William Knight (1572 – 29 November 1596) was an English layman put to death for his Catholic faith at York, England. With him also suffered George Errington of Herst, Northumberland; William Gibson of Ripon; and Henry Abbot of Howden, Yorkshire.
Life
Knight, apparently a secret convert to the Catholic Church, was the son of a Leonard Knight and lived at South Duffield, a hamlet currently in North Yorkshire but part of the East Riding of Yorkshire at the time. On coming of age, he claimed from his uncle some property which had been left to him by his father, an Anglican, and his uncle denounced him to the authorities for being a Roman Catholic. He was at once seized and committed to the custody of Roger Colyer, a pursuivant, who treated him with indignity and severity.
He was sent in October 1593, to York Castle, where William Gibson and George Errington were already confined, the latter having been arrested some years before for participation in a rising in the North.
References
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