J. B. Knott, Esq.
(1842-1877)
7 June 1862
Volume 7, page 82, sitting number 8571.
[Identified as ‘J. B. Knott, Esq.’ in the Silvy daybooks, this is possibly the cotton spinner and manufacturer James Bayley Knott.]
James Bayley Knott was baptised on 16 September 1842 at St Peter’s Church, Bolton-le-Moors, now in Greater Manchester. His father was James Knott, then a ‘Commissions Agent,’ later a cotton manufacturer.
On 8 January 1868, aged 26, at St Mark’s Church, Worsley, also now in Greater Manchester, he married Mary Rasbothom. ‘James Bayley, son of James Knott, of Clarendon House, Cheetham Hill, Manchester [married] Mary, elder daughter of Peter Ramsbotham, of Highfield House, Worsley’ (Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 11 January 1868).
On his marriage licence he described himself as a ‘Cotton Spinner,’ though when he had served on a jury at Kirkdale Assizes in 1865 his profession had been reported as ‘cotton manufacturer’ (Liverpool Mercury, 19 January 1865).
The couple appear on the 1871 census living at Chaddock Hall (wrongly recorded as ‘Chadwick Hall’) in Tyldesley. The household included three servants.
Captain James Bayley Knott died at Chaddock Hall on 14 May 1877, aged only 36.
‘On Monday morning Mr J. B. Knott, Chaddock Hall, Tyldesley, died at his residence, after a few days illness, from congestion of the lungs. He was captain of the 55th L. R. V., Atherton, head of the firm of Bayley and Knott, cotton spinners, Tyldesley, and vice-president of the Astley and Tyldesley Conservative Association. He was at the batallion drill at Worsley, on Saturday week, and his sudden death is much regretted in the Tyldesley district’ (Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 15 May 1877). Although he had indeed joined the 55th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers as an Ensign in 1860, he had later been the Captain of the 60th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers.
According to the Bolton News (14 May 1877), he was ‘much esteemed by all sections of his townsmen. […] The demise of the deceased has cut short the promise of a long and honourable career, death taking place at an early age.’
He left an estate valued at £45,000.