KNIGHT, William (d.1622), of Hythe, Kent.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1601

Family and Education

m. Elizabeth, da. of John Toke of Bere, nr. Dover, at least 1s.

Offices Held

Mayor, Hythe 1601; chief porter of Sandgate castle by 1609; bailiff of Cinque Ports to Yarmouth 1617.

Biography

Knight may have been one of two namesakes mentioned in the will of a third, proved in 1557, making a bequest to William, son of Peter Knight, and £5 to ‘William, son of James Knight of Lympne’, when he became 20. He was the last Member of Parliament for Hythe to receive wages, and was mayor at the time of the 1601 election. The Members for the Cinque Ports were appointed to two committees in 1601 concerning the order of business (3 Nov.) and the Severn harbour (21 Nov.). His post at Sandgate castle was in the lord warden’s gift. He died in 1622, and was buried in St. Leonard’s church, Hythe, where there is a memorial inscription, near tablets to two others of his family.

Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. xlii), 154; (liv), 94; D’Ewes, 624, 647; Arch. Cant. xlii. 23; l. 108-9; G. Wilks, Barons of the Cinque Ports and the Parl. Rep. Hythe, 65; W. Tiffin, Hythe, Sandgate and Folkestone Guide (1816), pp. 19-20.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes