KNIGHT, John (?1686-1733), of Gosfield Hall, Essex.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1710 - 1722
1722 - 2 Oct. 1733

Family and Education

b. ?1686, 1st s. of John Knight, M.P., of St. Clement’s Dane, treasurer of the customs 1694-7, director of Bank of England 1694-7. educ. Wadham, Oxf. 26 Mar. 1703, aged 16; M. Temple 1702. m. (1) Elizabeth Slaughter of Cheyne Court, Herefs., s.p.; (2) 1724, Ann, da. and coh. of James Craggs, jt. post master gen., sis. and coh. of James Craggs, wid. of John Newsham and afterwards wife of Robert Nugent, 1s. 1da. d.v.p.

Offices Held

Assistant, R. African Co. 1716-22; sec. Leeward Is. 1718-22.

Biography

Knight, whose father was expelled from the House in 1698 for false endorsing of exchequer bills, acquired by purchase and foreclosure the Cornish estates of John Tredenham, M.P. (d. 1710), carrying an interest for one seat at St. Mawes.1 He bought Gosfield Hall in 1715,2 when he was returned as an administration candidate for St. Germans, voting with the Government. Returned for Sudbury in 1722, and again in 1727, when he was also returned for St. Mawes, he voted against the Government on the civil list arrears, 1729, for them on the Hessians, 1730, against them on the army, 1732, but for them on the excise bill, 1733, seconding the Address, 16 Jan. 1733.3 He died 2 Oct. 1733. His widow and heir erected a splendid monument by Rysbrack with an inscription by Pope4 to his memory in Gosfield church, but, marrying Robert Nugent soon afterwards, she ‘ordered it to be enclosed ... with a wainscot screen to shut it off from her sight when she went to church, which, however, she seldom did’.5

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. W. P. Courtney, Parl. Rep. Cornw. 92.
  • 2. Morant, Essex, ii. 382.
  • 3. HMC Egmont Diary, i. 307.
  • 4. Pope, Works (ed. Elwin Courthope), ix. 455-6, 475.
  • 5. HMC Portland, vi. 70.