Charlotte Knight (c. 1801–1843), known after her marriage as Charlotte, Lady Rouse-Boughton, was an English

horticulturalist Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

who bred the Waterloo cherry (also known as the early black cherry).

Origins

Knight was the youngest daughter and heiress of botanist

Thomas Andrew Knight Thomas Andrew Knight (1759–1838), FRS, of Elton Hall in the parish of Elton in Herefordshire (4 miles south-west of Ludlow) and later of Downton Castle (3 miles north-west of Elton), was a British horticulturalist and botanist. He served a ...

, a member of a wealthy iron-founding dynasty founded by his grandfather Richard Knight of the

Bringewood Ironworks Bringewood Ironworks was a charcoal ironworks in north Herefordshire. It was powered by the river Teme, with a blast furnace, a finery forge and latterly a rolling mill for blackplate (to be tinned into tinplate). It was probably built for Rob ...

in Shropshire. Her father was the heir of his brother the art connoisseur Payne Knight (d.1824), MP,

History of Parliament The History of Parliament is a project to write a complete history of the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of England. The history will principally consist of a prosopography, in ...

biograph

/ref> who rebuilt Downton Castle in Shropshire.

Career

Aged just 16 in 1817, Knight was presented with the Silver Medal of the

Horticultural Society of London The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ( ...

(now the Royal Horticultural Society) in recognition of the quality of the Waterloo cherry. Her father, himself a noted botanist, had written in 1816 that the new variety "sprang from a seed of the Ambrée of Du Hamel and the pollen of the May-Duke". It was named after the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

, which had taken place two years before in 1815, as it had fruited first at Elton Hall in Herefordshire a few days after

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

's defeat at that battle. It ripens early, in late June to early July. Knight was mentioned in the Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London which was published in 1818.It credited her for raising the early black cherry otherwise known as the Waterloo cherry. The writer and gardener Christopher Stocks notes in his book ''Forgotten Fruits'' (2008) that Charlotte Knight "deserves posthumous recognition" given how rare it was for women to generate new cultivars: "of all the hundreds of varieties of fruits and vegetables in this book, Waterloo is the only one not to have been created by a man".

Marriage and children

In 1824, Knight married Sir William Edward Rouse-Boughton, 2nd and 10th Baronet (1788–1856), a member of parliament for Evesham in Worcestershire, by whom she had three sons and five daughters, including: * Sir Charles Henry Rouse-Boughton, 3rd and 11th Baronet (1825–1906), eldest son and heir. *Andrew Johnes Rouse Boughton, 2nd son, who inherited Downton Castle in Shropshire, one of the Knight estates inherited by his mother, and adopted the surname Knight.

Death and burial

Knight was buried in the parish church of Rous Lench, Worcestershire. A portrait of Lady Rouse-Boughton, painted by Henry Collen and engraved by John Cochran, was published in the ''Court Magazine'' in July 1834. A copy is in the National Portrait Gallery, London which also has two photographs of her daughter Catherine.Listing
( National Portrait Gallery)

External links

Materials on family history collected by Catherine Charlotte Rouse Boughton
catalogue entry at National Archives

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Charlotte English botanists English horticulturists 1801 births 1843 deaths English women scientists English gardeners Women horticulturists and gardeners 19th-century British botanists 19th-century British women scientists Wives of baronets 19th-century English women 19th-century English people