Sir Thomas Knyvett, 1st Baron Knyvett

A genealogical and heraldic history of the extinct and dormant baronetcies ... By John Burke, Sir Bernard B

Sir Thomas Knyvet, of Buckenham, was made knight of the Bath at the coronation of Henry VIII. 23rd June, 1509, and subsequently constituted master of the horse to the same monarch. He m. Muriel, widow of John Grey, Viscount Lisle, and daughter of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, and had issue,

I. Edmund (Sir), his heir.

II. Ferdinando

III. Henry (Sir), knighted hy Queen Elizabeth in 1574. He m. Anne, daughter and heir of Sir Christopher Pickering, and thence descended the brothers,

  1. Sir Henry Knyvett, knt. of Carleton, in Wiltshire, who left two daughters, his co-heirs, viz.

        Katherine Knyvett, who m. first, the Hon. Richard          Rich, by whom she had no issue, and secondly, Thomas Howard, first Earl of Suffolk, and the estate of Carleton, or Charleton, passed to her second son, the Hon. Thomas Howard, who was created Earl of Berkshire. (Refer to Burke's Peerage and Baronetage.)

        Elizabeth Knyvett, m. to Thomas, third Lord Lincoln, ancestor of the (extant) Dukes of Newcastle,

2. Sir Thomas Knyvett, who was of the bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth, and afterwards of council to Queen Anne, consort of James I. to which king he became one of the gentlemen of the privy council, and was entrusted to discover the gunpowder plot, which he happily effected. Sir Thomas was summoned to parliament in 1007, as Baron Knyvett, of Escrick, but d. s. p. in 1624, when the title became Extinct; his fortune devolved upon his niece, Katherine, whose son, by the Earl af Suffolk, Sir Edward Howard, was created Baron Howard, of Escrick.

Thomas KNYVETT

(1st B. Knyvett of Escrick)

Born: 1545, Escrisk, Yorkshire, England

Died: 27 Apr 1622, England

Father: Henry KNYVETT (Sir Knight)

Mother: Anne PICKERING

Married: Elizabeth HAYWARD (dau. of Sir Rowland Hayward and Catherine Smythe) 21 Jul 1597, St.Pancas Church, Soper Lane

Educated at Jesus College, Cambridge and became a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I. On the Queen's visit to Oxford, Sep 29th, 1592, he was made Master at Arms and later sat for Thetford in the Parliament of 1601. In 1603, freehold of Stanwell Manor granted to Sir Thomas Knyvett, who in 1605 was accredited with arresting Guy Fawkes. Knyvett was also granted the Manor of Staines in 1613, along with additional honours and possessions. Thomas married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Rowland Hayward and widow of Richard Warren of Essex. He was knighted at the Tower on 14 Mar, in either 1603/4. After foiling the plot, he was appointed a Privy Councillor, Member of the Council to Queen Anne, and Warden of the Mint. The King confided his daughter, Mary, to him to be educated. On Jul 4th, 1607, he was summoned to Parliament as Baron Knyvet of Escrick, Yorkshire. When Lord Knyvett died in Jul (?) 1622 his Will provided for the foundation of a free-school in Stanwell, and the Lord Knyvett School was founded in 1624. He regularly frequented the court and seems to have had a town house in King Street, Westminster and attended the funerals of the Prince of Wales in 1612 and Queen Anne's in 1619. He died on 27 Jul 1622 and is buried with his wife. Above their grave, in the Chancel of Stanwell Parish Church, Middlesex, is a large monument with effigies. The name is spelt both KNEVETT and KNYVETT.

Knyvett [Knyvet], Thomas, Baron Knyvett (1545/6–1622), courtier, was the younger son ofSir Henry Knyvet (or Knyvett; d. 1546) , soldier, gentleman of the privy chamber, andsometime ambassador to the emperor Charles V, and his wife, Anne, heir of Sir ChristopherPickering of Killington, Westmorland, and widow of Sir Francis Weston (executed in 1536).After his father's death, Knyvett's mother married John Vaughan (d. 1577). Hisgrandfather Sir Thomas Knyvet of Buckenham, Norfolk (c.1485–1512), had been master ofthe horse to Henry VIII, while his elder brother Henry Knyvet (1537?–1598), of Charlton,Wiltshire, a soldier and distinctly belligerent country gentleman, was MP for WoottonBassett and Malmesbury in several Elizabethan parliaments. Thomas Knyvett was a fellow-commoner at Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1564–5 andattended Gray's Inn in 1566. He was admitted to the privy chamber by 1572, and remaineda gentleman of the bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth and to James I for the rest of his life.He was returned as a knight of the shire for Westmorland in 1572, and was elected as anMP for Westminster in all but one parliament between 1584 and his elevation to the Lords.He was seneschal of Penrith Castle in 1577. On 21 July 1597 he married Elizabeth, widow ofRichard Warren, an Essex gentleman, who had died the previous March. Elizabeth was theeldest daughter of Sir Rowland Hayward, lord mayor of London in 1570–71 and 1591, and hiswife, Joan (née Tyllesworth). Knyvett's marriage may explain the timing of a lease inreversion of lands in Yorkshire, granted to him that same year, without fine, inconsideration of his loyal service to the crown. He and his wife had no children. Elizabethwas appointed governess to King James's two youngest daughters, Mary and Sophia, both ofwhom died young. Knyvett was steward and receiver of the lordship of Pickering from 1597 to 1599. He wascreated an honorary MA at Oxford when accompanying Queen Elizabeth on her visit to theuniversity in 1592. Warden of the Tower mint from 27 September 1599, he was thereafterconstantly at odds with the man he replaced, Sir Richard Martin, who remained a master ofthe mint. Some doubt surrounds the date of his knighthood, but he was probably knighted in1601 between April and October (most likely in May). In favour with the new king, James I,Knyvett was given the manor of Stanwell, Middlesex, on 5 August 1603.By 1597 Knyvett had been appointed keeper of Whitehall Palace and it was in this capacitythat he conducted a search of the vaults under the House of Lords on the night of 4November 1605, an operation which resulted in the arrest of Guy Fawkes, posing as JohnJohnson, servant to the earl of Northumberland's kinsman Thomas Percy, and standingguard over 18 hundredweight of gunpowder. Knyvett's promotion to the peerage as LordKnyvett of Escrick, Yorkshire, may have been intended as a reward for this great service tothe crown, or, more likely, as a recognition of his long and distinguished career at court. Hetook his seat in the Lords on 4 July 1607, and served as a privy councillor to Queen Anne.Knyvett's will, made in 1620, bequeathed his estate to his wife and strikingly declared hisreligious faith; by God's goodness he had attained ‘thorough many conflictes in this my pilgramage to the three skore and fifteeneth yeare of my life’; he firmly asserted his beliefin: one Supreame eternall infinite and omnipotent power divine by the most Glorious name ofgod The father the sonne and the holie ghost Three personns and one God in essence andpower of Creatinge Redeeminge and governinge all his creatures accordinge to his good willand pleasure I beleeve withall every Article of the Nicen Athanasian & Apostolike Creedliterallie with out ambiguitie or doubt by which profession I was receyved at my Baptisme tobe a member of the Church of Christ. (will) Knyvett died at his house in King Street, Westminster, on 27 July 1622 and was buried on 1August. His widow died that September and, despite Knyvett's testamentary request for amodest monument, they were buried together in a magnificent tomb at Stanwell church.This may be the work of their descendants, for the tomb is of a somewhat later style. TheEscrick estate was inherited by Knyvett's niece, Katherine Howard, countess of Suffolk (d.1638), daughter of Sir Henry Knyvet of Charlton and wife of Thomas Howard, first earl ofSuffolk.Mark Nicholls Sources state papers domestic, Elizabeth I and James I, TNA: PRO, SP12 and SP14 · will andsentence, TNA: PRO, PROB 11/140, sig. 78; PROB 11/141, sig. 37 · GEC, Peerage · HoP, Commons, 1558–1603, 2.420–24

Thomas Knyvet, 1st Baron Knyvet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thomas James Knyvet (or Knevytt, Knyvett, Knevett, Knevitt), (1558 – 27 July 1622) was the second son of Sir Henry Knyvet of Charlton, Wiltshire and Anne Pickering, daughter of Sir Christopher Pickering of Killington, Westmoreland. His half-sister Catherine Knyvet was married to Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk.

He attended Jesus College, Cambridge.[1] He was a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I, and in 1592, he was made Master at Arms; and Member of Parliament for Thetford in 1601. In 1603, King James I gave him the manor of Stanwell, Middlesex.

On 21 July 1597 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Roland Hayward and widow of Richard Warren of Essex. He was knighted in either 1603 or 1604. After foiling the Gunpowder Plot, he was appointed a Privy Councillor, Member of the Council to Queen Anne, and Warden of the Mint, and was granted the manor of Stanwell and later (in 1613) the manor of Staines. He was given charge of the education of Princess Mary. He sat in Parliament as Baron Knyvet of Escrick, Yorkshire in 1607.

Lord Knyvet was also famous for a long running feud with Edward de Vere, the seventeenth Earl of Oxford, whom some theorists claim to be the true identity of William Shakespeare. Knyvet's niece was Anne Vavasour, the mistress of the Earl of Oxford who bore him a child. On numerous occasions, servants on either side were killed. On one occasion, Knyvet injured Oxford, apparently in the leg.

Lord Knyvet was the first domestic resident of the site of 10 Downing Street, the modern-day residence of the British Prime Minister, in a building called Knyvett House. It was first leased to him by Queen Elizabeth I. This house later passed to his niece, Elizabeth Hampden, whose nephew was Oliver Cromwell. After the lease expired in 1682, George Downing developed the site.

When Lord Knyvet died in July 1622 his will provided for the foundation of a free-school in Stanwell, and the Lord Knyvet School was founded in 1624. There is an effigy of him and his wife in the chancel of Stanwell parish church.

[edit]References

^ Knyvet, Thomas in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.