abridgment called the ‘School History,’ republished in 1870 as the ‘Crown History;’ an excellent school book, the merits of which more recent works have obscured.
In 1864 and 1865 Knight wrote ‘Passages of a Working Life,’ being his own autobiography; and ‘Shadows of the Old Booksellers.’ Two series of ‘Half-hours with the Best Letter-writers’ appeared in 1867 and 1868, and in the former year he ventured with ‘Begged at Court’ into the field of fiction. His sight was, however, failing, and he had to be led by a friend at the dinner given to Dickens on 1 Oct. 1867. His remaining years were passed at Hampstead and at Addlestone in Surrey. He died at Addlestone 9 March 1873.
Knight was a man of middle stature, with finely cut features, and a countenance indicative of his character, in which a sanguine temperament somewhat preponderated over accurate judgment. His schemes, though often sound in themselves, were apt to be carried into effect somewhat prematurely, and without sufficient regard to probable obstacles. Consequently after all his great publishing operations he remained a poor man. He was thoroughly honourable in business and considerate to his fellow-workers. His temper was quick, and when moved he could speak and write strongly; but he bore no ill-will, and seems never to have made an enemy. The often-quoted jest with which Jerrold took leave of him one evening after a social meeting—‘Good Knight’—gives the measure of the estimate formed of him by his friends. In politics he was a liberal, and was one of the earliest members of the Reform Club. When M. D. Hill was candidate for Hull in the first reformed parliament, Knight worked for him. ‘Tell Mrs. Knight,’ wrote Hill to his wife, ‘that her husband is one of the best speakers I ever heard.’
He was also something of an inventor, and in 1838 took out a patent for ‘improvements in the process and in the apparatus used in the production of coloured impressions on paper, vellum, parchment, and pasteboard by surface printing.’ His proposal to collect the newspaper duty by means of a stamped wrapper is said to have given to Rowland Hill [q. v.] the first suggestion of the penny post.
In 1815 Knight married Miss Vinicombe. Of their children one son (Barry Charles Henry, 1828–1884) and four daughters, two of whom married respectively the Rev. C. F. Tarver and Robert Kerr, survived them. Another daughter, Mrs. G. Clowes, died before her parents; and a son and daughter died in infancy.
Knight's position as author, editor, and publisher makes it difficult to ascertain exactly how much is due to him in the first capacity. The following, however, seem undoubted, besides articles and pamphlets: 1. ‘The Menageries,’ 1828. 2. ‘The Elephant,’ 1830. 3. ‘Results of Machinery,’ 1831. 4. ‘Capital and Labour,’ 1831. 5. ‘Trades Unions and Strikes,’ 1834. 6. ‘Shakespere's Biography,’ 1843. 7. ‘William Caxton,’ 1844. 8. ‘Old England’ (first book and part of second), about 1844. 9. ‘Studies of Shakespere,’ 1849. 10. ‘The Struggles of a Book against Excessive Taxation,’ 1850. 11. ‘Once upon a Time,’ 1854. 12. ‘The Old Printer and Modern Press,’ 1854. 13. ‘Knowledge is Power,’ 1855. 14. ‘Popular History of England,’ 1856–1862. 15. ‘Passages of a Working Life,’ 1864–5. 16. ‘Begged at Court,’ 1867. 17. ‘Shadows of the Old Booksellers,’ 1867.
[Passages of a Working Life during Half a Century, by Charles Knight; Harriet Martineau's Autobiography, 1876; The Recorder of Birmingham, a Memoir of Matthew Davenport Hill, by his Daughters, 1878; obituary notices in the Times and Athenæum, &c.; private information.]
KNIGHT, EDWARD (1774–1826), actor, commonly known as ‘Little Knight,’ and spoken of as a Yorkshireman, was born in 1774 in Birmingham. While practising as a sign-painter, or, as is sometimes said, an artist, he was stirred to emulation by the performance of a provincial company. He appeared accordingly at Newcastle, Staffordshire, as Hob in ‘Hob in the Well,’ and was so complete a victim to stage-fright that, despite the encouragement of a friendly audience, he ran off the stage and quitted the town. A year later at Raither in North Wales, with a salary of five shillings per week, he was fortunate enough to get in safety through the same part. Playing Frank Oatland in ‘A Cure for the Heartache’ he was seen and engaged by Nunns, the manager of the Stafford Theatre. In Stafford he stayed some years, increasing in reputation, and he married a Miss Clews, the daughter of a local wine merchant. Tate Wilkinson, to whom he introduced himself, engaged him for the York circuit about 1803. His reception was favourable. After a time he was gratified by the present from Wilkinson of a chest containing all the appliances of an actor's wardrobe, with the compliment: ‘I have been long looking for some one who knew how to value them; you are the very man.’ While at Leeds his wife died, and Knight, left with a young family, married in 1807 Susan Smith, who had succeeded her sister,
