Constituency Dates
St Germans 1710 – 1722
Sudbury 1722 – 2 Oct. 1733
St Mawes
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.

Address
Main residence: Gosfield Hall, Essex.
biography text

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.1W. P. Courtney, Parl. Rep. Cornw. 92. He bought Gosfield Hall in 1715,2Morant, Essex, ii. 382. 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. 1733.3HMC Egmont Diary, i. 307. He died 2 Oct. 1733. His widow and heir erected a splendid monument by Rysbrack with an inscription by Pope4Pope, Works (ed. Elwin Courthope), ix. 455-6, 475. 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’.5HMC Portland, vi. 70.

Author
E.C.
Volume
Commons 1715-1754
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.