The Poyntz Family In Ireland
Seán Mac Labhraí writes[1]:
“According to one source, a form of the surname Poyntz first reached England at the time of the Norman conquest in 1066. From earliest records in the 12th century, members of the family were knighted, made sheriffs of Gloucestershire, elected to Parliament, appointed as Commissioners of The Peace, were prominent in the legal profession, benefactors to the Church, active in senior ranks of the army and navy, successful shipping merchants from the port of Bristol, guests to the Royal Court, and hosts to three English kings.
“Association with Ireland began as early as 1494 when Sir Robert Poyntz received a commission to muster and ship an army to Ireland, from Bristol. In the next century Sir Nicholas Poyntz had a command in Ireland when in June 1534 he assisted his uncle Sir St John Loe in suppressing the revolt of Silken Thomas Fitzgerald, 10th Earl of Kildare.”
Charles (later Sir Charles) Poyntz was an Englishman who settled in the area of what is now Acton in the early 1600s and later gave his name to the village.
The Battle of Fenwick’s Pass
Before we consider Charles, we should demolish a persistent myth.
Many accounts published over the last two hundred years state that 1603 saw ‘The Battle of Fenwick’s Pass’ in which it is said that Charles Poyntz commanded English troops defending the pass against the rebel forces of Hugh O’Neill, and that the land he was awarded in the area was his reward.
However, there is absolutely no historical evidence for this. The most likely date for Charles’s birth is 1589, so that would have made him only about fourteen at the time – not old enough to have been enrolled in the English army, much less lead his troops to a famous victory!
The simple answer, according to historian Dr Hiram Morgan of University College Cork, is that it is likely that no such battle took place—or that if it did take place, it was an unremarkable and unrecorded skirmish in the later Williamite wars. The young Lieutenant Charles Poyntz arrived in Ireland as part of the English army rather later than 1603, probably closer to 1610.
Sir Charles Poyntz (ca.1589-1662)
Charles Poyntz’s origins are both obscure and contested. McLean (1886) states that the Co. Armagh Poyntz family “claim descent from Sir John Poyntz of Iron Acton[2] who died in 1633” but Charles’ name does not appear anywhere in their family records.
However, we do know that on 30th November 1610, just before Carew’s survey, King James I granted Lt. Charles Poyntz 200[3] acres of land in the townland we know today as Brannock.
“Brenoge, one ballieboe[4]. Listray, two-thirds ballieboe. 200 acres. Created Manor of Brannoge with 100 acres in demesne[5] and a Court Baron, to be held to him and his heirs…at a rent of £1 12s 0d per annum.”
A court baron was held by the lord of a manor for and among his tenants. Its main functions were:
- Resolving disputes involving the manor’s free tenants.
- Enforcing feudal services owed to the lord by those tenants.
- Admitting new tenants who had acquired copyhold land by inheritance or purchase, with the obligation to pay a fine to the lord.
- Administering the “custom of the manor” and recording proceedings on the court roll.
It generally met a few times a year—often twice, in April and October.
Charles Poyntz Settles In
Charles Poyntz quickly started work on his new property. Carew (1611) notes:
“Lieutenant Charles Poyntz has 200 acres as servitor and has provided timber and material for building.”
Charles soon built himself a house, and cottages for a group of English settlers he brought with him. He named the settlement Acton after what he claimed was his home village. It is possible that he was the illegitimate son of Sir John and naming the settlement Acton was one way to cement his family claims.
The area’s other principal landowning family of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Moores of Drumbanagher, arrived in the area very soon after Charles Poyntz, in 1611.
Hunter (1969) writes:
“The [six] servitors of Orier, while being resident only in the cases of Poyntz and Smith, had by 1622 made a decided impact as landlords. Non-residency was mitigated for…Moore by the presence of English agents.
Poyntz, a servitor of decidedly different type, had increased his initial grant by ‘a great quantitye of 6 or 700 [acres] purchased of the natives. He had built a ‘fair’ brick dwelling house surrounded by small domestic enclosures, besides a bawn[6] and stable. He had eight English families dwelling in the village…adjoining’.”
Yet More Land
On 17th May 1615 Charles received another land grant from James I. “Orior Barony. Ballinegree alias Lisnegree 120 acres.” Just over a year later, 18th July 1616 saw the ‘surrender and regrant’ of Poyntz’s lands. This was a process by which the terms of a several separate leases were consolidated and made consistent. The new grant included the condition:
“The tenants to build their houses together and near the chief mansion and not scattered and detached, to have a musquet or caliver[7] and a hand weapon to arm two men.”
In other words, establish a new village close to your own house, and make sure that all your men are armed in case of trouble from the natives! However, the latter condition was not nearly met; 15 years later, the 1630 Muster Roll records:
“…Charles Poyntes, Knight, has British tenants residing on his native lands, being 500 acres, his men and armes as follows…”
28 male tenants were listed, a substantial increase on the initial eight, but only twelve of them had weapons as they were required to. The distinct surnames listed (in the original spelling) were Anderson, Browne (2), Cooke, Dod, Elliot, Fryer, Irwin, Powell, Richardson, Scot, Smyth, Stevensonne, Steward, Taylor, Thompson, Vincent, Wilkinsonne, Wilson and Williamson.
Less than a decade after arriving, Charles decided that he needed a better house. Pynnar (1619) reports:
“Lieut. Poyns hath 200 acres called Curriator.[8] Upon this there is a bawne of 80 feet square, the lower part whereof is of stone and clay with a house on it, but he not liking the seat, hath begun a bawne 100 feet square with three flankers and a large house, all of which shall be of brick and lyme which there is now in the place with workmen labouring very hard and is undertaken to be finished by August.”
In 1618 Charles was granted a third tranche of land and his holdings became known as the Manor of Acton. He was knighted on 16th June 1630, aged about 41.
Hunter observes:
“The acquisitions of the Poyntz family in Orier were particularly spectacular in that a servitor who, in 1610, had received no more than 674 acres could, by 1641, show a substantial multiplication of property – all at the expense of Irish grantees. Toby[9] Poyntz in 1641 owned some 3,744 acres acquired from fifteen Irish grantees.”
Charles Poyntz Marries
In 1616, Charles married Christina Puleston, sister-in-law of Sir Marmaduke Whitchurch from nearby Loughbrickland. Sir Marmaduke had been high sheriff of Co Armagh in 1603.
Charles and Christina had four children: Chichester was born in about 1618, then Tobias (Toby), Mary and Edward. We do not know exact birth dates for any of them. However, both Chichester and Edward died in about 1837 leaving Toby as Charles’ sole male heir. Mary married Francis Lucas of Castle Shane, Co Monaghan, and from 1652 the couple resided at Dromantine.
Sir Charles Poyntz became embroiled in the events of the Irish Rebellion or Eleven Years War. From October 1641 to May 1642, along with Sir Edward Trevor (a close relative of his wife) and several other prominent planters, he was imprisoned by Sir Con McGinnis, initially in Newry Castle. They were eventually freed by Lord Conway after almost seven months.
Charles was appointed as high sheriff of Co Armagh in 1643; the Poyntz family were now leading members of the Co Armagh establishment.
Charles died intestate at his home in Brannock on 18th May 1661, aged about 73. Toby, probably then aged about 40, was granted probate a few days later and formally succeeded him. In May 1673, Charles’ widow Christina also died at Brannock; she was aged about 80.
Sir Toby Poyntz (~1620-1685)
We do not have an exact date of birth for Tobias (Toby) Poyntz, but it was about 1620. He became Charles Poyntz’s heir when his older brother Chichester died in 1637.
As a young man Toby was elected[10] MP for Newry from 1639 to 1641. In 1644 he was High Sheriff of Armagh, and again in 1659, 1664 and 1666. He had military experience serving on the Royalist side during the English civil wars until after the death of Charles I, for which he was granted more lands – presumably after the Stuart restoration in 1660.
On 24th September 1642 Toby married Rose Buckworth, eldest daughter of Dr Theophilus Buckworth, Bishop of Dromore. Toby and Rose had three children – a son, Charles (1646) and two daughters, Sarah (1648) and Christian (1650). Rose inherited all her father’s lands in 1652.
In ‘A Census of Ireland, 1659’, Toby is one of just five non-native people deemed worthy of mention in the Barony of Oryer (Orier); the others were the Earl of Middlesex, Henry St John of Tandragee, Francis Ruare and Frances Richardson.
Toby and St John are referred to as Esquire, whereas Ruare and Richardson were merely Gentlemen. The title Esquire was used to denote someone thought worthy of a knighthood in the future.
So, Toby was deemed to be one of the top three men in the barony of Orier in 1659.
Rose Buckworth’s mother Sarah was the sister of James Ussher[11], Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland from 1625 to 1656. These close connections to the established Church may have influenced Toby’s attitudes to his dissenter neighbours; in 1680 he wrote to Sir William Flower:
“I should not have troubled you at this time but I see a sort of People in this country hold their heads very high, the cause I know not unless they expect some Novelties when their ministers come back out of Scotland (for most or all of the Presbyterian ministers are now gone to Scotland to what end I know not); but I could wish that the council would serve them as we are wont to serve mad dogs – that is when they are out of doors to shut them out…The Presbyterians in our County are very high and sturdie, I hope they intend no mischief.”
In 1662 Toby Poyntz was knighted, like his father. The ceremony was performed by his cousin[12], the Duke of Ormonde.
The First ‘Permanent’ Crossing
At some time in the first half of the 1600s, a wooden bridge and causeway had been constructed across the Glan Bog, presumably close to the site of the current bridge over the canal. In 1662, Sir Toby petitioned[13] Parliament for the right to charge tolls for the bridge’s upkeep, as it was being damaged being damaged by cattle drovers and their animals. Permission appears to have been refused.
In the 1660s, the government introduced an annual tax of two shillings (10 pence today) on every hearth or fireplace. In the Co Armagh Hearth Money Roll dated 10th January 1664, Sir Toby Pointz is the first entry, and he is listed as having nine hearths, reflecting the relative magnificence of his house.
In 1670 Toby’s daughter Sarah married Col. Charles Stewart of Ballintoy.
In 1684, Sir Toby built the first Acton Parish Church, on the site now known as Acton Old Graveyard. He died just a year later 1685, aged about 65, and was buried in the vault inside the church he built.
However, the original church was abandoned when the new Acton Parish Church opened in Poyntzpass village in the late 1780s and quickly fell into disuse. Today, no traces of the church walls remain, and Toby’s vault, once inside the church, now sits in the open. His estate passed to his surviving son Charles, then aged about 39.
Charles Poyntz Jnr (c1646-1707) & Redmond O’Hanlon (1640-1682)
Charles was born in 1646 and married his cousin, Lucy Lucas of Castle Shane in 1677. Their only child, Lucas, was born in 1688.
The story of Charles’s life (what little we know of it) was somewhat tied up with that of the notorious outlaw[14] and highwayman Redmond O’Hanlon. (1640-1682)
The pre-Plantation lands of the O’Hanlons covered large areas of south-east Co Armagh, and their family seat was at Tandragee. Despite being interlopers, the various generations of the Poyntz family seem to have maintained moderately good relations with both the O’Hanlons and the other major local clan, the Magennises, to the east, in Co Down. During the 1641 uprising, Charles’ grandfather seems to have been well treated during his imprisonment by Sir Con Magennis.
Redmond O’Hanlon was one of the earliest and most famous outlaws in the region and was born in 1640 near Poyntzpass. A letter published in the Newry Reporter, 5th July 1909, signed “LAMB DEARG ABOO[15]” asserted:
“It is a historical fact, agreed to by Protestant and Presbyterians – planters, old Irish as well – that it was in the house[16] (partly) now the residence of Mr Heber A Magenis, JP, Aughantaraghan, Poyntzpass, that Redmond O’Hanlon was born.”
Paterson (Armachiana, Vol…) describes O’Hanlon’s modus operandi:
“With his gang of subordinates, he kept the counties of Armagh, Down and Tyrone in such subjugation that none dare travel except in convoy or armed with his personal pass. The farmers…were also subject to his exactions. He levied from each and all of them 2/6d per year but guaranteed they would not be molested by any of his followers. Petty robbers under him were actually supplied with a list of all the people in his guardianship”.
Today, we would call O’Hanlon’s ‘business model’ a protection racket! Glen Woods was apparently one of Redmond’s favourite haunts, so the authorities felled it in 1679 to prevent him hiding there.
There was a lot of local suspicion[17] that Sir Toby and his son were too tolerant of the illegal activities of O’Hanlon and his men. Joe Canning wrote:
“In Armagh most of the outrages took place in the north of the county in the barony of Oneilland and in the northern part of the baronies of Armagh and Tiranny…it is puzzling why other and more important properties in the barony (of Orier) e.g. Acton belonging to Sir Charles Poyntz less than four miles south of Tandragee were not targeted.”
On 14th December 1674, the authorities offered a reward of £10 each for the capture ‘dead or alive’ of Redmond O’Hanlon and several members of his gang. But that seems to have been too small a sum to tempt anyone to betray Redmond. In January 1680, the Duke of Ormond greatly increased the bounty, offering £100 for Redmond and £50 for his brother Loughlin. In March 1681 the bounty on Redmond was raised to £200, equivalent to at least £50,000 today.
Finally, on 25th April 1681, Redmond O’Hanlon was betrayed and murdered by his foster brother, Art McCall O’Hanlon, who shot him in the chest with a blunderbuss while he slept.
Charles Jnr. was very keen that everyone should know the prominent role he played in Redmond O’Hanlon’s death, not least to scotch rumours that had been in league with O’Hanlon or had simply turned a blind eye to the outlaw’s behaviour. Just over a week after Redmond’s murder, on 3rd May 1681, he wrote to the Duke of Ormonde, detailing his own role in organising O’Hanlon’s murder by McCall.
Charles Poyntz Jnr died in about 1707, aged about 60, after being was shot and killed in mysterious circumstances near Portaferry. His only son Lucas died shortly after his father, also in 1707, aged just 25.
The deaths of Charles and Lucas marked the end of the Poyntz era and the start of the Stewart era, and the Acton estate passed jointly to Charles’ sisters Sarah and Christian.
[1] See Sean’s excellent account “The Poyntz Family of Acton” in BIF Vol 14, 2017
[2] In Gloucestershire
[3] This is probably ‘Plantation acres’, which equates to about 320 English acres. Various P&DLHS publications have quoted either 200 or 500 acres. It is now clear that the initial grant was 200 acres and was later expanded to 500.
[4] Essentially a townland.
[5] That part of a landowner’s holdings which he retains for his own use and does not rent out.
[6] A fortified, walled courtyard
[7] A light musket originating in the early 1500s.
[8] The old name for the Acton area. It means “The tall rock of the swamp”. The swamp in question would have been the Glan Bog.
[9] In his analysis of Pynnar and other records, Hunter has conflated Toby with his father Charles.
[10] In those days, being elected was very different from today. There were very few electors – all were rich landowners and all were male.-
[11] Archbishop Ussher is famous for ‘determining’ that the world was created about 6pm on the night of 26th October, 4004 BC in the Julian calendar! It is unfortunate that he could not have been more precise about the time. Cosmologists currently date the creation of the universe in the Big Bang to about 13.2 billion years ago.
[12] James FitzThomas Butler (1610-1688), 1st Duke of Ormonde. He was 12th Earl of Ormonde and was made 1st Duke of Ormonde in 1661. He was the son of Elizabeth Poyntz, (1588-1673), (first child of Sir John Poyntz of Iron Acton and Elizabeth Sydenham) and Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
[13] See “Acton And Poyntzpass Fairs” by Frank Watters, BIF Vol 10, 2009
[14] Outlaws were also commonly known at the time as rapparees or Tories.
[15] Phonetic spelling of an Irish phrase meaning “Red hand to victory”. Other evidence points to the writer being Heber Magenis himself.
[16] Iveagh House, Aughantaraghan
[17] There is an excellent discussion of this in Seán Mac Labhraí’s paper on the Poyntz family in BIF Vol 14, 2017