[Ancestor] Knight

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Husband [Ancestor] Knight

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       Marriage: 

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Wife

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Children

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1 M Giles Knight ¹

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           Born: Abt 1653
     Christened: 
           Died: 20 Aug 1726 2
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Mary English (Abt 1655-1732) 1
           Marr: England

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General Notes: Husband - [Ancestor] Knight

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The name "Sheavallier" is hardly recognizable as one and the same thing as Knight, yet in colonial records, a John Knight was called indifferently Chevalier, or Sheavallier. We are bound to confess, however, that the last was phonetic spelling and wouldn't stand muster among the "400" of that early day. Cnight is the Anglo-Saxon word from which Knight is derived, meaning a youth, also a soldier. By the twelfth century, it came to mean the military title of a noble person, or it had the meaning expressed by the French word chevalier. According to the rules of precedence, a knight ranks ninth in the list of high and mighty personages; emperor, king, prince, duke, marquis, earl, baron, lord, knight, chevalier, squire, gentleman, yeoman.
Variations of the name Knight are le Knit, le Knyt, Kniht and Knigt. One Knight, in the wild, mad days, as they may be called, of nomenclature, bore the Christian name "The Peace-of-God Knight of Burwash" in the record. One seat of the family was Downton Castle, Hereford, and the Knights residing there were possessed of large fortunes. The family also flourished in Somerset county and Northampton. The ambassador sent by Henry VIII. to the Emperor Maximilian, was Bishop William Knight. Charles Knight, 1791-1873, of Surrey, editor and author, when a boy "imbibed such a tincture of learning as made him desirous of being a scholar." We find the Knights pioneers of Ipswich, Massachusetts, and Norwich, Connecticut. William Knight, preacher, had a grant of two hundred acres about 1638, at Ipswich, and Alexander Knight, or Knights, was also one of the founders of this town, coming from England in 1635. A deed, conveying land from David of Norwich, to his son Benjamin, and dated 1731, is still [1913] in existence. Mark Knight was an early settler at Falmouth, Maine. His son Jonathan served in the American revolution, and his grandson, Johnson Knight, of Windham, Maine, was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania branch of the Knight family. He made a home in Chester county, and married Tamsin Lewis, a descendant of Joshua Lewis, one of Penn's colony. George came from Suffolk, with wife and children, 1638, and was one of the settlers of Hingham, Massachusetts. Three years earlier, came John and his brother Richard, from Hants. The former was one of the original proprietors of Sudbury, a freeman and a deacon of the church. He had a large family. Of another John, a pioneer of Charlestown, Massachusetts, we read that "he lived to a ripe old age in spite of his five wives."
The Portsmouth, New Hampshire, tax list, dated 1681, gives the name "John Chevalier and man." He was a Huguenot refugee, and after living here for a short time Anglicized his name which appears sometimes "Jno. Chevalier, alias Knight," and sometimes "Jno. Knight alias Chevalier." Sheavallier was another name by which he was known. The Knights' war record is of the best. Repre-sentatives in the revolution from Massachusetts were Lieutenants Artemus and Joseph; from Connecticut, Surgeon's Mate Jonathan; from Virginia, Surgeon John; from Pennsylvania, Paymaster John. Another "boy of '76" was William of New Salem, Massachusetts, born 1760. His son James was selectman of the town, and married Sophronia, a descendant of Captain Thomas Weeks, a soldier in the continental army. In the stirring times of an earlier day, Charles Knight, of Salem, was in the Narragansett fight, 1675, and Daniel, of Lynn, who died 1672, was probably one of those who said in deed, if not words, to "Lo, the poor Indian," your room is better than your company. Richard, of Boston, a brick-layer, was in King Philip's war; his wife, Sarah Kemble, beautiful and educated, wrote an account of her "Travels from Boston to N. Y. and Back." About fifty years after her death, or in 1825, this curious journal was published. Robert, of Boston, 1640, married the young and rich widow of Thomas Cromwell, a privateersman. Ezekiel, of the Maine branch of the family, also fell a victim to the blandishments of a widow, Mary, daughter of Governor Theophilus Eaton, whose first husband was Valentine Hill. The children of Ezekiel and Mary were Ezekiel, and Elizabeth, who married a Wentworth. These are all good names for the family chart, if affiliation with patriotic societies is desired. The Ezekiels held town offices and possibly took part in the wars of the day. The Knights have always been a power in Rhode Island, and Nehemiah, senator and governor, was the first to advocate free schools for the state. His father Nehemiah was town clerk for twenty years. In 1642 Toby Knight was clerk of the military company, Newport, and Captain Jonathan, of Providence, "had 200 acres laid out to him."
Among marriage connections may be mentioned the Kimball, Livingston, Bridge, Pierce, Tarr, Graggin, Lilly, Ballard, Brewster, Noyes, Jaques, Adams, and Timberlake families. Favorite names were Mehitable, Deliverance, Rahamah, Abigail, Deborah and Jethro. Of one, Sarah Knight, possibly Sarah, the authoress, it is recorded that with other widows and matrons, she served on a jury, the prisoner being a young woman.
The coat-of-arms reproduced, granted 1634, to William Knight of Hants, is: Per chevron, engrailed argent and sable, three griffins passant, counter-charged. Crest, a griffin's head erased, gules, beaked, and the dexter ear argent; the sinister, sable; gorged with a collar, or. Among crests borne by different branches of the family the following may be named: A ship in full sail; a serpent in a true lover's knot; a demifriar vested; bearing a lantern in one hand and the crucifix in the other. This belongs to the family of London and Kent. One motto is Numquam, non Paratus, and another, Gloria calcar habet. Grants of arms are recorded in 1523 to the family of Hampshire; in 1546 to Thomas Knight of Northampton. ³

1 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 770.

2 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 771.

3 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 769.