POYNTZ, Sir John (c.1560-1633), of Iron Acton, Glos.

From his father, a man ‘greatly friended and allied’ in Gloucestershire, Poyntz inherited considerable estates and in 1588 he obtained a grant of the forest of Exmoor, at an annual rent of £46 13s.4d. In 1593 he was elected knight of the shire, as his father had been before him. He was appointed to the subsidy committee (26 Feb.) and to take the Commons’ answer to the Lords on this matter (3 Mar.). His other committees were on a legal matter (9 Mar.), the poor law (12 Mar.) and cloth (15 Mar.). In 1597 he bought Beverstone from the Berkeleys, but his financial affairs were deteriorating, and he was forced to sell the estate almost at once. On three separate occasions, in 1601, 1609 and 1619, he was outlawed or imprisoned for debt. In 1609 he sold the manor of Tockington, part of his patrimony, for £2,700, but only three years later he was said to owe more than £10,000, an immense sum at the time, and too large, one would think, to have been caused by his father’s suspect religious views or the Chancery case resulting from his father’s will. Whatever the cause, Poyntz died insolvent and intestate in 1633, and was buried at Iron Acton on 29 Nov.Vis. Glos. (Harl. Soc. xxi), 135; J. Maclean, Hist. Fam. Poyntz, 81 seq.; Bristol and Glos. Arch Soc. Trans. xi. 206; xii. 136-56; CSP Dom. 1591-4, pp. 124, 203, 397; Somerville, Duchy, i. 448; PRO Index 4208; HMC Hatfield, iv. 295; xv. 392; D’Ewes, 474, 486, 496, 499, 501; APC, xix. 350; xxxii. 367.