Sir Edward Knatchbull, 8th Baronet (22 May 1758 – 1 September 1819) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

politician and baronet.

Background

He was the only surviving son of

Sir Edward Knatchbull, 7th Baronet Sir Edward Knatchbull, 7th Baronet (12 December 1704 – 21 November 1789) was an Irish politician. He was the third son of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 4th Baronet and Alice Wyndham, daughter of Colonel John Wyndham. In 1763, he succeeded his nephew ...

and his wife Grace Legge, second daughter of William Legge. In 1789, he succeeded his father as baronet. Knatchbull was educated at Tunbridge and

Winchester School Winchester College is an English public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 as ...

. He matriculated at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

in 1777 and received a Doctorate of Civil Law by the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in 1810.

Career

Knatchbull was High Sheriff of Kent in 1785. He entered the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

in 1790, sitting for

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

until 1802. He represented the constituency as Member of Parliament (MP) again from 1806 until his death in 1819. He was listed 'friendly' to the abolition of the slave trade and on 27 April 1792 he proposed that the abolition of the slave trade, which he supported, should nevertheless be deferred until 1796 and carried his point by 151 votes to 132. The 1792 Slave Trade Bill passed the House of Commons mangled and mutilated by the modifications and amendments of Pitt, it lay for years, in the House of Lords. Biographer

William Hague William Jefferson Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond (born 26 March 1961) is a British politician and life peer who was Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1997 to 2001 and Deputy Leader from 2005 to 2010. He was th ...

considers the unfinished abolition of the slave trade to be Pitt's greatest failure. It was this gutting of Dundas's plan that caused the Slave Trade Bill to fail. By rejecting the incremental approach in Dundas's 12-point plan, the abolitionists lost their opportunity to win support in the House of Lords.

Family

In July 1780, he married firstly Mary Hugessen, daughter of William Western Hugessen, and had by her a son and two daughters. She died in 1784 and Knatchbull married secondly Frances Graham, daughter of John Graham on 2 June 1785. They had nine children, five sons and four daughters. After her death in 1799, Knatchbull married finally Mary Hawkins, daughter of Thomas Hawkins at

St George's, Hanover Square St George's, Hanover Square, is an Church of England, Anglican church, the parish church of Mayfair in the City of Westminster, central London, built in the early eighteenth century as part of a project to build fifty new churches around London ...

on 13 April 1801. By his third wife he had seven children. Knatchbull died aged 61, after a short illness, at his son's house at Provender, Kent and was buried in Mersham. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his oldest son

Edward Edward is an English male name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortunate; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-S ...

. A younger son was probably John Knatchbull, a naval captain and convict found guilty of murder in 1844; who was one of the earliest to raise in a British court the plea of

moral insanity Moral insanity referred to a type of mental disorder consisting of abnormal emotions and behaviours in the apparent absence of intellectual impairments, delusions, or hallucinations. It was an accepted diagnosis in Europe and America through the s ...

(unsuccessfully).

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Knatchbull, Edward 1758 births 1819 deaths Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Baronets in the Baronetage of England British MPs 1790–1796 British MPs 1796–1800 High sheriffs of Kent Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies People educated at Winchester College UK MPs 1801–1802 UK MPs 1806–1807 UK MPs 1807–1812 UK MPs 1812–1818 UK MPs 1818–1820