Anne Poyntz (died 1554) was an English courtier. She served in the position of "mother of the maids" in the household of queen Mary I of England. She owned a significant collection of jewellery.John Maclean, Historical and genealogical memoir of the family of Poyntz (Exeter, 1886), p. 35.
Family background
Anne was from Buckinghamshire, a sister and heir of Isaac Sibilles or Sibelies,William Palin, More about Stifford and Its Neighbourhood, Past and Present (1872), p. 121: John Maclean, Historical and Genealogical Memoir of the Family of Poyntz, pp. 33, 48. and daughter of Abraham Sibilles of Boveney who was MP for Windsor in 1491 and clerk of Windsor Castle.Josiah Clement Wedgwood & Anne Holt, History of Parliament (London: HMSO, 1936), pp. 767-768: Robert Richard Tighe & James Edward Davis, Annals of Windsor: Being a History of the Castle and Town, 1 (London, 1858), p. 455: William Campbell, Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII, 2 (London, 1877), p. 483: Letters & Papers, Henry VIII, 1 (London, 1862), p. 287 no. 1896, Isaac Sybbyll, ward of John Sayntpolle, 1511. Her first husband was John Cheney of Sittingbourne and Ufton in Tunstall, Kent, a relative of the influential Thomas Cheney, Treasurer of the Royal Household (1539–1558),William Betham, The Baronetage of England, 2 (London, 1802), p. 72: John Nichols, Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, 1, pp. 37–38: Robert H. Goodsall, 'The Astleys of Maidstone', Archaeologia Cantiana 72 (1958), table, see external links. John Cheney provided food at Faversham for the flotilla of barges that brought Charles V to meet Henry VIII in June 1522.Letters & Papers Henry VIII, 3:2 (London, 1867), p. 967. Thomas Cheney was retained by Mary I in 1553.David Loades, Mary Tudor: A Life (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989), p. 190.
Their daughter Frances married John Astley, a member of a family whose estates were at Melton Constable in Norfolk and Hillmorton in Warwickshire. He was a half-brother of the courtier John Astley, whose mother, Anne, was a sister of Elizabeth Boleyn.John Nichols, The history and antiquities of the county of Leicester, 4:1, p. 59.
John Pointz of North Ockendon Anne married, secondly, John Poyntz of North Ockendon (died 1547),John Maclean, Historical and genealogical memoir of the family of Poyntz (Exeter, 1886), p. 46 a son of William Poyntz and Elizabeth Shaa, a sister of the London mayor and goldsmith John Shaa.William Palin, More about Stifford and Its Neighbourhood, Past and Present (1872), pp. 121–122. Poyntz was a receiver of rents for the queens consort of Henry VIII. He is sometimes confused with John Poyntz of Alderley, Gloucestershire. A drawing by Holbein is now thought to depict John Poyntz of Alderley.Josiah C. Wedgwood, History of Parliament: Biographies of the Members of the Commons House 1439–1509 (London: HMSO, 1936). p. 758. John Pointz of North Ockendon was involved the fortification of Tilbury, where he was a supervisor of building work in 1545.John Roche Dasent, Acts of the Privy Council, 1542–1547 (London, 1890), pp. 215, 238: J. W. Burrows, 'Tilbury Fort', Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 38:1 (1932), p. 89 (as Pointz of North Ockendon). He was an esquire at the reception of Anne of Cleves in 1539, listed as "John Poyntes of South Ukkington".John Gough Nichols, Chronicle of Calais (London: Camden Society, 1846), p. 178.
John Poyntz had a sister, who married Thomas Sponer, a London goldsmith.Frederick Brown, Abstracts of Somersetshire Wills, 6 (1890), p. 31: TNA PROB 11/31/546. John Poyntz's younger brother, Thomas Poyntz (died 1562), was a merchant in Antwerp. William Tyndale, a Protestant writer who had been exiled after writing in support of the cause of Katherine of Aragon, was staying with him when he was arrested in 1535. Thomas Poyntz wrote to John and his wife, hoping that he had influence at the English court to help.Henry Walter, Doctrinal Treatises by William Tyndale (Cambridge, 1848), p. lxix–lxxii. Armed with a letter from Thomas Cromwell, the younger Poyntz attempted in vain to secure Tyndale's release. Tyndale had been tutor to the children of Anne Walsh née Poyntz (died 1528) at Little Sodbury, a distant relative of the Ockendon family.Christopher Anderson, The Annals of the English Bible, 1 (London, 1845), pp. 418–432.
Household of Mary I A "Master" and "Mistress Poyntz" are named in the household accounts of Lady Mary, later Mary I of England. In December 1537, her servant brought a present for Lady Mary.Frederick Madden, Privy Purse Accounts of Princess Mary (London, 1831), p. 49. As a widow, Anne Poyntz seems to have retained her rights at North Ockendon, and was able to present a clergyman to the benefice.John Maclean, Historical and genealogical memoir of the family of Poyntz (Exeter, 1886), p. 34.
Poyntz was "mother of the maids" in the household of Mary I of England in 1553.David Loades, Mary Tudor: A Life (Oxford, 1992), p. 355 "Mrs Pointz", citing TNA SP 11/1/26 an account of the coronation.C. S. Knighton, Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the reign of Mary I (London, 1998), p. 11 no. 20. The role was to supervise young aristocratic women who were placed in the royal household. Her own granddaughter, Anne Astley, was also at court, possibly as her servant. Mary gave her ladies and gentlewomen pairs of "billiments", gold bands to wear on their head dresses or French hoods at her coronation.Henry King, 'Ancient Wills, 3', Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 3 (Colchester, 1865), p. 187: British Library Harley 7376 f.29v, 32r. According to a list published by John Strype, another woman, Mistress Baynham, took the place of "mother of maids" during Mary's Royal Entry on 30 September 1553, but other sources name "Mistress Poynes".John Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, 3 (London, 1721), p. 17: British Library Cotton Appendix XXVIII item 24.
After the death of Mistress Poyntz, in 1557, there were six maids of honour; Anne Somerset,Jade Scott, The Life and Letters of Lady Anne Percy, Countess of Northumberland (Catholic Record Society, Boydell, 2024), p. xxiv. Jane Seymour, Cecily Arundel, Mary Mansel (who married Thomas Southwell), Mary Howard, and Margaret Cooke. Dorothy Broughton was the mother of the maids. She may have been a connection of Sir Robert Broughton (MP) grandfather of Thomas Cheney's second wife.Jane Lawson, 'Ritual of the New Year's Gift', Valerie Schutte & Jessica S. Hower, Mary I in Writing: Letters, Literature, and Representation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), pp. 180–181. Sir Robert Broughton's second wife was Dorothy, the sister of Margery Wentworth (c. 1478–1550).
Death and memorial
Anne Poyntz died in May 1554, after a period of illness at court when she was nursed by Anne Astley.Henry King, 'Ancient Wills, 3', Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 3 (Colchester, 1865), p. 187. She was buried either at St Dunstan-in-the-West, where there was a commemorative stone with her heraldry,'St Dunstan's in the West', Collectanea topographica et genealogica, 4 (London, 1837), pp. 106, 108: James Edwin Oxley, The Reformation in Essex: To the Death of Mary (Manchester, 1965), p. 92. or at St Mary Magdalene, North Ockendon, where her husband was buried in 1547.William Palin, More about Stifford and Its Neighbourhood, Past and Present (1872), p. 121.
Dorothy Broughton was appointed in her place as Mother of the Maidens. Dorothy Broughton was summoned to court from Woodstock Palace where she was serving in the household of Lady Elizabeth, who was in the care of Henry Bedingfeld.C. R. Manning, "Custody of Elizabeth at Woodstock", Norfolk Archaeology, 5 (Norwich, 1854), pp. 165–166. In turn, Margaret Morton was sent to Woodstock to fill Broughton's place.Frank A. Munby, The girlhood of Queen Elizabeth (Houghton Mifflin, 1909), p. 141: Acts of the Privy Council, 5 (London: HMSO, 1892), pp. 29–30.
By 1605, Thomas Poyntz's son Gabriel Poyntz placed a series of memorials to the family in the church in the former Lady Chapel at North Ockendon, including a depiction of Anne and John Poyntz.William Palin, More about Stifford and Its Neighbourhood, Past and Present (1872), pp. 121, 125: Eric Ives, The Reformation Experience: Living Through the Turbulent 16th Century (Lion Hudson, 2012), p. 47: Essex views: North Ockendon: St Mary Magdalene, Poyntz Reliefsflickr jmc4 Church Explorer: Essex, North Ockendon The monuments are attributed to the Johnson workshop.Adam White, A Biographical Dictionary of London Tomb Sculptors, The Volume of the Walpole Society, 61 (1999), p. 74.
Her granddaughter, Anne (or Dorothy) Astley, married Richard L'Estrange, a brother of Nicholas L'Estrange of Hunstanton.William Betham, The Baronetage of England, 2 (London, 1802), p. 73. Susanna Poyntz, a daughter of Thomas Poyntz, married Richard Saltonstall, Lord Mayor of London,Henry Chauncy, Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, vol. 1 (London, 1826), pp. 108, 205. her nephew was the translator Adrian Poyntz, who dedicated his New and singular patternes & workes of linnen (London, 1591) and Treasure of the Soule (London, 1596) to her and Richard Saltonstall.Mrs Bury Palliser, Alice Dryden, Margaret Jourdain, History of Lace, p. 483.
Tudor jewellery and Anne Poyntz' will
Anne Poyntz made two wills, one in 1550 and in May 1554, shortly before her death, which were both proved or probated.John Maclean, Historical and genealogical memoir of the family of Poyntz (Exeter, 1886), p. 34: TNA PROB 11/37/21. The wills were published in an abbreviated form in 1865.Henry King, 'Ancient Wills, 3', Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 3 (Colchester, 1865), p. 186 They include a number of bequests to the Astley family of jewellery. These illustrate the exchanges of gifts at the Tudor court. Gifts to Mary from the queen include her coronation "upper billiment", and a nether billiment set with 155 pearls which had been a gift from Mary on another occasion.Henry King, 'Ancient Wills, 3', Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 3 (Colchester, 1865), pp. 186–188. A similar "upper billiment" with a crimson velvet gown to wear at the coronation was included in the will of the husband of Mary's lady in waiting, Cecily Dabridgecourt, Lady Mansel.Edward Phillipps Statham, History of the Family of Maunsell, Mansell, Mansel (London, 1917), pp. 336–337, 485, 492
These "biliments" were worn on French hoods at Mary's court.Emilie M. Brinkman, "Dressed to kill: The fashioning of Bloody Mary", Valerie Schutte & Jessica S. Hower, Writing Mary I: History, Historiography, and Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), p. 176. An indication of how they were worn occurs in a warrant for fabric for another of Mary's gentlewomen, Mary or Jane Russell. In June 1554, Russell was given "twoo yards of French velvet to make her Frenche hoods and bylementts, halffe a yarde of satten to lyne the said hoodes", one yard of satin, white and red "to make her nether bylymentts".E. Estcourt, 'Warrant of Queen Mary', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 3 (London, 1865), pp. 103, 105. The nether biliment or habilment of "goldsmith work" was worn at the front edge, and the upper biliment behind, near, or over the crown of the head. Mary had a French hood as early as 1520.Maria Hayward, Dress at the Court of Henry VIII (Maney, 2007), pp. 172, 433.Janet Arnold, Lost from Her Majesties Back: Items of Clothing and Jewels Lost Or Given Away by Queen Elizabeth I (Costume Society, 1980), p. 85.Joan Nunn, Fashion in Costume, 1200-2000 (Chicago, 2000), p. 44.