undertakes to ‘strive that my passage through the university, if not splendid, shall be respectable.’ Verses from his pen were printed in the ‘Literary Gazette’ for 1819 and 1824, and the ‘Literary Souvenir’ for 1825 (reprinted in the ‘Saturday Magazine,’ vol. xvi.); and a correspondent of ‘Notes and Queries’ states himself to be in possession of several unpublished pieces. His reputation, however, entirely rests on the poem sent to Southey, entitled by himself ‘The Three Tabernacles,’ but better known as ‘Stanzas in Richmond Churchyard,’ which had a large circulation on a separate sheet, and first appeared in book form in Carlisle's ‘Endowed Grammar Schools.’ It would be difficult to overpraise this noble masterpiece of solemn and tender pathos, exquisite in diction and melody, and only marred by the anticlimax of the last stanza, fine in itself, but out of keeping with the general sentiment of the poem. If this had been omitted and the two preceding stanzas transposed, the impression would have been one of absolute perfection. Even as they stand the stanzas are unparalleled as the work of a schoolboy for faultless finish and freedom from all the characteristic failings of inexperience. This extraordinary maturity discriminates Knowles from other examples of precocious genius, such as Keats, Blake, and Chatterton, and insures him a unique place among youthful poets. His intellect must have been as active as his emotional nature; and even had the poetical impulse deserted him, he could not have failed to achieve distinction in some manner.
[Southey's Life and Correspondence, iv. 221–227; Quarterly Review, vol. xxi.; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vol. viii.; Carlisle's Endowed Grammar Schools.]
KNOWLES, JAMES (1759–1840), lexicographer, born in 1759, was son of John Knowles of Dublin, by Frances, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Sheridan of Quilca, the friend of Swift. His mother's brother, Thomas Sheridan, author of a ‘Pronouncing Dictionary,’ and father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, directed his education and intended him for the church; but an early marriage led Knowles to establish a school in Cork in 1780, which prospered until 1793. In that year Knowles, who was a liberal as well as a protestant, first signed a petition for catholic emancipation, and a little later went bail for the editor of a liberal paper, who had been prosecuted at the instance of the government. His pupils, who were the sons of protestant gentry, deserted him, and he went to London, where, according to his son's account, he was helped by his first cousin, Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He continued his career as a schoolmaster, and in 1813, mainly by his son's influence, he was appointed head-master of the English department in the Belfast Academical Institution. In 1816 he was dismissed by the directors, on the ground of inability to maintain discipline. Knowles declined to be dismissed, and prepared to resist ejectment; but eventually he gave way, and in 1817 published ‘An Appeal to the Dignified Visitors, and the Noblemen and Gentlemen, Proprietors,’ invoking the principles of the British constitution to prove that he had suffered injustice. Before leaving Belfast he received a testimonial from some of the leading citizens. He returned to London, where he appears to have carried on his profession as ‘teacher of reading, elocution, grammar, and composition’ for several years. In 1829 he seems to have joined his son in Glasgow, where he brought out a little book on ‘Orthoëpy and Elocution.’ About this time, though he was now seventy and suffering from a painful disease, he began the compilation of a dictionary. This was published in London in 1835, under the name of ‘A Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language.’ A dispute with the printer led to a protracted lawsuit, of which most of the expenses were borne by his son, James Sheridan Knowles [q. v.] Knowles died at his son's house, Alfred Place, Bedford Square, London, on 6 Feb. 1840, and was buried at Highgate.
Knowles married, first, Jane, daughter of Andrew Peace, medical practitioner, of Cork, widow of a Mr. Daunt, and after her death, in 1800, a Miss Maxwell. James Sheridan was the offspring of the first marriage.
[R. B. Knowles's Life of James Sheridan Knowles; Gent. Mag. 1840.]
KNOWLES, JAMES SHERIDAN (1784–1862), dramatist, born at Cork on 12 May 1784, was son of James Knowles [q. v.] the lexicographer, by his first wife. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, from whom he derived his second name, was his father's first cousin. At the age of six he was placed in his father's school at Cork, but in 1793 moved with the family to London. There he made early efforts in verse, and at the age of twelve attempted a play, in which he acted with his juvenile companions, as well as the libretto of an opera on the story of the Chevalier de Grillon. A few months later he wrote ‘The Welch Harper,’ a ballad, which was set to music and became popular. He was befriended by the elder Hazlitt, an acquaintance of the family, who helped him
