Wheeler/Ethridge/Zeller/Dunkin Family Tree » John I Knyvett (± 1322-1381)

Personal data John I Knyvett 

• He was born about 1322 in Southwick, Northamptonshire, England.
• He died on February 16, 1381 in Oundle, Northamptonshire, England.

Household of John I Knyvett

He has/had a relationship with Alianore Bassett.

Child(ren):

1. John II Knyvett  ± 1359-1418 

Notes about John I Knyvett

Sir John Knyvet (or Knivett) (died February 16, 1381) was an English lawyer and administrator. He was Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1365 to 1372, and Lord Chancellor of England from 1372 to 1377.

Knyvett was eldest son of Richard Knyvet of Southwick, Northamptonshire, and a keeper of the "Forest of Clyve" (now part of Rockingham 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.

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;[1] three speeches which he made at the opening of Parliament in 1372, 1373, and 1376 respectively, are given in the Rolls of Parliament.

He was an executor of the will of Edward 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 in Norfolk.

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