John Knight (Exmoor pioneer)
John Knight (1765-1850) of Lea Castle, Wolverley, of 52 Portland Place in London, and of Simonsbath House, Exmoor, Somerset, was an agricultural pioneer who commenced the reclamation of the barren moorland of the former royal forest of Exmoor in Devon and Somerset, England. Origins. John II Knight (1765-1850) was the son of the ironmaster John I Knight (d.1795) of Lea Castle, the son of Edward Knight (d.1780), 3rd son of Richard Knight (1659-1745) of Downton, a wealthy ironmaster and founder of the family's fortune, proprietor of Bringewood Ironworks. John II Knight's  younger brother was the mathematician Thomas Knight (1775-1853) of "The Mount", Papcastle, Cumbria, against whom he brought the celebrated 1840 law suit Knight v Knight, concerning the inheritance of their cousin Payne Knight (1750-1824), MP, of Downton Castle. Career. In August 1818 he purchased at public tender the 10,262 1/4 acre former royal forest of Exmoor and began what became the largest single land reclamation project in England. The Forest of Exmoor had been sold by King George III's Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues. He had a connection with the area as his aunt Mary  Knight was the wife of Col. Coplestone Warre Bampfield (d.1791) of Hestercombe, Somerset, the nephew of Sir Coplestone Warwick Bampfylde, 3rd Baronet (c. 1689–1727), lord of the manors of Poltimore and North Molton, both in Devon. Col. Coplestone Warre Bampfield was a great-grandson of Sir Coplestone Bampfylde, 2nd Baronet (c. 1633–1692). The manor of North Molton is adjacent to the east side of the Forest of Exmoor and the Bampfylde family had certain valuable ancient grazing rights over the forest. Knight later increased his Exmoor estate to about 20,000 acres by purchasing surrounding land, particularly the so-called "allotments  which had been granted by the royal commissioners to the principal adjoining landholders to compensate them for the loss of their ancient rights over the royal forest. He built a stock-proof stone-faced wall or hedgebank around the whole estate, nearly 29 miles long, together with about 22 miles of public roads, and commenced the great task of reclaiming the rough grazing of the high moors, all over 1,000 ft, to arable production, and built two farmsteads, Honeymead and Cornham, to the east and west respectively of his own residence at Simonsbath House, Simonsbath, formerly the only residence on 	John Knight (Exmoor pioneer)
20549737	the forest, built by James Boevey (1622–1696) in 1654, which already had enclosed farmland of 108 acres. Knight v Knight (1840). In 1836 he launched a law suit against his younger brother Thomas Knight (1775-1853) of Papcastle, and others, attempting to recover the estates of his father's first cousin Payne Knight (1750-1824), MP, of Downton Castle, which estates had mostly derived from the family patriarch Richard Knight (1659-1745) of Downton. The case was decided against him in 1840, and the disappointment of losing such a large inheritance may have prompted him to leave the country, which 	John Knight (Exmoor pioneer)
20549738	he did in 1842. Marriages and children. He married twice: Retirement & death. In 1842, aged 76, he retired to the Villa Taverna" in Rome (or perhaps in Frascati,), leaving his 30 year-old eldest son Frederick Knight to complete his work, to whom he had handed over the management of the Exmoor estate in 1841. He died in Rome in 1850 aged 85.