Research Notes:
"Thomas, Baron Poynings," son of Sir Michael de Poynings and his wife Margaret was "sum., 1337; ob. in sea fight at Sluce, October, 1339." He married "Agnes, d. and co-h. of Richard de Rokesle, by Joan de Criol, h. to her bro. Bertram (Arch. Cant. II., p. 143). bo. 1300; ob. 1349; bu. at Poynings." [1]
Complete Peerage states, [2]
Sir Thomas de Poynings, (s. and) h. [of Michael],(k) was a knight in Apr. 1315.(l) In Feb. 1322/3 he was preparing for service in Scotland under Earl de Warenne; and in Mar. 1323/4 was going to Aquitaine with Edmund, Earl pf Kent.(a) In May 1324 he was sum. by proclamation to the Great Council at Westminster.(b) He took part in the Dunstable tournament in 1333; was sum. against the Scots in 1335 and 1337, and in May 1336 was app. one of the custodians of the ports and coasts of Surrey and Sussex against the Scots and their foreign allies. (c) He was sum. in Apr. 1337 to a council of prelates and magnates at Stamford, and in June following to a similar assembly at Westminster.(d) He served with a retinue in the King's expedition to Flanders in 1338, and was in Antwerp in July 1339.(e) He m., about 1317, Agnes (aged 22 and more in May 1321), yr. da. and coh. of Richard de Rokesley, of Westwood (in Preston) and Ruxley, Kent, by Joan, heir of her br. Bertram de Criol, and da. of Bertram de Criol (d. 1295), by Eleanor, yr. da. and coh. of Maud d'Avranches.(f) He was killed, 10 Oct. 1339, in an attack on the castle of Honnecourt, on the St. Quentin canal, arr. of Cambrai.(g) His widow d. some time before 22 Dec. 1346, and was bur. at Poynings.(m)
(k) Sussex Fines, vol. iii, no. 1689.
(l) When he witnessed a charter of John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, at Reigate (Cal. Patent Rolls, 1313-17, p. 653).
(a) Idem, 1321-24, pp. 237, 403. He remained on service abroad, with an interval, certainly till i33i(W^;n, i324-27,p.90; 1327-30, p. 387; 1330-34, p. iii).
(b) Parl. Writs.
(c) Coll. Top. et Gen., vol. iv, p. 391; Rot. Scotia, vol. i, pp. 333, 508, 421. In Mar. 1336/7 he was granted an annuity of 200 marks, till he should receive an equivalent in land, in recognition of his good services to the King's brother, John of Eltham, late Earl of Cornwall, and of his then engagement with the King—with the assent of Parl. (Cal. Patent Rolls, 1334-38, p. 401).
(d) Lords' Report, vol. iv, pp. 473, 475.
(e) Cal. Close Rolls, 1339-41, pp. 1 1 1, 236; Cal. Patent Rolls, 1338-40, p. 372.
(f) The records set out in Arch. Cant., vol. ii, p. 134 et seq.; and Cal. Inq. p. m., vol. iv, no. 372.
(g) Idem, vol. viii, no. 231 (which dates his death 17 Oct., and gives his son's age as 22 and more in Nov. 1339); Froissart (ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove), vol. xviii, p. 85. On 14 Oct. the King, in consideration of Thomas's death in his service, and his affection for him, granted seisin and his marriage to his son Michael, though still a minor (Cal. Patent Rolls, 1338-40, p. 395). Sir Thomas had yr. sons (Arch. Cant., vol. xviii, p. 337) Thomas (Treaty Roll, 14 Edw. lII, m. 19), John, Luke (an account of the 1339 expedition, Cotton MS., Caligula, D iii), and Richard (will of Richard, 3rd Lord Poynings).
(h) Cal. Patent Rolls, 1345-48, p. 227; her son Michael's will.
[1] Thomas Agar Holland, "Poynings," Sussex Archaeological Collections 15 (1863), 1-56 at 15, [GoogleBooks].
[2] George E. Cokayne, H. A. Doubleday, Howard de Walden, eds., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 10, Oakham to Richmond (London: St. Catherine Press, 1945), 659-660.