John Knight (c.1686–1733) of

Gosfield Hall Gosfield Hall is a country house in Gosfield, near Braintree in Essex, England. It is a Grade I listed building. The house was built in 1545 by Sir John Wentworth, a member of Cardinal Wolsey’s household, and hosted royal visits by Queen Eliz ...

, Essex was a British landowner and Whig politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1710 to 1733.

Early life

Knight was the only son of John Knight and his wife Elizabeth. He was admitted at

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1702 and matriculated at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

on 26 March 1703, aged 16. His first wife was Elizabeth Slaughter of Cheyne Court, Herefordshire. He succeeded his father in 1708, and came into a significant inheritance. In about 1710 he acquired many Cornish estates from

John Tredenham John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

, and was listed as owning over £500 of Bank of England stock.

Career

The Tredenham property carried an interest for one seat at St Mawes, but at the

1710 British general election The 1710 British general election produced a landslide victory for the Tories. The election came in the wake of the prosecution of Henry Sacheverell, which had led to the collapse of the previous government led by Godolphin and the Whig Junto. ...

Knight was returned unopposed as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for St Germans. In 1711 he was included upon the list of ‘worthy patriots’ who had helped detect the mismanagements of the previous ministry, which implies Tory loyalties but his vote of in favour of the ‘

No Peace without Spain No Peace Without Spain was a popular British political slogan of the early eighteenth century. It referred to the ongoing War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) in which Britain was a leading participant. It implied that no peace treaty cou ...

’ motion on 7 December 1711 counters this. His only other significant action in this Parliament was his vote on 18 June against the French commerce bill He was returned unopposed again at the

1713 British general election The 1713 British general election produced further gains for the governing Tory party. Since 1710 Robert Harley had led a government appointed after the downfall of the Whig Junto, attempting to pursue a moderate and non-controversial policy, b ...

. On 18 March 1714, he voted against the expulsion of Richard Steele, and was classed as a Whig. Gosfield Hall - geograph

Knight bought Gosfield Hall in 1715 and at the

1715 British general election The 1715 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 5th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the 1707 merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In October 1714, soon afte ...

he was returned unopposed as an Administration candidate for St. Germans and continued voting with the Government. He was an Assistant of the

Royal African Company The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English mercantile (trade, trading) company set up in 1660 by the royal House of Stuart, Stuart family and City of London merchants to trade along the West Africa, west coast of Africa. It was led by the J ...

from 1716 to 1722 and was secretary for the. Leeward Islands from 1718 to 1722. At the

1722 British general election The 1722 British general election elected members to serve in the House of Commons of the 6th Parliament of Great Britain. This was the fifth such election since the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Tha ...

he was returned unopposed as MP for

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes) ** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...

. At the

1727 British general election The 1727 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 7th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election was trigg ...

he was returned for Sudbury and was also returned St. Mawes, choosing to represent Sudbury. He then voted against the Government on the civil list arrears in 1729, for them on the Hessians in 1730, against them on the army in 1732, but for them on the

Excise Bill The Excise Bill of 1733 was a proposal by the British government of Robert Walpole to impose an excise tax on a variety of products. This would have allowed Customs officers to search private dwellings to look for contraband untaxed goods. The per ...

in 1733. He also seconded the Address on 16 January1733.

Later life and legacy

Knight married, Anne Newsham, widow of John Newsham, MP, and daughter of James Craggs, as his second wife on 13 March 1724. She was a friend of

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

with whom she and her husband maintained a correspondence. Knight died on 2 October1733 leaving one surviving daughter by his second wife. His estates were inherited by his widow, who erected a monument by

John Michael Rysbrack Johannes Michel or John Michael Rysbrack, original name Jan Michiel Rijsbrack, often referred to simply as Michael Rysbrack (24 June 1694 – 8 January 1770), was an 18th-century Flemish sculptor, who spent most of his career in England where h ...

with an inscription by Pope to his memory in Gosfield church. After she remarried to Robert Nugent, 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’.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, John 1680s births 1733 deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1710–1713 British MPs 1713–1715 British MPs 1715–1722 British MPs 1722–1727 British MPs 1727–1734 Year of birth uncertain