Fellow details
| AuthorizedFormsOfName |
Knight; Thomas Andrew (1759 - 1838)
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| Surname |
Knight
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| Forenames |
Thomas Andrew
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| DatesofExistence |
1759 - 1838
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| Nationality |
British
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| DatesAndPlaces |
Birth:
Wormesley Grange, near Ludlow, Herefordshire, England (12 August 1759)
Death:
London (11 May 1838)
Burial:
Churchyard of St Mary's Church, Wormesley, Herefordshire. His chest tomb is designated a Grade II listed building
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| Activity |
Research Field:
Botany, horticulture
Education:
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
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| RSActivity |
Membership:
Fellow
Election Date:
21/03/1805
Medals/Prizes:
Copley Medal 1806
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| Relationships |
Son of Rev Thomas Knight, brother of Richard Payne Knight, classical scholar and whose main thrust of work related to theories of the Picturesque
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| PublishedWorks |
"A treatise on the culture of the apple and pear" 1797, London; 'Pomona Herefordensis' 1811, London;
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| Source |
Sources:
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
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| Code |
NA7418
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View full record
| AP/8A/10 |
Solution of an analytical problem |
19 February 1818 |
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View full record
| AP/8A/19 |
An account of some Experiments made to ascertain the Effects of voltaic Electricity upon Vegetable life |
4 June 1818 |
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View full record
| EC/1804/19 |
Knight, Thomas Andrew |
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