Latin Inscription on Lord Knyvett's tomb Stanwell Church

Thomas Knyvet, 1st Baron Knyvet (; or Knevytt, Knyvett, Knevett, Knevitt; 1545 – 27 July 1622) was an English courtier and Member of Parliament who played a part in foiling the

Gunpowder Plot The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby who sought ...

Family

Thomas Knyvet was the second son of Sir Henry Knyvet of Charlton,

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, and Anne Pickering, daughter of Sir Christopher Pickering of Killington,

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

. His niece,

Catherine Knyvet Katherine (or Catherine) Knyvett, Countess of Suffolk (1564–1638) was an English court office holder who served as lady-in-waiting to the queen consort of England, Anne of Denmark. Private life She was born in Charlton Park, Wiltshire, the ...

, was married to

Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, (24 August 156128 May 1626) of Audley End House in the parish of Saffron Walden in Essex, and of Suffolk House near Westminster, a member of the House of Howard, was the second son of Thomas Howard, 4th ...

. On 21 July 1597 Knyvet married Elizabeth Hayward, the daughter of Sir Rowland Hayward and widow of Richard Warren of Claybury,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

Career

Knyvet attended Jesus College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. He was a Gentleman of the

Privy Chamber A privy chamber was the private apartment of a royal residence in England. The Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were noble-born servants to the Crown who would wait and attend on the King in private, as well as during various court activities, f ...

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

, and in 1592 was made

Master at Arms A Master-at-Arms (US: MA; UK & some Commonwealth: MAA) may be a naval rating, responsible for law enforcement, regulating duties, security, anti-terrorism/force protection (AT/FP) for/of a country's navy; an army officer responsible for physical ...

. He was elected

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

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24,340 ...

in 1601. He served as Warden of the Royal Mint from 1599 to 1621. He was granted the manor of

Stanwell Stanwell is a village close to two of the three main towns in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, about west of central London. A small corner of its land is vital industrial land serving Heathrow Airport – most of the rest is residential ...

in 1603, and was knighted in 1604.

Jewels of Queen Elizabeth

In December 1603 and January 1604 Knyvett had orders from King James concerning jewels that had belonged to Queen Elizabeth. on Christmas Eve 1603 he brought to

Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chief ...

some chests of jewels which he had kept at

Westminster Palace The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...

on the instructions of Queen Elizabeth. Four chests had been the responsibility of Katherine Howard, Countess of Nottingham. The others boxes were open and the jewels examined. After discussion with Sir George Home,

Roger Aston Sir Roger Aston (died 23 May 1612) of Cranford, Middlesex, was an English courtier and favourite of James VI of Scotland. Biography Aston was the illegitimate son of Thomas Aston (died 1553), Thomas Aston (died 1553). Scottish sources spell his n ...

, and the

Earl of Nottingham :''See also Earl of Winchilsea'' Earl of Nottingham is a title that has been created seven times in the Peerage of England. It was first created for John de Mowbray in 1377, at the coronation of Richard II. As this creation could only pass to ...

, some jewels were sent to the goldsmiths

John Spilman Sir John Spilman (also spelt Spielman) (died 1626) was a Lindau, German-born entrepreneur who founded the first commercially successful paper-mill in England, establishing a factory on the River Darenth in Dartford, Kent in 1588.Dartford: Cradle o ...

and William Herrick for valuation, with an ivory coffer, and a "great rich glass set with diamonds rubies emeralds and pearls, made in the form of a woman upon a pillar or case holding a clock with diverse motions" brought from the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...

. Knyvett also took some of the old queen's jewels to

Peter Vanlore Sir Peter Vanlore (c. 1547 – 6 September 1627) was a Dutch-born English merchant, jeweller and moneylender in Elizabethan and Stuart England. Biography He was born circa 1547 in Utrecht, Netherlands, the third son of Maurits van Loor a ...

to exchange for a new piece with a large table ruby and two great lozenge diamonds.

Gunpowder plot

Knyvet was the most active intervener in foiling the

. On the evening of 26 October 1605, the Catholic Lord Monteagle received an anonymous letter warning him to stay away from Parliament during the opening, and to "retyre youre self into yowre contee whence yow maye expect the event in safti for ... they shall receyve a terrible blowe this parleament". Monteagle's letter was shown to King James. The

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

ordered Knyvet to conduct a search of the cellars underneath Parliament, which he carried out with

Edmund Doubleday Edmund Doubleday (died December 1620) was an English vintner, lawyer, office-holder and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1614. He was jointly responsible for the capture of Guy Fawkes in the Gunpowder Plot. Doubleday was acting as a ...

in the early hours of 5 November.

Guy Fawkes Guy Fawkes (; 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated ...

was arrested by Knyvet whilst leaving the cellar shortly after midnight. Inside, the barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of firewood and coal.

Princess Mary

After foiling the plot Knyvet was given charge of the education of the short-lived Princess Mary. By royal grant of a peerage he entered the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

as Baron Knyvet of

Escrick Escrick is a village and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England. It was historically part of the East Riding of Yorkshire until 1974. It is approximately equidistant between Selby and York on what is now the A19 road. Hi ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

in 1607. He was appointed a

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

lor, member of the council to Queen Anne, and

Warden of the Mint Warden of the Mint was a high-ranking position at the Royal Mint in England from 1216 to 1829. The warden was responsible for a variety of minting procedures and acted as the immediate representative of the current monarch inside the mint. The role ...

. In 1613, the manor of Staines was granted him outright. He maintained a long-running feud with

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of ...

. Knyvet's niece,

Anne Vavasour Anne Vavasour ( – ) was a Maid of Honour (1580–81) to Queen Elizabeth I of England, a member of the Vavasour family and the mistress of two aristocratic men. Her first lover was Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, by whom she had an illegi ...

, was the Earl's mistress, and on 21 March 1581 bore his illegitimate son, Edward Vere. On numerous occasions, servants on either side were killed. On one occasion, Knyvet injured Oxford, apparently in the leg. When Lord Knyvet died in July 1622 his will provided for the foundation of a free-school in

— the Lord Knyvet School was founded in 1624. An effigy of him and his wife features in the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

of Stanwell's St Mary's parish church.

Knyvet House

Knyvet occupied as his London

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

the first house known on the site of

10 Downing Street 10 Downing Street in London, also known colloquially in the United Kingdom as Number 10, is the official residence and executive office of the first lord of the treasury, usually, by convention, the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Along wi ...

, the modern-day residence of the

British Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...

, in a large timber and brick building with an L-shaped garden. It was first leased to him in 1581 by

at which point it became known as Knyvet House, and his lifetime lease was extended in 1604 to extend to his heirs. The house was described by the parliamentary commissioners in 1650 as: :"...built part wth Bricke and part wth Tymber and Flemish qalle and covered with Tyle, consistinge of a Large and spacious hall, wainscoted round, well Lighted, and Paved wth brick Pavements, two parls whereof one is Wainscoted round from the seelinge to ye floor, one Buttery, one seller, one Large kitchen well paved with stone and well fitted and Joynted and well fitted wth dreser boards…. :"And above stayres in the first story one large and spacious dyneinge Roome, Wainscoted round from the seelinge to the floore, well flored, Lighted and seeled, and fitted wth a faire Chimney wth a foote pace of Paynted Tyle in the same. Also 6 more Roomes and 3 Closetts in the same flore all well lighted and seeled. And in the second story 4 garretts..." Knyvett built new lodgings for the women of Princess Mary's household in 1605, and he supervised improvements to

St James's Park St James's Park is a park in the City of Westminster, central London. It is at the southernmost tip of the St James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St James the Less. It is the most easterly of a near-continuous c ...

Mary Anne Everett Green Mary Anne Everett Green ( Wood; 19 July 1818 – 1 November 1895) was an English historian. After establishing a reputation for scholarship with two multi-volume books on royal ladies and noblewomen, she was invited to assist in preparing calen ...

''Calendar State Papers Domestic, Addenda 1580-1625'' (London, 1872), p. 469
The house passed to his niece, Elizabeth Hampden, aunt of

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

, and in her lifetime it adopted her surname. After the lease expired on Hampden House and garden in 1682, George Downing redeveloped the site and adjoining premises.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knyvet, Thomas 16th-century births 1622 deaths Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Barons in the Peerage of England High Sheriffs of Norfolk Members of the Privy Council of England Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

People associated with the Gunpowder Plot English MPs 1572–1583 English MPs 1584–1585 English MPs 1586–1587 English MPs 1589 English MPs 1597–1598 English MPs 1601 English MPs 1604–1611