Charles Knight Sr. (abt. 1731 - abt. 1819)

Born about 1731 in St. James Northam Parish, Goochland County, Colony of Virginia

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Elizabeth (Smith) Knight — married about 1764 in Nottoway Parish, Amelia County, Colony of Virginia

Descendants

Died about 1819 at about age 88 in Nottoway Parish, Amelia County, Virginia, United States

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Biography

A Tory and a counterfeiter, Charles plays a role of some prominence in Virginia revolutionary history, but neither the date of his birth nor the name of his wife is known. He is an ancestor whom Sidney Lanier would surely have admired. He was left three negroes in his father's will.

7 Sep 1771: I do hereby constitute and appoint Joseph, Charles and Peter Knight Executors to this my last will and Testament.

Feb 1772: purchased from James Bagley (possibly his sister Judith's husband), 218 acres of land in Amelia on the north side of Mallory Creek, between the lands of Isham Clay and William Watson.

12 Mar 1772: I bequeath to my son Charles three Negroes, Jane, Caesar and Betta, to him and his heirs forever.

Feb 1774: Made a deed of trust to secure indebtedness due the Glasgow firm of Robert Donal & Company, the security being five slaves, certain stock and household furniture, payment of the debt to be made in sum of 479 pounds sterling on January 1, 1778, with interest from September 1, 1773.

12 Nov 1779: There was a preliminary hearing at Amelia Court House before Edmund Booker, John Booker, Peter Lampkin and Still Bolling for the examination of Charles Knight on suspicion of counterfeiting Virginia bills of credit and assisting Nathaniel Abney, knowing him to be guilty thereof. After answering not guilty, witnesses were examined. The court then expressed the opinion that the prisoner should be tried at the next General court for Criminals in December and remanded him to jail after he had refused to strike off twenty-four names from a list of thirty-six jurors presented him by Thomas Mumford, High Sheriff. The court proceeded to name the jury.

As the records of the court at Williamsburg have been destroyed, it cannot be determined what was the outcome of the trial. Watson refers to the charge against Knight, stating that he was accused of being a Tory and a harborer of Tarleton, that he and a man named Burke were apprehended in the act of counterfeiting by some dozen citizens, were tied to a tree and horsewhipped. In common with numerous other persons of property and substance who were opposed to the Revolution, it is quite likely that Charles Knight was loyal to the Crown in the early days of the struggle, that he did offer hospitality to Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Banastre Tarleton, to whom he was related on the Woodson side, during the latter's raid on southside Virginia, in 1781, and that he gained the disfavor of his neighbors who were for independence. There is a family tradition that the accusation of counterfeiting may have been a trap or a means of revenging a personal grudge, and that the principal mover in these proceedings subsequently came to a violent and mysterious death.

On the other hand, the Loyalist or Tory element during the Revolution held it quite a proper act to depreciate or accelerate the natural depreciation of the Virginia and Continental currency by multiplying through counterfeiting -- if it can be said to have been "counterfeiting" under the then present circumstances.

Certainly Charles Knight's refusal to select his jury as shown by the minutes of Amelia Court would indicate that he either did not, as a British subject, acknowled the the jurisdiction of the court or else realized that it was useless to contend with his enemies or look to them for impartial justice. His spirited exhibition of independence of character quickens admiration at the present day; and as for the part he played in giving aid to his kinsman Tarleton -- family loyalty as well as loyalty to the Crown demanded that. Even Watson admits that "Tarleton behaved, in the main, generously towards the inhabitants during the raid."

Research Notes

Vital Statistics

Name
An unsourced middle name of Christopher was previously listed.

Sources

See also:

• 1810 United States Federal Census; Ancestry Record 7613 #702951; Name: Charles Knight; Home in 1810 (City, County, State): Nottoway, Nottoway County, Virginia; Free White Persons - Males - 45 and over: 1; Free White Persons - Females - 45 and over: 1; Numbers of Slaves: 8; Number of Household Members Over 25: 2; Number of Household Members: 10. Image
• Fact: http://familysearch.org/v1/TitleOfNobility #109
• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 19 August 2016, 15:47), entry for Charles Knight(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LCRV-JF5); contributed by various users.
• Woodson, Henry Morton. Historical Genealogy of the Woodsons and Their Connections (The Woodson, Memphis, Tennessee, 1915); pg 53