A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Knight, William
KNIGHT. (Retired Commander, 1844.)
William Knight died 6 May, 1846.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 March, 1790, as a Boy, on board the Arrogant 74, Capt. John Harvey, from which ship, lying at Portsmouth, he was paid off in the following year. Rejoining Capt. Harvey, in 1793, on board the Brunswick 74, he took part, we believe, in the action of 1 June, 1794; after which he served for five years as Midshipman in the Robust 74, Capt. Edw. Thornbrough, and was ultimately promoted from the Royal George 100, flag-ship of Lord Bridport, to a Lieutenancy, 26 Aug. 1799, in the Fanny 18, Capt. Joshua Sydney Horton. While in the Robust Mr. Knight, besides accompanying the unfortunate expedition of 1795 to Quiberon, was present with the force under Sir John Borlase Warren at the defeat of Commodore Bompart’s squadron 12 Oct. 1798, on which occasion that ship compelled the Hoche 74 to strike, and sustained a loss of 10 men killed and 40 wounded. On 6 Feb. 1800, being then in the Fairy, and in company with the Loire 38, Danaé 20, Harpy 18, and Railleur 16, we find him witnessing the capture [errata 1] of the Pallas, of 46 guns and 362 men, with which frigate the Fairy and Harpy had previously sustained a very warm and spirited action of an hour and three-quarters, attended with a loss to the former of 4 men killed and 8 wounded. His subsequent appointments were – in 1800, to the Cambridge 74, flag-ship of Sir Thos. Pasley, and Naiad 38, Capt. Philip Wilkinson, both on the Home station – in Jan. 1802, to the command, for three months, of the Tickler gun-brig – in April, 1803, to the Impress service at Lynn, in Norfolk, where he remained until Nov. 1812 – in April, 1813, to the Experiment receiving-ship at Falmouth, Capt. Jas. Slade – and subsequently to the Ordinary at Chatham. He became a Retired Commander on the Junior List 28 Nov. 1833, and on the Senior 6 Feb. 1844.