Sir Norton Knatchbull, 1st Baronet

Sir Norton Knatchbull, 1st Baronet (26 December 1602 – 3 February 1685) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1679.

Sir Norton Knatchbull
Sir Norton Knatchbull, 1667 portrait by Samuel van Hoogstraten.
Born(1602-12-26)26 December 1602
Mersham
Died3 February 1685(1685-02-03) (aged 82)

Life

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Knatchbull was born at Mersham Hatch in Kent, the second son of Thomas Knatchbull and his wife Eleanor Astley, daughter of John Astley.[1] In April 1640, Knatchbull was elected Member of Parliament 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.[3]

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,[3] and on 4 August 1641, he was created a Baronet, of Mersham Hatch, in the County of Kent.[4]

Works

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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.[5]

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. [5]

Family

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Knatchbull married firstly Dorothy Westtrow, daughter of Thomas Westtrow on 22 October 1630, and had by her three sons. He married secondly Dorothy Steward, widow of Sir Edward Steward and daughter of Sir Robert Honyewood at St Martin-in-the-Fields outside London on 27 November 1662.[2] He was succeeded in the baronetcy successiveley by his sons John and Thomas.[4]

Legacy

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The Norton Knatchbull School, situated in Ashford, was founded by his uncle and namesake, Sir Norton Knatchbull (d.1636)[6]

References

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  1. ^ Debrett, John (1824). Debrett's Baronetage of England. Vol. I (5th ed.). London: G. Woodfall. p. 157.
  2. ^ a b c History of Parliament Online – Knatchbull, Sir Norton, 1st Baronet
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ a b Seccombe 1892.
  6. ^ "Norton Knatchbull School – History". Retrieved 22 November 2009.
Attribution

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSeccombe, Thomas (1892). "Knatchbull, Norton". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 31. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Parliament of England
Vacant Member of Parliament for Kent
1640
With: Sir Roger Twysden, 2nd Baronet
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for New Romney
1640–1648
With: Thomas Webb 1640–1641
Richard Browne 1641–1648
Not represented in Rump Parliament
Vacant
Not represented in Rump Parliament
Member of Parliament for New Romney
1660–1679
With: John Knatchbull 1660–1661
Charles Berkeley 1661–1665
Henry Brouncker 1665–1668
Sir Charles Sedley 1668–1679
Succeeded by
Baronetage of England
New creation Baronet
(of Mersham Hatch)
1641–1685
Succeeded by