The Poyntz family of Iron Acton were descended from John Poyntz, a younger son of Nicholas Poyntz, feudal baron of Curry Mallet in Somerset, by his second wife Matilda de Acton, aunt and heiress in her issue of John de Acton of Iron Acton.
Marriage and children
He married Margaret Woodville, the illegitimate daughter and only child of Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, Knight of the Garter, by his mistress Gwenlina Stradling, a daughter of William Stradling of St Donat's Castle in Glamorgan, Wales. The Heraldic Visitation of Gloucestershire records that: By his wife he had five sons and four daughters including:
Sir Francis Poyntz, a diplomatist, third son, of Madeley Castle, Staffordshire. In 1526 he was granted custody of the manor of Holborn, "in the suburbs of London", during the minority of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, and in the same year he received some of the forfeited lands of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, of which Madeley was part. He married Jane or Joan, a daughter of Sir Matthew Browne of Betchworth, Surrey, but left no issue. At the request of his eldest brother Anthony, Sir Francis wrote The Table of Cebes the Philosopher, Translated out of Latine into Englishe by Sir Francis Poyngs, which was published in by Berthelet probably about 1530; a copy is in the British Museum Library. He died of the plague in London on 25 June 1528.
In about 1520, at the end of his life, he built a fine chantry chapel as an addition to the Gaunt's Chapel in Bristol, to the east end of the south aisle, beyond the tower, known as the "Chapel of Jesus" or "Poyntz Chapel". It should be distinguished from the Poyntz manorial chapel in Iron Acton Church, the family's chapel as lords of the manor and patrons of the advowson. It is fan-vaulted, and has two niches of unknown use on the North wall. The floor is covered with coloured Spanish tiles, probably from Seville and contemporaneous with the building. The center boss of the vaulted ceiling comprises a shield displaying the arms of Poyntz impaling Woodville, representing his marriage. At the entrance to the chapel is sculpted in stone the canting crest of Poyntz, A hand clenched, from the French poigne, "fist".
Death and burial
He died in 1520 and was buried in the Gaunt's Chapel in Bristol, in which he had built the Poyntz Chapel, his chantry chapel. Two remnants of his chest-tomb survive in the Gaunt's Chapel, being wooden panels decorated with Gothic canopy-work, each showing an heraldic shield. One shows the arms of Poyntz of four quarters ; the other shows the same first four quarters with an additional six quarters of the Woodville family, thus being the shield of the couple's son. The 5th quarter is Woodville with baton sinister for bastardy.
