- Chillingworth's "Religion of Protestants,"' Ghent, 1652, 4to. In Baillie's 'Apologia for the Reformed Churches,' Cambridge, 1653, is 'The Judgement of an University-man [Thomas Smith] concerning Mr. Knot's last book against Mr, Chillingworth,' described by Knott himself as a 'witty, erudite, and solid work.'
- 'Protestancy Condemned by the expressed verdict and sentence of Protestants ' (anon.), Douay, 1664, 4to.
- 'Monita utilissima pro patribus Missionis Anglicanae.' Never printed.
[Biog. Brit. Suppl.; Birch's Life of Chillingworth; De Backer's Bibl. de la Compagnia de Jésus; Des Maizeaux's Life of Chillingworth; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 106; Foley's Records, v. 629. n. 223, vii. 650; Halkett and Laing's Dict. of Anonymous Lit. iii. 2940; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 1286; Orthodox Journal, v. 147; Panzani's Memoirs, p. 124; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 185: Wood's Athenae Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 91,92, 181, 295.]
KNOWLER, WILLIAM (1699–1773), divine, third son of Gilbert Knowler, gent., of Stroud House, at Herne in Kent, was baptised on 9 May 1699 (Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, ii. 129). He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. in 1720, M.A. in 1724, and LL.D. in 1728. On leaving Cambridge, Knowler became chaplain to Thomas Watson Wentworth, then Lord Malton, who was in 1746 created Marquis of Rockingham. Lord Malton had inherited the papers of his great-grandfather, Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford [q. v.], and charged his chaplain with the task of publishing a selection from them. This appeared in 1739 under the title of ‘The Earl of Strafford's Letters and Despatches,’ London, 2 vols. folio. They were selected, says Knowler, in the dedication he addressed to his patron, by Lord Malton himself, and published according to his instructions, in order to vindicate Strafford's memory from ‘the aspersions of acting upon arbitrary principles, and being a friend to the Roman catholics.’ It is possible that the editor derived some assistance from an ‘Essay on Epistolary Writings with respect to the Grand Collection of Thomas, Earl of Strafford,’ which William Oldys had written in 1729, and dedicated to Lord Malton (Thoms, Memoir of William Oldys, 1862, p. viii; Bolton Corney, Curiosities of Literature Illustrated, p. 113). Knowler was presented by his patron, first to the living of Irthlingborough, or Artleburrow, between Wellingborough and Higham Ferrers, and afterwards to the living of Boddington, both in Northamptonshire (Nichols, Lit. Anecdotes, ii. 129). In 1766 he prepared for the press a translation of Chrysostom's ‘Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians,’ which was never printed (ib. ii. 130). He died in December 1773.
A pedigree kindly communicated by the Rev. T. W. Openshaw of Bristol describes Knowler as marrying Mary Dalton in 1749. Nichols, quoting the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ (lxxv. 90), describes Mrs. Knowler as the daughter of Mr. Presgrove, surgeon in Westminster, and states that she died in 1805 (ib. viii. 401). This may have been a second wife. A letter from Knowler to the Rev. John Lewis is printed by Nichols in ‘Illustrations of Literature,’ iv. 427; others relating to the publication of the ‘Strafford Papers’ will be published in the next volume of the ‘Camden Miscellany,’ from manuscripts of Knowler's in the possession of the author of this article.
[Authorities cited.]
KNOWLES. [See also Knollys.]
KNOWLES, Sir CHARLES (d. 1777), admiral, reputed son of Charles Knollys, titular fourth earl of Banbury [see under Knollys, William, Earl of Banbury], is said to have been born about 1697, but the course of his service in the navy points rather to a date not earlier than 1704. He entered the navy in March 1718 on board the Buckingham with Captain Charles Strickland, whom in April he followed to the Lennox, with the rating of captain's servant, and so continued till December 1720. During the greater part of this time the Lennox was in the Mediterranean under the orders of Sir George Byng, afterwards Viscount Torrington [q. v.], and it appears from Knowles's own papers that in the battle off Cape Passaro he was serving actually on board the Barfleur, Byng's flagship, but of this there is no note in the Lennox's pay-book, on which he was borne for the whole time. He was afterwards, from June 1721 to June 1726, in the Lyme frigate with Lord Vere Beauclerk, and during the first eighteen months of this period with the rating of captain's servant. For the rest of the time he was rated ‘able seaman.’ During the five years of the Lyme's commission she was stationed in the Mediterranean, and it has been supposed that Knowles spent much of this time in being educated on shore. It is certain that in his riper years he not only spoke French as a Frenchman, but that his attainments in mathematics and mechanics were very far in advance of what was then usual in the navy. After paying off from the Lyme, Knowles served in the Winchester guardship at Portsmouth; in the Torbay, carrying the flag of
