), and served in the French wars during the reigns of that king and his successors. In 1420 he had custody of the Duke of Bourbon (Devon, Issues of Exchequer, p. 363). He was present at the battles of Crevant in July 1423 and Verneuil on 16 Aug. 1424, and died on 2 Oct. 1446. By his first wife, Isabella, daughter of Reginald, lord Grey of Ruthin—to whom Richard II gave a ring in 1397 (ib. p. 265)—he had three sons. Richard, the eldest, was M.P. for Sussex in 1428, but died in 1430 (Testamenta Vetusta, p. 217), leaving a daughter Eleanor, who married Henry Percy, afterwards third earl of Northumberland [see under Percy, Henry, second Earl of Northumberland]. Robert de Poynings, second son of the fifth baron, was born in November 1419. He was concerned in Jack Cade's rebellion, and was killed at the second battle of St. Albans on 17 Feb. 1461 (Paston Letters, i. 133, ii. 329 et passim). By his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Paston [q. v.], he was father of Sir Edward Poynings [q. v.] The wills of several of the chief members of the Poynings family are summarised in Nicolas's ‘Testamenta Vetusta.’ The Poynings' arms were barry of six, or and verte, a bendlet gules.
[Sussex Archæological Collections, xv. 5–18, with a full genealogical table; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 133–6; Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs, iv. 1306–7; G. E. C.'s Complete Peerage, vi. 299; Nicolas's Historic Peerage, ed. Courthope; Testamenta Vetusta, pp. 73, 82, 92, 122, 217; authorities quoted.]
POYNINGS, THOMAS, Baron Poynings (d. 1545), was an illegitimate son of Sir Edward Poynings [q. v.] He was early brought to court, and was a sewer-extraordinary in 1516. He was one of those who received livery of the Percy lands in 1528, was on the sheriff roll for Kent in 1533, made K.B. the same year, and appointed sheriff of Kent in 1534. He was present at the christening of Edward VI on 15 Oct. 1537, and at the funeral of Jane Seymour on 12 Nov. When Anne of Cleves came to England in 1539, Poynings was one of the knights who received her. He was an accomplished courtier, generous in disposition, the friend of Wyatt and of Sir Thomas Chaloner the elder [q. v.] In the French expedition of 1544 Poynings took an important part. He was a captain in the army, and greatly distinguished himself at the capture of Boulogne. In October 1544 he was left there by Howard with four thousand men. On 30 Jan. 1544–1545 he was created Baron Poynings; he died at Boulogne on 17 Aug. 1545. He married Catherine, daughter of John, lord Marney, and widow of George Radcliffe, but left no children. Some of his Kentish property passed to the Duke of Northumberland.
[Burke's Extinct and Dormant Peerage; Hasted's Kent, iii. 324; Horsfield's Sussex, i. 175–6; Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, II. ii. 2735, IV. ii. 3213, vii. 1498, xi. 580, XII. ii. 911; Nott's edition of the poems of Wyatt, p. lxxxiii, and of Surrey, pp. lxxii, lxxvi; Chronicle of Calais (Camd. Soc.) p. 176; Strype's Memorials, II. i. 9, III. i. 41.]
POYNTER, AMBROSE (1796–1886), architect, born in London on 16 May 1796, was second son of Ambrose Lyon Poynter by Thomasine Anne Peck. The family was of Huguenot origin, his father's great-great-grandfather, Thomas Pointier of St. Quentin in France, having settled in England in 1685 after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Poynter commenced his professional career as an architect in the office of John Nash [q. v.], working there about five years (1814–1818). From 1819 to 1821 he travelled in Italy, Sicily, and the Ionian Islands; he had studied watercolour painting under Thomas Shotter Boys [q. v.], and the sketches made by him during these travels are of great merit. He attended Keats's funeral at Rome on 26 Feb. 1821. On returning home Poynter set up for himself as an architect at 1 Poet's Corner, Westminster, but afterwards (about 1846) built for himself a house and offices in Park Street, now Queen Anne's Gate. One of his earliest works was an observatory at Cambridge for his friend William Hopkins (1793–1866) [q. v.], the mathematical ‘coach.’ In 1832 he resided for some time in Paris, where he was associated with Richard Parkes Bonington [q. v.], Baron Denon, Boucher-Desnoyers the engraver, and others. He subsequently built at Cambridge the church of St. Paul in the Hills Road, and in 1835 was an unsuccessful though highly commended competitor for the building of the Fitzwilliam Museum. Poynter was one of the foundation members of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1834, one of the first members of their council, acted as their secretary in 1840, 1841, and 1844, read various papers at their meetings, including a valuable descriptive analysis of the arabesques in the ‘Loggie’ of the Vatican (3 Feb. 1840), and in 1842 was the author of an anonymous essay ‘On the Introduction of Iron in the Construction of Buildings,’ to which the silver medal of the institute was awarded. Poynter had considerable practice as an architect until the loss of his eyesight, which commenced about 1860, and caused his
