Margaret Poyntz

See Peter Bartrum, https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000173426968959 Stradling 1 (May 4, 2024; Anne Brannen, curator)

Margaret Woodville (or Widville) was the daughter of Anthony Widville by his mistress Gwenllian Stradling. She was not the daughter of William Widville, Knight. Margaret Widville, widow of Charles Churchill, was misidentified in peerage reports. She married Anthony Poyntz second.

Margaret WOODVILLE

• Born: ABT 1455
• Died: BEF 19 Oct 1520
• Father: Anthony WOODVILLE (2º E. Rivers)
• Mother: Gwenillian STRADLING
• Married 1: Charles Churchill
• Married 2: Robert POYNTZ (Sir Knight) 1478, Iron Action, England

BIOGRAPHY:

https://www.susanhigginbotham.com/posts/margaret-woodville-daughter...

Of Elizabeth Woodville’s five brothers who lived to adulthood, none left legitimate children. Indeed, only one brother is known to have left an out-of-wedlock child—and that brother was Anthony Woodville, usually thought of as the most straitlaced member of the family. He left a daughter, named Margaret.

Margaret’s mother has been identified as Gwenllian, daughter of William Stradling. Nothing more is known about Gwenllian or her relationship with Anthony, but Margaret’s name suggests that the child might have been born before the battle of Towton, after which Anthony changed his allegiance from the Lancastrian cause to the Yorkist one. Of course, Margaret need not have been named after Margaret of Anjou; she might have been named for one of her mother’s relatives, for a saint, for her godmother, or after Anthony’s sister Margaret. On New Year’s Day of 1465, John Howard, who was at Edward IV’s Christmas court at Eltham with Anthony and his wife, gave “to my lord Scales child 12d.” Anthony was married to Elizabeth Scales at the time, so the entry could possibly refer to a legitimate child who died young or to Margaret; recently, however, Anne Crawford has suggested that the entry refers to a page, which seems the most likely identification.

Nothing else is heard of Margaret until her marriage to Robert Poyntz of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire. According to E. L. Barnwell, who doesn’t cite a source, on September 12, 1479 (19 Edward IV), Anthony settled 800 marks on Margaret, with 200 to be paid on the sealing of the deed; he also settled on her lands worth 100 marks a year. Poyntz was probably born in the late 1440’s and thus was probably about thirty or so. Their first son, Anthony, was born around 1480. Like her paternal grandmother Jacquetta, Margaret was fertile: she gave Robert five sons and four daughters.

Anthony Woodville was executed by order of the future Richard III on June 25, 1483. He made his will on June 23, 1483. Lynda Pidgeon makes much of his failure to name Margaret in his will, of which she writes, “It showed awareness of some of the wrongs he had committed but it displayed no affection. Perhaps he simply did not have feelings for anyone else.” This is hardly a fair judgment: Anthony’s feelings, or lack thereof, cannot be determined by a single document, especially one written when he was under the extreme emotional stress of his impending execution for a crime he most likely had not committed. Much of his will is taken up with directions to pay his debts (for which all of his goods were to “goo to the paying”), to right any wrongs he had done, and to arrange for the welfare of his soul and those of his deceased family members. Knowing that his property would be seized by the crown, he might have thought it futile to leave any bequests to his daughter; he also might have believed that as his daughter had been married suitably, there was no need to make special mention of her in his will. Notably, Anthony named Margaret’s husband one of his executors. Lacking more complete records of Anthony’s, we have no way of knowing whether he was generous to his daughter in other ways or whether he held her in his affection. Notably, Margaret and Robert named their first son Anthony.

During Edward IV’s reign, Robert Poyntz had been made constable of Carisbroke Castle and of St. Briavel’s (holding the latter office along with his father-in-law) and sheriff of Hampshire. Soon after Anthony’s arrest, the future Richard III stripped Poyntz of these offices. Later, he was replaced as steward of Sodbury. Not surprisingly, Poyntz was among those who rebelled against Richard III in the fall of 1483. He ended up in sanctuary at Beaulieu, where Anthony’s younger brother Lionel, Bishop of Salisbury, had also taken shelter. Poyntz was later pardoned, but in 1485 he fought for Henry Tudor at Bosworth Field. Following the battle, he was knighted on the field. It was the beginning of a long career in Tudor service for Poyntz, who was present at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520, where he appeared as a member of Katharine of Aragon’s household. King Francis gave him a gift of plate.

Margaret predeceased Robert, who died on November 5, 1520. In his will, made in October 1520, he asked that a black gown of Margaret’s be made into vestments for the Chapel of Jesus at the “church of the Gaunts beside Bristol,” where he asked to be buried. The vestments were to contain Robert’s arms and those of his wife. Barker, writing in 1892, described the chapel thusly:

The Chapel is entered by a panelled doorway, the sides of which are splayed. The fan-traceried roof is arranged in two main divisions, and in the centre of each is a boss in the form of a carved shield of arms. That to the East contains the arms of Henry VIII. and Catharine of Arragon, and that to the West, those of Sir Robert Poyntz and his wife Margaret Woodville, daughter of Anthony, Earl Rivers.

The “church of the Gaunts” is now known as St. Mark’s or the Lord Mayor’s Chapel. Evidently Robert's and Margaret’s arms can still be seen there in the Poyntz Chapel today. The remains of the couple’s home in Iron Acton—mainly a wing built by their grandson to impress the visiting Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn—are open to tourists (leave your high heels at home). On the premises is a sundial designed for Robert in 1520 by Nicholas Kratzer.

Family

Margaret Widville married 1st by 1470 to Charles Churchill b about 1445, died 1474, son of Giles Churchill.

Their children:

• 1. Thomas Churchill b about 1470. who married GRACE, daughter of Thomas Tylle, of Tylle House in Cornwall, and by her had a son. …
• 2. Matthew Churchill b 1471

notes: See https://www.richardiii.org.uk/topic/13802/Margaret%2BWoodville. “The illegitimate daughter of Anthony Woodville looks like the only viable ID; presumably she married Charles Churchill first, as he died in 1474 and her marriage to Pointz is dated 1478.” Her father is misidentified in this source: >>http://www.archive.org/stream/churchillfamilyi01chur#page/n22/mode/1up

9. WILLIAM CHURCHILL, the third son, who assumed that form of the name, resided at Rockbear in Devonshire, married (___) and had a son, 10. GILES CHURCHILL, who married (___) and had a son, ' 11. CHARLES CHURCHILL, who married MARGARET, only daughter and heiress of Sir William Widville, who brought him considerable estate. They had a son, 12. THOMAS CHURCHILL, who married GRACE, daughter of Thomas Tylle, of Tylle House in Cornwall, and by her had a son,

Margaret Woodville married 2nd by 1479 to Sir Robert Poyntz, Sheriff of Gloucestershire, Seneschal of Berkeley Castle, Constable of St. Briavels Castle. He was born circa 1451 at of Iron Acton, Gloucestershire, England; Age 17 in 1468.2, died 1520, so of John Poyntz, Esq. and Alice Cox. He survived Margaret.

Their children:

• 1. Anthony POYNTZ (Sir Knight)
• 2. Anne POYNTZ
• 3. Francis POYNTZ
• 4. John POYNTZ
• 5. Nicholas POYNTZ
• 6. Margaret POYNTZ
• 7. Catherine POYNTZ
• 8. Elizabeth POYNTZ
• 9. Humphrey POYNTZ
• 10. Juliana POYNTZ

notes: He married Margaret Wydville, daughter of Sir Anthony Wydevill, 2nd Earl Rivers, 8th Lord Scales, Lord of the Isle of Wight, Governor of Portsmouth, Sheriff of Caernarvonshire and Gwenlian Stradling, circa 1479; They had 6 sons (Sir Anthony; John, Gent; Sir Francis; Edward; Nicholas; & Humphrey) and 4 daughters (Katherine, wife of Sir Owen Perrot; Anne, wife of Sir John Walshe, & of Robert Bulkeley; Elizabeth, wife of Nicholas Wykes; & Margaret, wife of Sir John St. Loe).1,2,4,5 Sir Robert Poyntz, Sheriff of Gloucestershire, Seneschal of Berkeley Castle, Constable of St. Briavels Castle left a will on 19 October 1520.2,5 He died on 5 November 1520 at Bristol, Gloucstershire, England; Buried at Gaunt Chapel, Bristol, Gloucestershire.1,2,5 His estate was probated in April 1521.2,5

The Heraldic Visitation of Gloucestershire records that:[11] "A testimony of this match apereth by indenture of covenant of the mariag yett extant under the hand and seale of the said Erle, by letters written by the hand of the reverend ffather Morton, Cardinall, also by the armes of the Erle impaled w(i)th Poyntz on the top of a Chappell near Bristowe where they lye buried".

Sources:

• William Robert Barker, St. Mark’s, or the Mayor’s Chapel, Bristol (Formerly Called the Church of the Gaunts) (available on Google Books).
• E. L. Barnwell, “Notes on the Perrot Family.” Archaeologia Cambrensis (January 1865), p. 32 (available on Google Books).
• Anne Crawford, ed., Howard Household Books. Gloucestershire: Alan Sutton, 1992.
• Anne Crawford, Yorkist Lord: John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, c.1425–1485. London: Continuum, 2010.
• Frederick Arthur Crisp, Abstracts of Somerset Wills, 1890 (available on Google Books).
• Louise Gill, Richard III and Buckingham’s Rebellion. Gloucestershire: Sutton, 2000 (paperback edition).
• Alasdair Hawkyard, ‘Poyntz, Sir Robert (b. late 1440s, d. 1520)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/70796, accessed 20 July 2009]
• Rosemary Horrox, Richard III: A Study in Service. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991 (paperback edition).
• John Maclean, ed., The Visitation of the County of Gloucester, Taken in the Year 1623 (available on Google Books).
• Luke MacMahon, ‘Poyntz, Sir Anthony (c.1480–1532/3)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/22689, accessed 20 July 2009]
• Lynda Pidgeon, “Antony Wydevile, Lord Scales and Earl Rivers: Family, Friends and Affinity. Part 2,” The Ricardian, 2006.
• http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/WOODVILLE.htm#Margaret WOODVILLE1
• http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/POYNTZ.htm#Robert
• http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/subpages/margaretwood.html
• https://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p2838.htm...
• http://www.multiwords.de/genealogy/churchill1.htm
• http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p2837.htm#...
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p25034.htm#i250332
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Woodville,_2nd_Earl_Rivers
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Poyntz_(died_1520)_
  • 11. Maclean, Sir John & Heane, W.C., (Eds.), The Visitation of the County of Gloucester Taken in the Year 1623 by Henry Chitty and John Phillipot as Deputies to William Camden Clarenceux King of Arms, etc, London, 1885, pp.129, Archive.Org pp 133 Archive.Org (pedigree of Poyntz) www.findagrave.com

Margaret Woodville

Birth 1455
England
Death 1520 (aged 64–65)
Iron Acton, South Gloucestershire Unitary Authority, Gloucestershire, England
Burial
St James the Less Churchyard
Iron Acton, South Gloucestershire Unitary Authority, Gloucestershire, England Add to Map
Memorial ID 101948736

This memorial is dedicated to my ancestor Margaret Woodville. Margaret was the illegitimate daughter of Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers and Gwentlian Stradling.
She married Sir Robert Poyntz, son of John Poyntz and Alice Cock.
They were the parents of Anne Poyntz, who married John Walsh