Knowles, James Davis, a Baptist minister, was born in Trovidence, R. I., July, 1798. He learned the printing business, and in 1819 became co-editor of the lihode Island American. Having joined the Bap- tist Church in ]\Iarch, 18-.'0, he was in the fall following licensed to preach. Shortly after he entered the soph- omore class of Columbian College, Washington, D. C, graduated in 1824, and was immediately appointed one of the tutors of the college, which position he held imtil called as pastor to the Second Baptist Church of Boston, where he was ordained Dec. 28, 1825. In 1832 impaired health obliged him to resign his pastoral charge, and he became i:)rofessor of pastoral duties and sacred rhetoric in the Newton Theological Institution, acting at the same time for over two years as editor of the Christian Revietr, a Baptist quarterly. He died jMa}' 9, 1838. Mr. Knowles published a number of occasional Sermons, A d- dresses, etc. ; Memoir of Mrs. A mi II. Judson, late Mis- sionary to Burmah (1829); and Memoir of Ror/er Wil- liams, the Founder of the State of Rhode Islaml (Boston, 1834) Sprague, Annals, vi, 707 ; Appleton, New Amer- ican Ci/clopcedia, x, 192.
Knowles, James Sheridan, the celebrated modern dramatist of England, in later years a minister in the Baptist Church, was born at Cork, Ireland, in 1784, and early distinguished himself as a dramatic writer. About 1845 he began to entertain religious scruples about his connection with the stage, was finally converted, and in 1852 joined the Baptist Church and entered the ministry. He died Dec. 1, 18G2, at Tor- quay, in Devonshire. Several of his sermons have been puljlished, but they do not so greathr merit our notice as his exposition of the Protestant view on the Lord's Sup- per, which he defended in The Idol demolished bij its own Priest (Lond. 1851, 12mo), an answer to cardinal Wise- man's lectures on transubstantiation. He also wrote The Rock of Rome, or the Arch Ileresi/ (London, 1849, 1850, 1851). His dramatic works have been collected and published in 3 vols. sm. 8vo, in 1843 and since. See Allibone, Diet. Enf/l. and A m. A uthors, vol. ii, s. v. ; North Amer. Review, xl, 141 sq. •, Chambers, C'ycloj}. s. v. (J. H.W.)
KnoTwles, John, a Congregational minister, was born in Liiicolnsliirc, England, and educated at Magda- len College, Cambridge. In 1G25 he was chosen fellow of Katharine Hall, and while cmphn-ed in his duties as a teacher, upon the invitation of the mayor and alder- men of Colchester, became their lecturer. In conse- quence of his opposition to archbishop Laud, his license was revoked in 1G39, and he immediately removed to New England, and was ordained co-pastor at Water- town, Mass., Dec. 19. In October, 1G49, he departed to Virginia, in response to a call for ministerial aid in that destitute region. In a few months, however, he return- ed to Watertown, whence he returned to England in 1G50, where he soon became preacher in the cathedral at Bristol. From fhis place he was ejected at the Res- toration, and in 1GG2 was prevented from public minis- trations by the Act of Uniformity. Ey permission of king Charles in 1G72, he became colleague of the Rev. Thomas Kentish at St. Katharine's, London, where he preached till near the close of his Ufe, April 10, 1085. It is said of him that sometimes, while preaching, his very earnestness and zeal so exhausted him that he fainted and fell. Mr. Knowles is represented as having
been " a godly man and a prime scholar." — Sprague, ^w- iials of the A inerican Pulpit.
Knowles, Thomas, D.D., an English divine of great learning and talents, was born at Eh' in 1723 ; studied at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, of which he was chosen fellow, and was afterwards, for over thirty years, lecturer of St. ]\Iary's, in Bury St. Edmund's. He be- came successively prebendary of Elj^, rector of Ickworth and Chedburgh, and, finally, vicar of Winston, Suffolk. He died in 1802. His principal works are, The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ (Lond. 1780, 12mo ; a new ed., with additions, by the Rev. II. Hasted, London, 1830, 12mo) : — Twelve Sermons on the Attribictes (Camb. 1750, 8vo) : — A nswer to Bp. Clayton! s Essay on Spirit (Lond. 1753, 8vo): — Primitive Christianity (1789, 8vo). He also WTOte several pamphlets on religious subjects. See Gent. Marjazine, vol. Ixxii ; Chalmers, Gen. Biotj. Did. ; Allibone, Diet. Engl, and Am. Authors, vol. ii, s. v.
Knowlton, Gideox A., a Methodist Episcopal mmister, was born in East Iladdam, Conn., entered the itinerancy in Central New York in 1800, was mostly em- ploj-ed in what was the old Genesee Conference, sta- tioned at Albany in 1804, at Saratoga in 1805, and died at Whitest^wn, N. Y., Aug. 15, 1810. He was deeply pious, a '"plain, practical, and useful preacher." and of great and exemplary faithfuhiess in the work of his Master. — Minutes of Conferences, i. 195.
Knowne Men, or jusf-fastmen, a name for per- sons who, in the reign of Henry VII, suffered martyr- dom at the instigation of John Longland, bishop of Lin- coln, either for reailing the Scriptures or treatises of Scripture in EngUsh, or for hearing the same read. See Hardwick, Hist, of the Reformation, p. 180, note 3 ; Fox, Book of Martyrs (Lond. 1583), p. 820-37 ; Burnet, Hist, of the R format ion (London, 1681), i, 27 sq.