# John Knyvet

Sir John Knyvet (or Knivett) (died 16 February 1381) was an English lawyer and administrator. He was Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1365 to 1372, and Lord Chancellor of England from 1372 to 1377.

## Life

Knyvett was eldest son of Richard Knyvet of Southwick, Northamptonshire, and a keeper of the "Forest of Clyve" (now part of Rockingham Forest). His mother was Joanna, a daughter and the heiress of Sir John Wurth. He married Eleanor, daughter of Ralph, Lord Basset of Weldon, and they had four sons and a daughter. He owned and improved Southwick Manor, which he inherited from his father; the house still survives today.
Knyvet was practicing in the courts as early as 1347; in 1357 he was called to the degree of Serjeant-at-law, and on 30 September 1361 was appointed a justice of the Court of Common Pleas. On 29 October 1365 he was raised to the office of Chief Justice of the King's bench. In the Parliament of 1362 he served as a "trier of petitions" for Aquitaine and other lands over sea, and afterwards in each Parliament down to 1380, except while he was Chancellor, as a trier of petitions for England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
On 30 June 1372, after the death of Sir Robert Thorpe, who had been appointed Chancellor in consequence of a petition by the commons that the great seal should be entrusted to laymen, Knyvet was appointed his successor. He held the office for four and a half years until 1377; three speeches which he made at the opening of Parliament in 1372, 1373, and 1376 respectively, are given in the Rolls of Parliament.
In January 1377 Edward III, under the influence of John of Gaunt, reverted to the custom of appointing ecclesiastical chancellors, and Adam de Houghton was appointed to succeed Knyvet on 11 January Knyvet did not again hold judicial office, though he was appointed with the two chief justices to decide a question between the Earl of Pembroke and William la Zouch of Haryngworth. He was an executor of the will of Edward III.

## Family

Knyvet held large estates both in Northamptonshire and East Anglia, and when he died in 1381 his descendants established themselves as an important family in Norfolk. His children included:
* John Knyvet (c. 1359–1418) of Southwick and Mendlesham. He became M.P. for Huntingdonshire, and married Joan Botetort.
* Robert Knyvet (d. 1419), of Rayleigh, Essex,second son, married Joan, the daughter of John Castelayn, Esq., by his wife Isolda, daughter of John de Belhous, and had:
** Thomas Knyvet (d. 1458) of Stanway, Essex, Esq., son and heir, who married Eleanor, daughter of John Doreward (d. 1495) of Doreward's Hall and Margery Naunton (d. 1517), the daughter of Peter Naunton of Letheringham, Suffolk, and the third wife Sir James Hobart, and had:
*** John Knyvet (d.1480/1), who married Margaret, daughter of Richard Baynard. His will – made on 10 February 1477 but not proved until 1486 – mentions his wife, Joan, and four sons. He held the manor of Great Stanway, which continued in the same family, passing to:
**** Thomas Knivet, Esq. (d.1480/1), who married Elizabeth, daughter of William Lunsford, of Lunsford, co. Sussex, Esq., and to:
***** Edward, the last male heir of Stanway, when it went to his daughter, Elizabeth, who was married to Sir John Rainsforth, but died without children, in 1507. The wife of Edward Knyvett of Stanway (d. 4 February 1501) and the mother of Elizabeth (1490–1507) was Anne Calthorpe (d. 20 October 1497), the widow of John Cressener (d. 24 August 1485). Both John Cressener and his brother-in-law William Curson, the husband of Anne's sister Agnes, died in the days of the Battle of Bosworth Field. Anne and Agnes were both the granddaughters of Margery le Despenser. Anne was also the mother of John Cressener (b. 1485). At the inquisition post mortem of Edward Knyvett of Stanway, 28 April 1501, it was reported that Elizabeth Knyvet, aged 11 and more at the time of his death, was his daughter and heir. 'Immediately after his death John Raynesford, knight, abducted the said Elizabeth to places unknown and still detains her in his custody.'
***** Thomasine, eldest daughter, who married Sir William Clopton, knight
***** Margaret, youngest daughter, who married John Roydon
*** Margaret Knyvet, who married Robert Baynard. Margaret appointed Beatrice Cornburgh the executor of her will, and Beatrice in turn mentioned Margaret's two sons Thomas and William in hers. Richard Banyard was a servant and executor to Sir William Knyvett, and was also a servant of Sir Thomas Lestrange, and may have been the husband of his aunt, Anne, the daughter of Sir Robert Radcliffe of Hunstanton and Katherine Drury, a daughter of Roger Drury of Hawstead in Suffolk. Katherine's first husband had been Henry Le Strange (died after 1483) of Hunstanton, and together they were the grandparents of Sir Thomas Lestrange.
*** Elizabeth Knyvet, who married Robert Tey
*** Nicholas Knyvet. His father settled the Groton estate and Downhall in Rayleigh upon his second son, Nicholas. Nicholas must have died without heirs, however, as the entire estate was under the control of his older brother, John, when John died in 1479
*** Robert Knyvet, a priest
** John Knyvet of Shenfield, second son, inherited Groton and lands in Essex, including the manor of Shenfield, but these reverted to his brother on his death without heirs in 1450.
* Richard Knyvet
* Henry Knyvet
* Ralph Knyvet
* Margery Knyvet
A member of the family, Katherine Knyvet, was elected as the Abbess of Delapré Abbey in Northampton in 1333. She died of the plague there in 1349.