Once a Knight is Enough

VA Stafford – Will - William Knight -  "In the name of God Amen I William Knight of Stafford County being aged & infirm, but of a sound memory....make this my last will & testament. My Soul into hands of Merciful creator... What worldly Estate after my Debts lawfully contracted, funeral expenses & Legacies are paid I do dispose of ...
Imprimis I give to Rebecca Fletcher 1 cow and calf, 1 sow & piggs, a pot and a pan, her wearing clothes and her own proportion excluded. I also give her four geese, also a feather bed & furniture during her life. and then to be returned to the heir or Executor. Also three barrells of corn.
Item I give to my brother John Knight my gun also my cartouch box & jacket & leather breeches.
Item I give to Scarlett Harper two barrels of corn.
Item I give to my loving Father my crop & stock and all my personal estate after the above Debts and legacies are paid during his natural life, after his decease to be equally divided between my Brother John Knight and my Sister Sarah Knight & heirs.
Lastly I appoint my loving father Leonard Knight my sole Executor of this my last will and testament.....28th of August 1765"
Signed:  William Knight
September court 1766. This will presented into court....proved.....Admitted to record. certificate granted for probate."   (Stafford County, Virginia Will Book (?), pg 504-505)

Note: This is a bit of a puzzle. First, the testator says that he is “aged and infirm” and then he makes his father – who is certainly more aged than he is – his executor!  If the father, Leonard Knight, is the son of Capt. Peter Knight, he would be 99 years old here! That’s not impossible, as John Knight, son of George Knight and Jean Dawson, certifiably lived to be over 100.  Capt. Peter himself, was 84 when he passed. But 99 is "seriously aged" and probably infirm also!

If this William were a son of Leonard, son of Capt. Peter, he would probably have been born after the recorded 1706 birth of Ephraim, say, c. 1708, which would make him 57 in 1765. I don't see how else he could claim to be “aged and infirm” if he were not, in fact, say, over 50 years or more of age.

If he were a grandson of Leonard, son of Capt. Peter, we would need to subtract about 20 years from that age and make him 37 here, in which case it seems impossible for him to claim that he was "aged and infirm".

So, as strange as it may seem, it appears that he very well may have been son of Leonard and grandson of Capt. Peter.

In any event, there was a John Knight whose son, John Jr, married Elizabeth Harper. Her brother was Scarlett Harper, probably son of another Scarlett Harper.  This John Knight JR. was one of the attesters to the 1792 marriage of Scarlett Harper's daughter, Nancy Harper, to Charles White, along with Benjamin Davis, another witness, in Bourbon Co., KY.  It appears that this John Knight Sr, was the brother of William here, and thus Scarlett Harper would have been his brother-in-law through his brother, John.

Given all that, it seems that he was ill in some way and was attended by Rebecca Fletcher. Was she a family relation or a friend of the family? The items he gives to her in his will are reminiscent of how wives - or daughters - were treated in many wills of the time; they were given things to use during their lives, but were to be returned on their death to the "right heir". He mentions her "own proportion", as though she had a rightful inheritance from him, or that she brought something to the relationship; yet, they obviously were not married. The only thing that seems like it might be a solution would be that she was his daughter, had married a Fletcher, and was widowed and living with him as his carer.

VA Stafford – Admin – George Knight & John Knight - Early Records of Chappawamsic Baptist Church, Stafford Co. VA: Church minutes state that Chappawamsic was constituted by former members of Broad Run Church, Fauquier County. Signatories incude (selected): Mary Anderson, John Carney, Mary Carney, Absalem Carney, George Williams, Sarah Carney, Joshua Carney, John Bland, John Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Betty Harper, Ann Moore, Margaret Bland; New member enrollments: 1767 Jun 28: George Knight, John Knight, Elizabeth Knight  (VA Gen. Soc. Qrtly. Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 37-40)

VA Stafford – Admin - Uriah Knight, Zachariah Knight and Elijah Knight - Signatories on the “Ten Thousand Name Petition” for religious freedom for Baptists.

Note: Some other names in the same county: Richard Palmer, Moses Lunsford, William Moore, John Rose, Spilsby Stone, Charles Carter, James Jeffries, Edward Jeffries; Thomas Coleman, John Harper and Timothy Carrington, James Abbott, George Moore, David Anderson, James Coleman, John Collins;

Fluvanna County: William Giles, George Anderson JR, Rene Woodson, Benjamin Lee, John Pace, Thomas Devane, Sylvanus Bryant, Isaac Bryan, Thomas Farrer, George Anderson, Daniel Lightfoot SR, James Crocket, Joseph Barbee, William Porter, Samuel Porter, Thomas Coleman, James Gregory, Daniel Coleman, Julius Coleman, Christopher Ferris, William Gregory, John Gooch, John Phillips, Edward Hughes, John Anderson, William Vaughan, Marmaduke Lee, Henry Chambless, Peter Rice, Richard Rice.

Bedford County: John Bell, John Anderson, Joseph Bunch, Charles Bunch, John Lee, George Anderson, Zachariah Bunch; Bartelot Anderson, William Vaughan, Matthew Anderson, John Vaughan, __ Taylor, ___ Farmer, Jeremiah Pate, John Coleman, Isham Farmer, John Childress, Nathaniel Eppes, Spencer Walton, James Farmer, James Bell, Richard Hancock, John Wimbish, Thomas Cason;

VA Nansemond – Admin - James Knight - Corporal in the 4th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army commanded by Col. Robt Lawson. Other members of this regiment include: John Davis, John Ennis, James Fleming,  Andrew Flood, Joseph and Charles Cole. (U.S. Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783, 4th Reg., Folders 97-105 and 106-111, National Archives and Records Administration.) 

Note: The 4th Virginia Regiment was raised on 28 Dec 1775 at Suffolk Court House, Virginia.  Col. (Later General) Robert Lawson was born 23 Jan 1748 and died 28 Mar 1805 in Richmond, Virginia.  He was the son of Benjamin Lawson and Elizabeth Claiborne. He married Sarah Meriwether Pierce 13 Dec 1769 in VA, daughter of John Pierce and Sarah.

VA Spotsylvania – Admin – William Knight & John Knight - Court:The following served as soldiers in the Continental Army and died in the service of the States:  William Knight, to whom John Knight is heir. (Crozier, p. 524)

Note: Not sure where and how this William fits in. Is John a son of William?  William Knight, son of Leonard, died and left his brother John as heir with his father, Leonard, as co-heir and executor. But that was in 1765, before the Revolution. Did that John have a son named William? Is this another case of the father being heir to the deceased son?

The best fit as parents are John Knight and Winifred Garton. The Revolution ended in 1783, so it’s hard to say when this William died, exactly; the latest muster roll on which he appears is dated 8 Nov 1779 (Private in the Virginia 6th Regiment.)

VA Spotsylvania – Mar - Isaac Knight & Winney Ann Knight marriage . (Fletcher, p. 98)

Note: This Winney Ann is probably the daughter of George and Judith m. c. 1770/71 while Isaac is probably the son of Zachariah Knight, son of John Knight and Winifred Garton Knight.