Description: Engraved from Ricraft's Survey of England's Champions. Born into a minor gentry family at Reigate, Surrey (c 1608), Poyntz was apprenticed to a London tradesman but ran away to join the Dutch army and became a mercenary soldier. Although he was a Presbyterian, he joined the Imperial Spanish army where he rose to the rank of Major-General. In 1645, Poyntz returned to England and took service with Parliament, replacing Major-General Lambert as commander of the Northern Association army in May 1645. He manoeuvred to block King Charles on his march to join Montrose in Scotland then defeated the King's cavalry at Rowton Heath near Chester in September 1645. Poyntz continued to shadow the King's movements until he had driven him back to Oxford in November 1645. He then joined Lord Leven and the Covenanters at the siege of Newark. During the disputes between Parliament and the Army in 1647, Presbyterian MPs looked to Poyntz for support against the New Model Army. His dealings with the Presbyterians were regarded with suspicion by Fairfax and Cromwell, who suspected he was plotting to take the northern army over to the Scots in the event of an invasion. Agitators from the New Model Army infiltrated the Northern Association and discontented soldiers threatened to mutiny over arrears of pay. In July 1647, Poyntz was dragged from his lodgings at York by his mutinous troops and taken as a prisoner to Fairfax's headquarters at Reading. Although Fairfax liberated him immediately, Poyntz was replaced as commander of the Northern Association. He went to London where he became involved with Edward Massey in mobilising the City militia against the New Model. Like other prominent Presbyterians, Poyntz fled abroad when the Army occupied London in August 1647. During the Second Civil War, Poyntz supported the King's alliance with the Scottish Engagers. He was commissioned Major-General to the Presbyterian Lord Willoughby of Parham whom the Prince of Wales appointed commander of Royalist forces in East Anglia. With the defeat of the Engagers at the battle of Preston, however, the projected Royalist uprisings and invasions in England came to nothing. Poyntz sailed with Lord Willoughby to the West Indies where they declared for the King in the English colonies. The Commonwealth responded by sending a force under General-at-Sea George Ayscue, who succeeded in quelling the Royalists in January 1652. When Willoughby returned to England, Poyntz proceeded to Virginia, where he died, date unknown. (information from www.british-civil-wars.co.uk)