Author: Knapp, John Leonard
Biography:
KNAPP, John Leonard (1767-1845: ODNB)
Knapp became known as a naturalist, particularly for his botanical collecting, but botany was not his first choice. Son of the Rev. Primatt Knapp and his wife Keturah French, a daughter of the Antiguan plantation owner Nathaniel French (d 1747), he was born in his father's parish of Shenley, Buckinghamshire. After attending school at Thame in Oxfordshire, he went into the navy but was obliged by ill health to retire after a few years. He joined several county militias, rising to the rank of captain, but in 1795 was again obliged to resign on account of health. His interest in natural history led to collecting expeditions and to a significant work on grasses, Gramina Britannica (1804). On Oct. 1804 he married Lydia Frances Freeman (1772/3-1838), whose father had also been a slave-owner in Antigua; by her father's will of 1780 she inherited £2000 while the estate went to her eldest brother. The couple had seven children. They lived at first in Wales; in this period Knapp published his only poem. In 1813 they moved to Alveston, Gloucestershire, where Knapp had land and established a garden. He drew on his local experience for a series of articles that became the basis for his most successful book, The Journal of a Naturalist (1829). He died at Alveston and was buried at St. Helen's church (now defunct). (ODNB 12 Jun. 2021; ancestry.com 12 Jun. 2021; LBS 12 Jun. 2021)