Sir Norton Knatchbull, 1st Baronet
Norton Knatchbull | |
|---|---|
1667 portrait of Knatchbull by Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten | |
| Born | 26 December 1602 |
| Died | 3 February 1685 (aged 82) |
| Resting place | St John the Baptist's church, Mersham 51°07′01″N 0°55′53″E / 51.1169°N 0.931405°E |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Cambridge |
| Occupations |
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| Spouses | Dorothy Westtrow (m. 1630)Dorothy Honeywood (m. 1662) |
| Children | with Dorothy Westtrow:
|
| Parents |
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| Family | Knatchbull |
Sir Norton Knatchbull, 1st Baronet (26 December 1602 – 3 February 1685) was an English scholar and politician who represented Kent and New Romney in the House of Commons of England between 1640 and 1679.[1][2]
Life
Knatchbull was born on 26 December 1602, the second son of Thomas Knatchbull (d. 1623) of Maidstone and Eleanor Astley (d. 1638), daughter and coheir of John Astley, of Maidstone.[1][2][3][4]
He was a student at St John's College, Cambridge in 1516 and was admiited to the Middle Temple in 1624.[2]
On the death of his uncle, Sir Norton Knatchbull, in 1536, he succeeded to the family estate, Mersham Hatch, 15 miles north of New Romney.[1][2] His uncle had founded the free school at Ashford in 1530, and the younger Norton ″confirmed the deed of endowment for the school of £30 per annum″ and added to its buildings.[1][5]
In April 1640, Knatchbull was elected MP for Kent in the Short Parliament. He was elected MP for New Romney for the Long Parliament in November 1640.[2] He sat until 1648 when he was excluded under Pride's Purge.[6]
In April 1660, Knatchbull was re-elected MP for New Romney in the Convention Parliament. He was re-elected MP for New Romney again in 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament and sat until 1679.[2] Knatchbull was knighted,[6] and on 4 August 1641, he was created a Baronet, of Mersham Hatch, in the County of Kent.[7]
Works
In 1659 Knatchbull published Animadversiones in Libros Novi Testamenti. Paradoxæ Orthodoxæ, London. Guil. Godbid. in vico vulgo vocato Little-Brittain, 1659. The work consists of a large number of critical emendations, based on a knowledge of Hebrew. A second edition with appendix was published in 1672, a third, Oxford, 1677; a fourth edition, in English, appeared in 1692, entitled Annotations upon some difficult Texts in all the Books of the New Testament, Cambridge, 1693; it is preceded by an Encomiastick upon the most Learned and Judicious Author, by Thomas Walker of Sidney Sussex College. The original was reprinted at Amsterdam, and also at Frankfort, where it formed part of the supplement to Nikolaus Gürtler's edition of Brian Walton's Polyglot Bible. 1695–1701. The work had a reputation for a century after its publication, and figures in a list of books annotated by Ambrose Bonwicke. John Kitto, however, found Knatchbull's remarks superficial.[8]
In 1680, Peter du Moulin the younger dedicated to Knatchbull his Short View of the Chief Points in Controversy between the Reformed Churches and the Church of Rome, a translation from an unprinted manuscript by his father, Peter du Moulin the elder, which had been made over to him for purposes of publication by the baronet. James Duport, the tutor of his son John, addressed three Latin odes in his Musæ Subsecivæ to Knatchbull, who according to Ballard, himself acted as tutor to Dorothy, Lady Pakington. [8]
Family
Knatchbull married firstly, on 22 October 1630, Dorothy Westtrow, daughter of Thomas Westtrow, grocer and alderman of London, and had by her three sons and ten daughters, including:[1][2]
- Sir John Knatchbull, 2nd Baronet
- Thomas Knatchbull, 3rd Baronet
He married secondly, on 27 November 1662, at St Martin-in-the-Fields outside London, Dorothy Honeywood, daughter of Sir Robert Honeywood, of Charing, Kent, and widow of Sir Edward Steward of Barking, Essex. By his 2nd wife he had no issue.[2]
Death and legacy
He died at Mersham Hatch on 3 February 1685 at the age of 82, and was buried in the family vault under the chancel of Mersham church.[1][2] The estate passed to his eldest son, John.[1] He was succeeded in the baronetcy, successively, by his sons John and Thomas.[7]
The Norton Knatchbull School, situated in Ashford, was founded by his uncle and namesake, Sir Norton Knatchbull (d. 1636).[5]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Keene, Nicholas (January 2008). "Knatchbull, Sir Norton, first baronet (1602–1685)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15703. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Helms, M. W.; Henning, Basil Duke (2010). "Knatchbull, Sir Norton, 1st Bt. (1602-85), of Mersham Hatch, Kent". In Henning, B. D. (ed.). The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690. Archived from the original on 27 December 2024. Retrieved 7 October 2025 – via History of Parliament Online.
- ^ Debrett, John (1824). Debrett's Baronetage of England. Vol. I (5th ed.). London: G. Woodfall. p. 157.
- ^ Philipot, John; Camden, William (1898). Hovenden, Robert (ed.). The Visitation of Kent: taken in the years 1619-1621 by John Philipot, Rouge Dragon, Marshal and Deputy to William Camden, Clarenceux. Publications of the Harleian Society. Vol. 42. London: Mitchell and Hughes. p. 143. OCLC 1102110159.
- ^ a b "About Us". The Norton Knatchbull School. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
- ^ a b Kimber, Edward (1771). Richard Johnson (ed.). The Baronetage of England: Containing a Genealogical and Historical Account of All the English Baronets. Vol. I. London: Thomas Wotton. pp. 401–402.
- ^ a b Burke, John (1832). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. Vol. II (4th ed.). London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. p. 45.
- ^ a b Seccombe 1892.
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Seccombe, Thomas (1892). "Knatchbull, Norton". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 31. London: Smith, Elder & Co.