KNIGHT, CHARLES (1791-1873).—­Publisher and writer, b. at Windsor, where his f.. was a bookseller.  After serving his apprenticeship with him he went to London, and in 1823 started business as a publisher, and co-operated effectively with Brougham and others in connection with The Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge.  He was publisher for the Society, and issued The Penny Magazine, Penny Cyclopaedia, Pictorial History of England, etc.  He ed. with success The Pictorial Shakespeare, and was the author of a vol. of essays, Once upon a Time, an autobiography, Passages from a Working Life (1863), a History of the Thirty Years’ Peace, which was completed by Miss Harriet Martineau, and various other works.

KNIGHT, HENRY GALLY (1786-1846).—­A country gentleman of Yorkshire, ed. at Eton and Camb., was the author of several Oriental tales, Ilderim, a Syrian Tale (1816), Phrosyne, a Grecian Tale, and Alashtar, an Arabian Tale (1817).  He was also an authority on architecture, and wrote various works on the subject, including The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy, and The Normans in Sicily, which brought him more reputation than his novels.

KNOLLES, RICHARD (1550?-1610).—­Historian, b. at Coldashby, Northamptonshire, and ed. at Oxf., pub. in 1603 The History of the Turks, which went through many ed.  Its principal value now is as a piece of fine English of its time, for which it is ranked high by Hallam.  K. was master of a school at Sandwich.  The History was continued by Sir Paul Rycaut (1628-1700).

KNOWLES, HERBERT (1798-1817).—­Poet, author of the well-known Stanzas written in Richmond Churchyard, which gave promise of future excellence.  But he d. a few weeks after he had been enabled, through the help of Southey to whom he had sent some of his poems, to go to Camb.

KNOWLES, JAMES SHERIDAN (1784-1862).—­Dramatist, s. of James K., schoolmaster and lexicographer, was b. at Cork.  He was the author of a ballad, The Welsh Harper, which had great popularity, and gained for him the notice of Hazlitt and others.  For some years he studied medicine, which, however, he abandoned for literature, and produced several plays, including Caius Gracchus (1815), Virginius (1820), The Hunchback (1832), and The Love Chase (1837), in some of which he acted.  He gave up the stage in 1843, became a preacher in connection with the Baptist communion, and enjoyed great popularity.  He pub. two polemical works, The Rock of Rome, and The Idol demolished by its own Priests.