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Authorised form of nameKnight; Thomas Andrew (1759 - 1838)
Dates1759 - 1838
NationalityBritish
Place of birthWormesley Grange, near Ludlow, Herefordshire, England
Date of birth12 August 1759
Place of deathLondon
Date of death11 May 1838
DatesAndPlacesBurial:
Churchyard of St Mary's Church, Wormesley, Herefordshire. His chest tomb is designated a Grade II listed building
Research fieldBotany
Horticulture
ActivityEducation:
Balliol College, Oxford
Career:
Conducted agricultural experiments and bred cattle; knew Sir Joseph Banks and Sir Humphry Davy;
He used the 10,000 acres he inherited in 1806 to conduct breeding of strawberries, cabbages, peas, and others. He also built an extensive greenhouse. He was one of the leading students of horticulture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but his personal papers disappeared after his death.
Knight performed basic physiological experiments on plants at a time when that was rare. He elucidated the effects of gravity on seedlings and how decay in fruit trees was passed on by grafting. In a way he looked back to the Reverend Stephen Hale. His goals were always strictly practical, aiming to improve useful food plants by breeding for better qualities. The 'Downton' strawberry was the ancestor of most important modern strawberries for years.
It is not widely known that he studied variation in peas and found many of the same results as Mendel, but he did not make the same imaginative leap about how these changes took place. Knight intentionally shut himself off from outside scientific influences. He refused to read anyone else's papers until Sir Joseph Banks got him to do it. They had a voluminous correspondence. All Knight's work was reported to the Royal Society of London in the society's Transactions.
Knight was president of the London Horticultural Society, founded in 1804, from 1811 to 1838. Banks, president of the Royal Society, had recognised Knight's striking contributions to science and prevailed upon him to join the Horticultural Society as it was then known. After the death of the first president, George Legge, 3rd Earl of Dartmouth, Banks proposed Knight to be president. In 1864, the society received a royal patent from Albert, Prince Consort, permitting it to be known as the Royal Horticultural Society subsequently. Banks also called upon Knight to write a "prospectus" for the society, what would now be called a mission statement, outlining the functions and purpose of the society.
Younger members of the society were inspired by his example. Men such as Thomas Laxton carried on his principles of careful observation and practical goals. Laxton left legacies of improved apples, peas and sweet peas among many others, together with a thriving seed business.
In 1991, a little over 150 years after Knight's death in 1838, Tim Smit and John Nelson patiently restored the ‘lost’ gardens of Heligan, Cornwall. In rebuilding the pineapple pits to a productive standard, they chose to work to the designs that had been drawn up by Knight in 1822, which had so impressed Lindley and others in their day. The first ripe specimens from Heligan were cut just five years later.
Memberships:
FLS
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election21/03/1805
RSActivityMedals and prizes:
Copley Medal 1806
RelationshipsSon of Rev Thomas Knight, brother of Richard Payne Knight, classical scholar and whose main thrust of work related to theories of the Picturesque
PublishedWorks "A treatise on the culture of the apple and pear" 1797, London; 'Pomona Herefordensis' 1811, London;
SourceSources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; DSB
Obituaries:
Proc Roy Soc 1838 No 35 pp 92-93
References:
R E W Maddison and Raymond E. Maddison, 'Spring Grove, the Country House of Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., PRS' in NR 1954-55 vol 11 pp 91-99
http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,person/id,1124/Itemid,292/
http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/leisure/42132.asp
Virtual International Authority Filehttp://viaf.org/viaf/37695853
CodeNA7418
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
L&P/10/114Letter, 'Observations on the grafting of trees' from Thomas Andrew Knight to Joseph Banks13 April 1795
EC/1804/19Knight, Thomas Andrew: certificate of election to the Royal Society
NLB/18/197Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor Dr Griesbach, 29 Industriestr., Mulhausen, Elsass [Alsace]6 January 1899
PT/2/6Paper, 'On the inconvertibility of bark into alburnum' by Thomas Andrew Knight in a letter to Sir Jos [Joseph] Banks29 December 1807
L&P/11/99Paper, 'Account of some experiments on the fecundation of vegetables' by Thomas Andrew Knight 1799
L&P/11/162Paper, 'Account of experiments on the ascent of sap in trees' by Thomas Andrew Knight22 February 1801
L&P/12/104Letter, 'On the reproduction of buds' from Thomas Andrew Knight to Joseph Banks1805
L&P/11/162/1Paper, 'Account of experiments on the ascent of sap in trees' by Thomas Andrew Knight1801
L&P/12/66/2Plate, 'Crystals' by Thomas Andrew Knight1803
L&P/12/66/1Paper, 'Description of the cupro-antimonial sulphuret of lead' by Thomas Andrew Knight1803
PT/5/12Paper, 'On the causes which influence the direction of the growth of roots' in a letter from T A [Thomas Andrew] Knight to the Right Hon Sir Jos [Joseph] Banks15 January 1811
L&P/12/69Letter, 'Observations on the motion of sap in trees' from Thomas Andrew Knight to Joseph Banks1803
L&P/12/88Letter, ''Concerning the state of the tree sap in winter' from Thomas Andrew Knight to Joseph Banks4 December 1804
PT/3/8Paper, 'On the origin and formation of roots' in a letter from T A [Thomas Andrew] Knight to the Right Hon Sir Jos [Joseph] Banks22 December 1808
PT/4/7Paper, 'On the parts of trees primarily impaired by age' in a letter from T A [Thomas Andrew] Knight Esq to the Right Hon Sir Jos [Joseph] Banks26 February 1810
PT/10/17Paper, 'On ice found in the bottoms of rivers' by T A [Thomas Andrew] Knight in a letter to the Rt Hon Sir Joseph Banks[1816]
PT/9/24Paper, 'Some additional experiments and observations on the relation which subsists between the nervous and sanguiferous systems' by A P [Alexander Philip] Wilson Philip17 May 1815
PT/14/13Paper, 'Upon the different qualities of the alburnum of spring and winter-felled oak trees' by Thomas Andrew Knight29 March 1820
PT/12/8Paper, 'Upon the office of the heart wood of trees' by T A [Thomas Andrew] Knight in a letter to the Rt Hon Sir Joseph Banks24 December 1817
PT/2/21Paper, 'On the origin and office of the alburnum of trees' in a letter from T A [Thomas Andrew] Knight to Sir Jos [Joseph] Banks15 June 1808
PT/6/15Letter, ['On the motions of tendrils of plants'] from Thomas Andrew Knight to Sir Joseph Banks27 April 1812
MC/3Volume 3 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1839-1843
PT/1/6Paper, 'On the formation of the bark of trees' in a letter from T [Thomas] A [Andrew] Knight to Right Hon Sir Jos [Joseph] Banks19 February 1807
MC/3/135Letter from John Lindley, 21 Regent Street, to Dr. [Peter Mark] Roget, [Secretary of the Royal Society]3 February 1841
PT/3/24Paper, 'On the comparative influence of male and female parents on their offspring' by T A [Thomas Andrew] Knight in a letter to the Right Hon Sir Jos [Joseph] Banks20 May 1809
PT/9/6Paper, 'Experiments made with a view to ascertain the principle on which the action of the heart depends, and the relation which subsists between that organ and the nervous system' by A P [Alexander Philip] Wilson Philip16 August 1814
AP/8A/19Unpublished paper, 'An account of some experiments made to ascertain the effects of voltaic electricity upon vegetable life' by John Williams[1818]
PT/1/11Paper, 'On the economy of bees' in a letter from T A [Thomas Andrew] Knight to the R Hon Sir Jos [Joseph] Banks[1807]
PT/10/18Paper, 'On the action of detached leaves of plants' by T A [Thomas Andrew] Knight in a letter to the Rt Hon Sir Joseph Banks[1816]
L&P/12/132Letter, 'On the inverted action of the alburnous vessels of trees' from Thomas Andrew Knight to Joseph Banks1806
L&P/12/51Paper, 'Account of some experiments on the descent of sap in trees' by Thomas Andrew Knight1803
L&P/12/66Paper, 'Description of the cupro-antimonial sulphuret of lead' by Thomas Andrew Knight1803
L&P/12/121Letter, 'On the direction of the radicle and Germen during the vegetation of seeds' from Thomas Andrew Knight to Joseph Banks22 November 1805
PT/11/20Paper, 'Upon the extent of the expansion and contraction of timber in different directions relative to the position of the medulla of the tree' by Thomas Andrew Knight in a letter to the Rt Hon Sir Joseph Banks26 April 1817
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