- Thomas Knyvet, 1st Baron Knyvet
Thomas Knyvet (or Knevytt, Knyvett, Knevett, Knevitt), (
1558 -27 July ,1622 ) was the second son of Sir Henry Knyvet of Charlton,Wiltshire and Anne Pickering, daughter of SirChristopher Pickering ofKillington ,Westmoreland . His half-sisterCatherine Knyvet was married toThomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk .He attended Jesus College, Cambridge. He was a Gentleman of the
Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I, and in 1592, he was madeMaster at Arms ; andMember of Parliament forThetford in 1601. In 1603, King James I gave him the manor ofStanwell ,Middlesex .On
21 July 1597 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Roland Hayward and widow of Richard Warren ofEssex . He was knighted in either 1603 or 1604. After foiling theGunpowder Plot , he was appointed a Privy Councillor, Member of the Council to Queen Anne, andWarden of the Mint , and was granted the manor of Stanwell and later (in 1613) the manor ofStaines . He was given charge of the education of Princess Mary. He sat in Parliament as Baron Knyvet ofEscrick ,Yorkshire in 1607.Lord Knyvet was also famous for a long running feud with Edward de Vere, the seventeenth
Earl of Oxford , whom some theorists claim to be the true identity ofWilliam Shakespeare . Knyvet's niece was Anne Vavasour, the mistress of the Earl of Oxford who bore him a child. On numerous occasions, servants on either side were killed. On one occasion, Knyvet injured Oxford, apparently in the leg.Lord Knyvet was the first domestic resident of the site of
10 Downing Street , the modern-day residence of the British Prime Minister, in a building called Knyvett House. It was first leased to him by Queen Elizabeth I. This house later passed to his niece, Elizabeth Hampden, whose nephew wasOliver Cromwell . After the lease expired in 1682,George Downing developed the site.When Lord Knyvet died in July 1622 his will provided for the foundation of a free-school in
Stanwell , and the Lord Knyvet School was founded in 1624. There is an effigy of him and his wife in the chancel of Stanwell parish church.
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