Recap: In part 1, we explored the family of Nicholas Knight, Goldsmith of Farnham, to see if any Knight descendants could be found who lived in Farnham in the 19th century but we reached a dead end. This time, we are going to explore the Knight family of Farnham who were husbandman farmers.
A husbandman farmer was considered to be below the rank of a yeoman as his farm was usually leased and smaller. A husbandman’s farm would provide for the family, and produce a surplus some years which would allow the family to accumulate some wealth. He may well have afforded to hire agriculture labourers on day wages and even work towards purchasing a farm. The distinction between yeoman and husbandman was becoming blurred.
We are going to start with the marriage of Nicholas Knight of Yateley and Sarah Wooldridge of Crondall in 1691 in Farnham Parish Church. The Wooldridge family were well documented and as early as 1579, we have the Will of John Wooldridge, yeoman of Crondall.
So who was Nicholas Knight of Yateley?
Yateley Parish records are very patchy – so bad in fact, that in 1730, the Church Wardens visited every family in the Parish in an attempt to document births, marriage, and deaths. Yateley residents who were literate may have written such events in the family bible, but most people would have been able to do no more than make guesses as to dates!
Fortunately, wills were not kept by the parish, so we have a 1691 Will of Nicholas Knight, husbandman of Cove, near Yateley, who left his estate to his son Nicholas Knight. The estate consisted of farm equipment, livestock and feed, household articles, but no land so the farm was leased. The will was witnessed by his brother Robert Knight. [As a side note, Robert died in 1700 and his Will described him as a ‘Yeoman of Cove near Yateley’ hinting at the blurring of lines between Yeoman and Husbandman.] We can reasonably assume that this was the father of our Nicholas who had married Sarah just a few months prior to Nicholas Senior’s death.
We can now trace the lives of Nicholas and Sarah; as newly-weds they lived in Cove in Yateley Parish, probably with Nicholas’s newly widowed mother, Elizabeth. Luckily, two records survive in the Yateley register of their children. [Note that Cove didn’t have its own church]. Sometime around 1700, an opportunity came up for them to lease a farm in Farnham (perhaps through Sarah’s father who was a yeoman and likely an active participant in the farming community). Here are the church records for their children:
- 1692 Yateley: birth and death of infant Nicholas Knight (1 year after the marriage)
- 1696 Yateley: baptism of John Knight
- 1698 Yateley: baptism of Robert Knight
- 1700 Farnham: burial of Frances (gap in Yateley baptisms)
- 1701 Farnham: baptism of Nicholas
- 1702 Farnham: baptism of Sarah
Nicholas Knight was in his 50’s when he died and the burial record in the Farnham Parish Register says: ‘December 17, 1721 Nicholas Knight of the Park, husbandman.
This is an interesting entry and I do not recall ever seeing ‘of the Park’ as a residence in the Farnham Parish Register. Any suggestions are very welcome!
The Will of Nicholas Knight, Husbandman of the Park, Farnham ~ 1720
Summary of Nicholas Knight’s Will:
“And as touching the disposition of such goods, chattels, and credits as it has pleased God to bestow on me, I give and dispose as follows”:
- To my sons Nicholas and Robert, £5 each and to my daughter, Sarah, £50;
- All the rest of my household goods, chattels, stock, and personal estate to be divided between my wife Sarah Knight and my son John Knight, whom I make executors;
- Witnessed by Henry Figg, John Brown, and Henry Allen (all signed their names);
- Signed and sealed by Nicholas Knight the Elder, husbandman of Farnham, 7 June 1720;
- Probate granted at Winchester, 16 August 1721.
John Knight was Nicholas’s oldest son and inherited the lion’s share of his father’s (moveable) property. Looking at records from Farnham for ‘John Knight’ after 1720, we seem to have John Knight of Hungry Hill who died in 1758, but as he left no Will, we cannot know if he belongs to this family. Robert may have been the father of baby Nicholas Knight, baptized in Farnham in 1723 but he has no further records. Sarah Knight had a dowry of £50 to bring into a marriage, but there is no Farnham marriage record for her. So it seems we have to use the youngest son, Nicholas Knight Junior to see if we can stretch out the family tree a little.
The story of the Knights who were husbandman farmers of Farnham comes to a halt suddenly in June 1731 when Nicholas, barely 30 years old, died. In fact, his baby daughter, Anne Knight, was born posthumously and baptized in November 1731. Mrs Knight was left widowed with two young children and another on the way, and I can’t even tell you her name as their marriage record cannot be found. Even when Mrs Knight’s daughter was baptised, the baby was recorded as the daughter of Nicholas Knight, deceased!
This story has not been that interesting but I had committed to share my Knight research. Three items did catch my eye:
1) The delinquent Rev. Mr. Thomas of Yateley:
2) Nicholas Knight described as husbandman of the Park;
3) The woeful absence of women’s first names.
Conclusion
Clearly, this branch of the Knight family is not going to answer the question of “who were the Farnham Knights of the 19th century?”
Select Sources: Hampshire Archives, Surrey History Centre, National Archives, and Find My Past (by subscription.