Family and Education

b. c.1520, 1st s. of Richard Knight of Hythe by Joan. m. Sybil, da. of Arthur Blechinden of Aldington, 2s. 4da. suc. fa. 1535/36.2

Offices Held

Common clerk or recorder, Hythe 1549-d.3

Biography

John Knight inherited from his father the family house in Hythe and lands in Dymchurch and Burmarsh; under the will he was also to be given £30 on his marriage and half his father’s household stuff and 30 ounces of silver plate after his mother died. The will was witnessed by William Dalmyngton, who was perhaps father to Knight’s fellow-Member in the Parliament of March 1553.4

In the early 16th century it was unusual for Hythe to elect a man to Parliament more than once, and Knight was unique in sitting three times: the explanation is that he was the common clerk or (as he was more often styled from the mid 1550s) recorder. Of the legal training which he must have received no evidence survives: he would have needed it in 1557 when the Cinque Ports were threatened by a writ of quo warranto. Nothing is known of Knight’s role in the Commons, for the ‘Mr. Knyght’ whose name appears on the list of Members voting against one of the government’s bills in 1555 was Richard Knight, one of the Members for Chichester.5

Knight died in 1566, leaving his house and garden to his wife for life and providing for his four daughters. He appointed his wife executrix and Arthur Blechinden, his brother-in-law, overseer of the will.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

• 1. Add. 34150, f. 138.
• 2. Under age at father’s death. Canterbury prob. reg. C15, f. 335; 30, f. 366; Misc. Gen. et Her. (ser. 5), iv. 72.
• 3. Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. (Kent Arch Soc. recs. br. xix), 240 seq.
• 4. Canterbury prob. reg. C15, f. 335 calendared Arch. Cant. l. 108-9.
• 5. Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. 255; Guildford mus. Loseley 1331/2.
• 6. Canterbury prob. reg. C30, f. 366.