KNOLL, John, of Liskeard, Cornw.

In keeping with statutory requirements Knoll was a resident of the town he represented in Parliament, as his occasional appearances in the borough court indicate, and he must be distinguished from the namesake from Denbury in Devon with whom he has sometimes been confused in the past. Cornw. RO, Liskeard bor. recs., B/Lis/91, m. 1; HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 519. The Denbury man, who may have been a lawyer practicing in the Westminster courts, was active by the early years of Hen. IV and seems to have still been alive in 1455, when he attested the last of eight Devon shire elections at which he was present. It was probably he rather than his namesake who served Thomas Bittellesgate, the father-in-law of Richard Wydeville* of Grafton, as a feoffee: CP40/567, rot. 521; KB9/205/2/48; C1/5/100, 54/3; CPR, 1422-9, p. 143; 1429-36, p. 73. The Knolls were a family of some importance in fifteenth-century Liskeard. An earlier John Knoll served as portreeve of Liskeard in 1405-6, while a Roger Knoll held a similar office in 1417-18. Cornw. RO, Connock-Marshall mss, CM204; SC6/820/8. Roger died before 1438, when his son Walter settled his lands on feoffees. CP40/709, cart. rot. 1d. No direct family ties have been established with Henry Knoll, who served as reeve of the duchy manor of Rillaton in 1399-1400 and 1409-10, Nicholas Knoll who stood surety for the Bodmin MPs at the parlty. elections of 1425, or William Knoll who in 1473 held a tenement in Liskeard: Cornw RO, Arundell mss, AR2/719, m. 1; Duchy of Cornw. Off., enrolled manorial acct. 40; C219/13/3; CAD, vi. C6458. Another putative kinsman, Richard Knoll, was to rise to even greater prominence, serving as mayor of the town on at least two separate occasions. Liskeard bor. recs. B/Lis/20/2/45, 48. Richard would at one point of his career become involved in factional disputes among the burgesses when he supported Richard Vage’s candidature for the mayoralty against John Clement, who had ostensibly already been elected, by joining other burgesses in forcing their way into the guildhall. C1/12/237.

There is no suggestion that John ever became similarly active in local politics, and only a few details of his career are known. He held several tenements, as well as three gardens and 40 acres of meadow, within Liskeard, C1/134/30. although it probably an older namesake who in 1407 leased holdings in Knoll (in Probus) from John de Park, and in 1436 settled these on John Tretherf*. This elder John had a wife called Anora: CAD, iv. A10141, A10142; v. A10644, A10645. Knoll was nevertheless well connected in his own right, as his association with the busy lawyer Richard Penpons* in an enfeoffment of 1459 suggests. Cornw. Feet of Fines, ii (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc., 1950), 1117. It may have been such connexions as much as the family’s standing in Liskeard that secured Knoll’s return to Parliament in 1455, yet his relative obscurity may also have played a part: while the Commons assembled at Westminster, the south-west of England was in upheaval as Thomas Courtenay, earl of Devon, sought to settle his long-running dispute with William, Lord Bonville*, once and for all. In these circumstances there was a general reluctance to undertake the arduous journey to Westminster, and several south-western constituencies returned men whose standing might in other circumstances have been deemed insufficient. It is unclear whether Knoll’s election was accompanied by irregularities of any kind: a gall stain makes it impossible to tell for certain whether his name was added to the schedule accompanying the sheriff’s indenture over an erasure. C219/16/3.

The date of Knoll’s death is not known, but it occurred no later than 1493. He was survived by his wife, Joan, who subsequently married one John Fuyche. He left as his heiress a single daughter, Cecily, who married John Fox. C1/134/30.