- John Knyvet
Sir John Knyvet or Knivett (died
February 16 ,1381 ) was an English lawyer and administrator. He wasChief Justice of the King's Bench from 1365 to 1372, andLord 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 ofRockingham 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" forAquitaine 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;Powicke "Handbook of British Chronology" p.84] three speeches which he made at the opening of Parliament in 1372, 1373, and 1376 respectively, are given in theRolls 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 theEarl of Pembroke and William la Zouch of Haryngworth. He was an executor of the will ofEdward III .Knyvet held large estates both in Northamptonshire and
East Anglia , and when he died in 1381 his descendants established themselves as an important family inNorfolk .Delapré Abbey
A member of the family, Katherine Knyvet, was elected as the Abbess of
Delapré Abbey inNorthampton in 1333. She died of the plague there in 1349.Notes
References
* British History Online - House of Cluniac Nuns - The Abbey of Delapré - www.british-history.ac.uk
*"Dictionary of National Biography" (1892)
* Ormrod, W. M. 'Knyvet, Sir John (d. 1381)', "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15798, accessed 10 Aug 2006]
* Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde "Handbook of British Chronology" 2nd. ed. London:Royal Historical Society 1961ee also
*
List of Lord Chancellors and Lord Keepers External links
* [http://southwickhall.co.uk/home.htm Southwick Hall website]
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