Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/263

 schooner which had been driven on shore in Cape Ann harbour, Knight was taken prisoner. He was exchanged in December 1776, and was appointed by Howe to command the Haerlem hired ship, in which he was actively employed against the enemy's coasting trade. He was afterwards ordered to join the flagship, and in her he returned to England, October 1778. In 1780 he was appointed to the Barfleur, going out to the West Indies with the flag of Sir Samuel (afterwards Lord) Hood [q. v.], and was first lieutenant of her in the action off Martinique on 29 April, and off Cape Henry on 5 Sept. 1781. On the 21st he was posted to the command of the Shrewsbury, from which in the following January he was moved back to the Barfleur as flag-captain, and commanded her in the engagements at St. Kitts, in the skirmish of 9 April, and in the battle of Dominica on 12 April 1782. In 1787–8 he was again captain of the Barfleur with Hood at Portsmouth, and in 1793, when Hood went out as commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, Knight was flag-captain on board the Victory. In 1794 he returned to England with Hood; but on his going back to the Mediterranean, Rear-admiral Mann hoisted his flag on board the Victory, in the action of 13 July 1795. Knight shortly afterwards went home overland, and was appointed to the Montagu in the fleet under Admiral Duncan in the North Sea.

On the outbreak of the mutiny the Montagu was taken by her crew to the Nore, where her surgeon was tarred and feathered, rowed through the fleet, and afterwards put on shore with some other obnoxious officers. When the mutiny was quelled the Montagu rejoined Duncan, and took a distinguished part in the battle of Camperdown. In 1798 Knight commanded a detached squadron on the coast of Ireland, and in 1799–1800 took part in the blockade of Brest. On 1 Jan. 1801 he was promoted to be rear-admiral, and in the summer of 1805 succeeded Sir Richard Bickerton at Gibraltar. He became vice-admiral on 9 Nov. 1805, admiral on 4 Dec. 1813, and was made a K.C.B. on 2 Jan. 1815.

Knight died on 16 June 1831. He was twice married, and had a large family. Knight Island, to the south-east of New Zealand, in lat. 48° S., long. 166° 44′ E., was named after him by Captain W. R. Broughton [q. v.], who, as a midshipman of the Falcon, was a fellow-prisoner in America in 1776.

 KNIGHT, JOHN BAVERSTOCK (1785–1859), painter, born at the parsonage, Langton, near Blandford, Dorset, on 3 May 1785, was second son of John Forster Knight, land-agent, and Sophia his wife. He was educated at home and in a commercial school at Child Okeford. He became assistant to his father as land surveyor and agent, but from a love of art, which his father encouraged, took to water-colour painting. His careful studies from nature brought him much local reputation, and he exhibited one or two architectural subjects at the Royal Academy. In 1816 he published some etchings of old buildings in Dorset, one of which, a view of Bradford Abbas Church, was published in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for 1818. After the death of his father and his own marriage, the care of his mother and younger brother devolved on Knight, and this, coupled with increasing bad health, led him to abandon art as a profession. He died at West Lodge, Piddle Hinton, Dorset, on 14 May 1859. His works were favourably noticed by Henry Fuseli, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and other competent authorities. A neighbour and intimate friend of Knight's was Thomas Rackett [q. v.] the antiquary, rector of Spetisbury, Dorset.

 KNIGHT, JOHN PRESCOTT (1803–1881), portrait-painter, son of Edward Knight [q. v.] the comedian, was born at Stafford in 1803. He began life in the office of a West India merchant in Mark Lane, London, who soon afterwards failed. He then took to drawing, according to his own statement, out of sheer idleness, and after a time his father, who had artistic tastes, consented to place him for six months with Henry Sass to correct his drawing, and for another six months with George Clint to improve his colouring. In 1823 he became a student of the Royal Academy, and in 1824 he contributed to its exhibition portraits of his father and of Alfred Bunn [q. v.], the manager of Drury Lane Theatre. The death of his father in 1826 left him early to depend on his own exertions, and for some time he continued to paint theatrical portraits, although sometimes producing pictures of a more fanciful character. His first appearance at the British Institution was in 1828, when he sent ‘The Whist Party’ and ‘List, ye landsmen all, to me!’ These were followed in 1829 by ‘Auld Robin Gray;’ in 1830 by ‘Smugglers alarmed;’ in 1831 by ‘The Auld Friends’ and ‘The Pedlar;’ in 1832 by ‘A Bit of Court-