English antiquarian and author, born in Herefordshire, England. From an early age he took great interest in the study of ancient art and literature. When he inherited his grandfather’s great wealth he devoted himself to researches and purchases in his favorite field of work. In his extensive travels he thus amassed a vast collection of ancient coins, bronzes, pieces of statuary and other objects relating to the Greek and Roman religions. He published his Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus, which caused some scandal, but has finally been accepted as an authority on the topic. He was a member of Parliament and a trustee of the British Museum, to which he bequeathed his magnificent collection, valued at £50,000. He wrote several pamphlets tending to prove that Homer’s poems are really the works of a single man. He published, also, An Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste. He died in London on the 24th of April 1824.—His brother, Thomas Andrew Knight, was a distinguished horticulturist and student of animal and vegetable physiology; born at Wormsley Grange, Herefordshire, in 1759. He contributed greatly to the progress of these branches of science in England. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society, in some of his papers inserted in the Transactions, he almost reached Darwin’s radical conclusions. He published several monographs on fruit-culture, and after his death his remarkable Physiological and Horticultural Papers were collected in book-form. He died in London on the 11th of May 1838.
