Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Poynings, Thomas
POYNINGS, THOMAS, Baron Poynings (d. 1545), was an illegitimate son of Sir Edward Poynings [q. v.] He was early brought to court, and was a sewer-extraordinary in 1516. He was one of those who received livery of the Percy lands in 1528, was on the sheriff roll for Kent in 1533, made K.B. the same year, and appointed sheriff of Kent in 1534. He was present at the christening of Edward VI on 15 Oct. 1537, and at the funeral of Jane Seymour on 12 Nov. When Anne of Cleves came to England in 1539, Poynings was one of the knights who received her. He was an accomplished courtier, generous in disposition, the friend of Wyatt and of Sir Thomas Chaloner the elder [q. v.] In the French expedition of 1544 Poynings took an important part. He was a captain in the army, and greatly distinguished himself at the capture of Boulogne. In October 1544 he was left there by Howard with four thousand men. On 30 Jan. 1544–1545 he was created Baron Poynings; he died at Boulogne on 17 Aug. 1545. He married Catherine, daughter of John, lord Marney, and widow of George Radcliffe, but left no children. Some of his Kentish property passed to the Duke of Northumberland.
[Burke's Extinct and Dormant Peerage; Hasted's Kent, iii. 324; Horsfield's Sussex, i. 175–6; Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, II. ii. 2735, IV. ii. 3213, vii. 1498, xi. 580, XII. ii. 911; Nott's edition of the poems of Wyatt, p. lxxxiii, and of Surrey, pp. lxxii, lxxvi; Chronicle of Calais (Camd. Soc.) p. 176; Strype's Memorials, II. i. 9, III. i. 41.]