Theophilus Poynter (c.1636–1709)
Theophilus Poynter or Pointer was born in Huntingdon in c.1636. He was the son of John and Rebecca Poynter, and was baptised at St Mary's Church in Huntingdon on 7 May 1637. According to Theophilus's memorial plaque, his was a high-born family originating in Whitchurch in Hampshire: it describes him as “Generosâ Prosapiâ de Whitchurch, in Agro Hantoniensi oriundus”.
Theophilus's father John Poynter had been matriculated at the University of Oxford from Brasenose College on 28 March 1617 at the age of 17, and was said to be of London at that date. He obtained his B.A. very quickly (on 2 July 1618). He was minister of Huntingdon from 1632 to 1643, and Vicar of Bures in Essex from 1646 to 1655. He then moved to Oxford, where in 1655 he was made a Canon of Christ Church by Cromwell, but he was ejected after the Restoration in 1660.
In about 1660 (possibly at Christ Church) Theophilus Poynter married first wife, Sarah Williams. She was baptised at All Saints Church in 1642 and was the daughter of the former Mayor of Oxford Thomas Williams.
His first wife Sarah appears to have died soon after their marriage, and on 2 June 1664 at St Bartholomew's Church in east officer Theophilus Poynter (described as a surgeon and widower of All Saints parish) married his second wife Mary Crips of St Mary-the-Virgin parish. They had six children:
- Mary Poynter (born before 1667)
- Rebecca Poynter (born c.1670)
- Sarah Poynter (baptised at St Michael's Church on 28 March 1672)
- Eleanor Poynter (baptised at St Mary-the Virgin Church on 14 September 1675)
- Theophilus Poynter junior (baptised at St Mary-the Virgin Church on 23 October 1678)
- John Poynter (baptised at St Mary-the Virgin Church in 1680, died soon after birth)
On 28 September 1666 Theophilus forfeited his freedom of the city of Oxford so that he could be matriculated by the University as a privileged chirurgeon the very next day, aged 30. His entry in Alumni Oxonienses reads:
Poynter, Theophilus, “Chirurgeon”, s. John, of Oxford (city) privilegiatus 29 Sept., 1666, aged 30; licenced to practice in surgery 11 Oct., 1666.
By 1667, Poynter had moved to Cheyney Lane in St Michael’s parish, and his first daughter, Mary, had been born: he is listed there as paying in poll tax that year £1-1-0 for his money, 2/- for his wife and child, and two shillings for his servant Elizabeth Fox on her wages of 30s.
In 1674 Poynter was left £5 in the will of his former father-in-law Thomas Williams.
By 1675, when his third daughter was baptised at St Mary-the-Virgin Church, Poynter’s home and surgery were in Catte Street in that parish. Anthony Wood tells of the death of William Browne, Fellow of Magdalen, at his house in 1678 (ii.402) and how he himself was treated there in the same year (ii.412):
Mr. Poynter the surgeon made 2 holes in my shoulders; for which I gave him 10s., and 3s. for braces, and 1s. for salve.
Theophilus's father John Poynter died on 2 January 1683/4 and was buried at St Peter-le-Bailey Church on 5 January. Anthony Wood says that he was about 85 when he died at his house near New Inn, and that he was buried at the lower end of the north aisle joining to the body of the church. See transcription of his Will.
In about 1688 his eldest daughter Mary Poynter became the third wife of Mr Medcalf, an upholsterer in London. She died on 3 April 1692 at the age of about 25. Anthony Wood records that on the day after her death her body was brought to Oxford at about 8pm and she was duly buried in St Mary-the-Virgin Church.
On about 24 October 1695, again according to Wood, his third daughter Sarah Poynter married James Badger, the Master of New College School.
In 1696 Theophilus Poynter paid tax on ten windows in the parish of St Mary-the-Virgin in 1696, and is marked as a commissioner.
Around this time his daughter Rebecca Pointer married Hugh Willoughby.
Three of his four surviving children died between 1702 and 1709, and each of the was recorded as being “worth £600”:
- Mrs Sara Badger doed at the age of 30 on 15 September 1702, in the seventh year of her marriage. She was buried at St Mary-the-Virgin Church on 17 September 1702
- Eleanor Poynter never married. She died on 17 May 1703 at the age of 27 and was buried at St Mary-the-Virgin Church on 19 May 1703
- Theophilus Poynter junior had obtained his B.A. at New College and was about to embark on a career in medicine when he died on 19 June 1709 at the age of 27. He was buried inside St Mary-the-Virgin Church on 22 June.
Theophilus Poynter died at the age of 73 on 22 September 1709 according to the monument below, but his burial inside St Mary-the-Virgin Church took place on 16 September 1709 according to the parish register, so one of these dates is wrong. Of his six children, only his second daughter Mrs Rebecca Willoughby outlived him.
There is a large marble wall monument (below) on the wall of the staircase leading up from the North-East corner of the nave, commemorating Poynter himself (“Chirurgus peritissimus”) and the four of his children who predeceased him.(John who died in infancy is not included.) Roughly translated from the Latin, it reads:
Here lies buried Theophilus POYNTER, a most skilled surgeon, sprung from a high-born family in Whitchurch in Hampshire, who died on 22 September 1709, aged 73.
Next to him are buried Theophilus, his only son, of New College, Bachelor of Arts in the Faculty of Medicine, who died on 19 June 1706, just as he was about to embark on his career; Mary, his eldest daughter, who, with the chain of a blameless comforter broken by the sudden advent of premature death, died on 3 April 1692; Sarah, his fourth daughter, who when she reached the seventh year of her marriage died on 15 September 1702; and Eleanor, his youngest daughter, who died a virgin on 14 May 1703.
Mary, once his wife and now scarcely a mother (with only one child surviving to prevent her from being destitute, and that one with another name) put up this monument
Right: Diamond tile reading
“T.P. 1709”
and commemorating the death of
Theophilus Poynter, set into the floor
of the Church of St Mary-the-Virgin, Oxford
The “Will of Theophilus Poynter, Surgeon of University of Oxford” (date of probate 13 March 1710) was deposited at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury: ref PROB 11/514. He left his property in Oxfordshire, including houses and land near Hailey and his two houses in Catte Street, to his second wife Mary for the duration of her widowhood, and then to his grandson Theophilus Medcalf for his lifetime. Should Medcalf have no issue, then the property was to go to Theophilus Medcalf’s sister Mary.
He left his property in Warwickshire to his wife Mary during her widowhood, and then to his daughter Rebecca Willoughby for her life, to pass down eventually through her eldest son, or if there were no male issue, through his granddaughter Elizabeth Willoughby. Her two children, Theophilus and Mary Willoughby, were still alive in 1674.
His widow Mary Poynter was buried at St Mary-the-Virgin Church on 10 December 1718.