| Constituency | Dates |
|---|---|
| Northamptonshire | 14 Apr. 1748 – 2 May 1754 |
Sheriff, Northants. 1743–4.
Of an old Northamptonshire family, who frequently represented the county and the town, Knightley was elected as knight of the shire in succession to Thomas Cartwright, after a hot contest, during which he issued a denial of charges of disaffection brought against him by his opponent, threatening legal proceedings.1E. G. Forrester, Northants. County Elections 1695-1832, p. 64. A year later the 2nd Lord Egmont in his electoral survey wrote of Knightley:
Reputed a Jacobite but a very gentlemanlike man and I believe not what he is supposed, I have met him often, and have so good an opinion of him as to think if he engages with us that he will not deceive us. Sir Cordell Firebrace has a friendship and influence with him, and I can depend upon him in the assurances he will give me. Knightley is of a very ancient family, and has a very good estate, £4,000 a year.
In 1753 Horace Walpole, after a visit to Northamptonshire, described Knightley as
entertaining all the parishes round with a turtle-feast, which, so far from succeeding, has almost made him suspected for a Jew, as the country parsons have not yet learned to wade into green fat.2To John Chute, 4 Aug. 1753. The reference is to the agitation against the Jewish Naturalization Act.
He was re-elected unopposed but died shortly after, 2 May 1754.