[Illustration] The first recorded ancestor of this ancient family is
Rainald, mesne lord of Knightley, in the county of Stafford, under
Earl Roger, in the time of William the Conqueror, as appears by
Domesday Book. That estate went out of the family by an heiress who
married Robert de Peshall, about the reign of Edward III., and the
Knightleys removed to Gnowsall, in the same county, in the 17th of
Richard II. (1394). Fawsley was purchased in the 3rd of Henry V.
(1415-16). It is thus mentioned by Leland: "Mr. Knightley, a man of
great lands, hath his principal house at Foullesle, but it is no
very sumptuous thing." (Itin. i. fol. 11.)
See Baker's Northamptonshire, i. 381. Blakeway (Sheriffs of Salop,
p. 103) asserts that "_the Knightleys appear to have been a branch
of the Shirleys_," an assumption without any foundation except the
similarity of their arms.
ARMS.--_Quarterly ermine, and paly of six or and gules_. This coat
was borne as early as 1301-2 (30th Ed. I.) by Sir Robert de
Knyteley: it is also borne by Cotes of Cotes, co. Stafford, probably
from family connection.
Present Representative, Sir Rainald Knightley, 3rd Baronet, M. P.
for South Northamptonshire.