Robert Poynings

Sir Robert Poynings
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Paston
Issue Sir Edward Poynings
Father	Robert Poynings, 4th Baron Poynings
Mother	Eleanor Grey
Born	c.1419
Died	17 February 1461 St Albans

Sir Robert Poynings (c.1419 – 17 February 1461), was the second son of Robert Poynings, 4th Baron Poynings (1382–1446). He joined the rebellion of Jack Cade in 1450, and was slain fighting on the Yorkist side at the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461.

Family

Robert Poynings was the second son of Robert Poynings, 4th Baron Poynings (1382 – 2 October 1446), by his first wife Eleanor Grey, the daughter of Reginald Grey, 3rd Baron Grey de Ruthyn, and Margaret Roos (or Ros).^[1][2][3] By his father's first marriage, he had an elder brother, Sir Richard Poynings (d. 10 June 1429), slain near Orleans in France, and a younger brother, Edward Poynings (d.1484), Master of Trinity College in Arundel, Sussex, and rector of North Cray, Kent.^[4][2][5]

By his father's second marriage to Margaret Squery (d. 3 November 1448), widow of Sir William Cromer (d. January 1434), Lord Mayor of London, elder daughter of Thomas Squery of Westerham, Kent, Robert Poynings had a half sister, Eleanor Poynings, who married Thomas Palmer.^[2]

Career

The 4th Baron had settled the manors of Tirlingham, Newington, Eastwell and Westwood in Kent on his granddaughter, Eleanor Poynings (1428–1484), wife of Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, and daughter of Robert Poynings' elder brother, Sir Richard Poynings, by his second wife, Eleanor Berkeley. Robert Poynings claimed these manors against Eleanor 'as heir by gavelkind', claiming as well the manor of Great Perching in Sussex. He also claimed the 4th Baron's moveable goods against William Cromer, son of Margaret Squery by her first husband, Sir William Cromer.^[5]

In the summer of 1450 Poynings joined the rebel Jack Cade, and is said to have acted as Cade's 'carver and sword-bearer'.^[5] He was imprisoned and outlawed as a result, despite which he was elected a Member of Parliament for Sussex in 1450 and 1451. In 1457 he sued a pardon for his participation in Cade's rebellion.^[5]

Poynings was slain on 17 February 1461 while fighting on the Yorkist side at the Second Battle of St Albans.^[5]

Marriage and issue

In 1458 he married Elizabeth Paston (1 July 1429 – 1 February 1488), the daughter of William Paston, by whom he had an only son, Sir Edward Poynings, who married Elizabeth Scott (d. 15 August 1528), daughter of Sir John Scott (d.1485), and who also fathered seven illegitimate children by several mistresses, including Thomas Poynings, 1st Baron Poynings, and Sir Adrian Poynings.^{[6][7][8][5][9][10]}

After Poynings' death his widow married Sir George Browne of Betchworth Castle, Surrey, (beheaded on Tower Hill 4 December 1483), by whom she had two sons, Sir Matthew Browne (d. 6 August 1557), who married Frideswide Guildford, daughter of Richard Guildford, and George, and a daughter, Mary.^[11]

Notes

1. Richardson II 2011, pp. 274-5.
2. Richardson III 2011, p. 394.
3. According to Cokayne and Fleming, the name of the 4th Baron's first wife is unknown.
4. Cokayne 1945, pp. 663-5.
5. Fleming 2004.
6. Richmond & Virgoe 2004.
7. West 2004, pp. 39-40.
8. Ellis 2004.
9. Stevens 2004.
10. Isabel Scott (1459-15 August 1528) A Who’s Who of Tudor Women: Sa-Sn, compiled by Kathy Lynn Emerson to update and correct Wives and Daughters: The Women of Sixteenth-Century England (1984) Retrieved 19 September 2013.
11. Richardson I 2011, pp. 340-1.

References

• Cokayne, George Edward (1945). The Complete Peerage, edited by H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White and Lord Howard de Walden. X. London: St Catherine Press. pp. 663–5, 668–9.
• Ellis, Steven G. (2004). "Poynings, Sir Edward (1459–1521)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22683. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Fleming, Peter (2004). "Poynings , Michael, first Lord Poynings (c.1318–1369)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22684. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G., ed. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. I (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 1449966373.
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G., ed. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. II (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 1449966381.
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G., ed. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. III (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 144996639X.
• Richmond, Colin and Roger Virgoe, M.A. (2004). "Paston, William (I) (1378–1444)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21514. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Stevens, M.A. (2004). "Poynings, Sir Adrian (1512?–1571)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/65669. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• West, Diane, trans. (2004). The Paston Women. Woodbridge, Suffolk: D.S. Brewer. Retrieved 19 September 2013.