Author: Knott, Richard
Biography:
KNOTT, Richard (c. 1770-1852: ancestry.com)
The name is not uncommon and yet public records are scanty. The most reliable evidence about Knott is contained in the "Proleptic Address to the Reader" at the beginning of his "humble volume of miscellaneous poems." It is dated Dec. 1833 from Chichester Place, Wandsworth Road, London, and it mentions that the first two sections commemorate an ordination that had taken place almost ten years earlier, Dec. 1824, at the Salem Chapel in Stockwell. Knott was evidently part of the dissenting congregation that worshipped there. The Register of Non-Conformist Deaths includes a Richard Knott who was buried at Whitefield's Memorial Church in Camden, London, on 30 Jan. 1843 aged 63 and it is possible he is our author. A more likely candidate, however, given the Portsea connection, is Richard Knott, formerly of Portsea, who died at his home on the Wandsworth Road on 25 Jul. 1852, in his 83rd year. There is also, however, a troubling record of a trial at the Old Bailey on 9 Apr. 1849 at which Richard Knott, Elizabeth Knott, and three others pleaded guilty of keeping a brothel at Chichester Place. It could be the same Richard Knott or a son; they must at least have been related to occupy the same address. (ancestry.com 25 Jun. 2021; oldbaileyonline.com; Baptist Magazine [1833] 378; Portsmouth Times 25 Jul. 1852; contributions by AA) HJ