Notes for Richard Knightley and Mary Fermor

1533 Richard Knightley, "the eldest son of Sir Valentine Knightley of Fawsley, Northamptonshire, and his wife, Anne, the daughter of Edward Ferrers of Warwickshire," was born in 1533. [1]

1556 Richard Knightley and Mary Fermor, daughter of Richard Fermor, were married. [2]

1565 Richard Knightley was in "the circle of Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, who knighted him at Kenilworth in 1565 during the royal progress there." [3]

1570 On May 22, Richard Knightley and others certified assessments and expenditures in Northampton. [4]

May 22. 8. Certificate by Sir Ric. Knyghtley, Sir John Spencer, and others, of the money assessed and expended within the Hundreds of Sutton, Warden, and other Hundreds of the County of Northampton, for armour, horses, furnishing of soldiers, &c.
May 22. 9. Similar certificates by Sir Robt. Lane, Sir John Fermour, and others, for other Hundreds of the same county.

1573 Mary (Fermor) Knightley died on September 27.

Richard Knightley's "second wife was Elizabeth (d. 1603), daughter of Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset; they had seven sons and two daughters." [5]

1581 "Th 1654 2/5/[1581], Northamptonshire Record Office: Indenture - Lease
(1) Sir Richard Knightley of Falwesley & Lady Eliz. his wife by (2) Edward Stanhope of Grayes Inne (Mddx.) - esq. Thomas Pagytt of Middle Temple to (3) John Towers of Norton by Daventry - yeoman & Isabell his wife of 2 messuages in Norton now or late in tenure of (3) for 99 years at £7.6.8d p.a. (3) covenant to pay (2) a heriot upon the death of the longest surviving of J.T., his wife or dau. Mary." [6]

1581 "Knightley, in association with [Robert Dudley, earl of] Leicester, endowed a lectureship at Towcester for Andrew King, one of the ministers deprived during the vestiarian controversy." [7]

1581 "Th 1656 20/4/[1581], Northamptonshire Record Office: Indenture - Covenant to Levy Fine & Counterpart (1) Sir Richard Knightley of Falwesley - Kt. & Elizabeth his wife, (2) Valentine Knightley - esq. son of Sir R.K. & Anne his wife, (3) Edward Stanhope of Grayes Inne (Mddx.) - esq., Thomas Pagitt of Mydle Temple, London - gent., (4) Thos. Norton of London - esq., Wm. Dickenson - gent. (servant to Anne Dss. of Somerset), (5) John Towers of Norton by Daventry - yeoman & Isabell his wife. (2) covenants with (3) to levy fine of farms, messuages & lands at Norton nighe Daventry & to quit claim (3) in order that (3) can grant a lease of 99 years of the premises to (5). Then within a year (1) will sue (3) to recover the same so that Lady Eliz. Knightley can have a life interest in the premises. Seals (N.B. it is unusual that the Indenture has 2 counterparts as can be seen from the serrations). Enclosing: Final Concord (Rt. & Ltd. hands) Easter 23 Eliz. I (1581). Edward Stanhope - esq. plts. Thomas Pagytt - esq. plts. Valentine Knightley & Anne his wife defts. John Towers & Isabella his wife defts. Of 4 messuages, 4 gardens, 300 acres of land, 60 acres of meadow, 200 acres of pasture, 20 acres of woodland etc. in Norton next Daventry. Fine: £200 [8]

1594 "Leic. A. 5604. Acquittance by Sir Richard Knightley, knight, Valentine Knightley his son and heir, Richard Fenys of Brawghton, co. Oxford, knight, Hierome Farmor of Burcott, co. Northampton, and Nicholas Farmor of Easton, co. Northampton, esquires, to Gabriell Pulteney of Misterton, esquire, for 250l. received by them at the 'most usuall porche' of the parish church of Litturworth, for a half-year's payment of an annuity of 500l. granted to them by Sir Henry Darcie, knight, Dame Kathern his wife, and the said Gabriell, out of capital houses &c. in Mysterton and Pulteney, and lands &c. in the same places and in Misterton cum Fulteney &c. of which premises the said Gabriell is now seized. 26 October, 36 Elizabeth. English. Signed. Two seals." [9]

1605 Richard Knightley supported puritan ministers who were unwilling to subscribe to the canons of 1604. [10]

The accession of James revived the religious debates, and in 1605 Knightley joined other county gentry in a petition supporting those puritan ministers who were being prosecuted for their failure to subscribe to the canons of 1604. With his old friend Sir Edward Montague, and another old campaigner, Sir Francis Hastings, Knightley was fined before Star Chamber and removed from the deputy lieutenancy and the commission of the peace; but he was soon restored to his local offices, maintaining an active presence until his death. His support for puritans also continued, and Fawsley became the home of John Dod, the celebrated preacher and catechist, at this time.

1615 Richard Knightley died on September 1. [11] "S^r Richard Knightley, Knight, was buried September 2^o" at Fawsley, Northamptonshire. [12] [13]

Research Notes:

Joan Wake states, [14]

Sir Richard Knightley was a prominent member of the family which has lived at Fawsley since the reign of Henry V. He was born about 1533, was sheriff of his county in 1567 and 1580, a justice of the peace, commissioner for musters, commissioner for subsidies, deputy-lieutenant under William Parr, marquis of Northampton (1569), and also under Sir Christopher Hatton and the Earl of Exeter. He was knighted at Fotheringhay by the earl of Leicester in 1566, was member for Northampton in 1584 and 1585, and for the shire in 1589 and 1598. In 1589 he was tried before Sir Christopher Hatton as lord chancellor and fined in the Court of Star Chamber for allowing the secret printing of the famous Marprelate Tracts at Fawsley and Norton. Unable to subdue his Puritan sympathies, in 1605, with other gentlemen of the county, he signed a petition against the suspension of Nonconformist ministers. For this he was again summoned before the Star Chamber, fined £10,000, deprived of his deputy-lieutenancy, and struck off the commission of the peace. He was probably indispensable, for we find him acting as commissioner for musters in the same year, and re-instated as a deputy-lieutenant by 1612. He was present at the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots at Fotheringhay, and was one of the four knights who bore the canopy at her funeral in Peterborough Cathedral. In his portraits at Fawsley (one of which appears as the frontispiece to this volume) he looks like a man of determined character, a sturdy squire without much of he courtier or statesman about him. Though ready to face trouble in his later years when his religious convictions did not happen to coincide with those of the government, he was just the type of reliable man with local influence who would naturally be chosen to govern and keep order in his county. The Council placed such confidence in him that, as we have seen, he was selected to lead the county levies up to London at the time of the threatened Spanish invasion of 1588. He died at Norton at the age of eighty-two in 1615.

Sir Richard Knightley, 1567, age 33, From a Portrait at Fawsley

[A color photo of the above portrait is available online in "A History of Fawsley, Northants" by Deborah Gage. [15]]

Footnotes:

[1] William Joseph Sheils, "Knightley, Sir Richard (1533–1615)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition), [Oxford_Dictionary_National_Biography], [OxfordDNB(UM)].

[2] William Joseph Sheils, "Knightley, Sir Richard (1533–1615)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition), [Oxford_Dictionary_National_Biography], [OxfordDNB(UM)].

[3] William Joseph Sheils, "Knightley, Sir Richard (1533–1615)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition), [Oxford_Dictionary_National_Biography], [OxfordDNB(UM)].

[4] Robert Lemon, ed., Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, 1547-1580 (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1856), 376-377, [HathiTrust].

[5] William Joseph Sheils, "Knightley, Sir Richard (1533–1615)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition), [Oxford_Dictionary_National_Biography], [OxfordDNB(UM)].

[6] The National Archives of the United Kingdom Catalog, Northamptonshire Record Office, Ref. Th 1654, [UKNationalArchives].

[7] William Joseph Sheils, "Knightley, Sir Richard (1533–1615)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition), [Oxford_Dictionary_National_Biography], [OxfordDNB(UM)].

[8] The National Archives of the United Kingdom Catalog, Northamptonshire Record Office, Ref. Th 1656, [UKNationalArchives].

[9] H. C. Maxwell Lyte, ed., A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds in the Public Record Office, Vol. 3 (London: HMSO, 1900), 199, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].

[10] William Joseph Sheils, "Knightley, Sir Richard (1533–1615)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition), [Oxford_Dictionary_National_Biography], [OxfordDNB(UM)].

[11] William Joseph Sheils, "Knightley, Sir Richard (1533–1615)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition), [Oxford_Dictionary_National_Biography], [OxfordDNB(UM)].

[12] Northamptonshire Record Office, 125P/1, Fawsley Parish Register, 1583-1726, Northamptonshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1558-1812, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].

[13] P.W. Hasler, ed., The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1558-1603 (Boydell & Brewer, 1981), [History of Parliament Online].

[14] Joan Wake, ed., A Copy of Papers relating to Musters, Beacons, Subsidies, Etc. in the County of Northampton A.D. 1586-1623 (Publications of the Northamptonshire Record Society, Vol. 3, 1926), xxi.

[15] Deborah Gage, "A History of Fawsley, Northants" (10 APRIL 2019), [URL].