Life

He was born at Cawkwell

Cawkwell

Cawkwell is a hamlet and former civil parish about south east of the town of Louth, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies in the Lincolnshire Wolds, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty....

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, about 1599. He was educated privately under a tutor, was for a short time at Great Grimsby grammar school, and afterwards matriculated at St Catharine's College, Cambridge

St Catharine's College, Cambridge

St. Catharine’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473, the college is often referred to informally by the nickname "Catz".-History:...

 in 1627 or 1629. Leaving the university, he became master of the grammar school

Queen Elizabeth's High School

Queen Elizabeth's High School is an 11-18 co-educational selective state grammar school, based in Gainsborough in western Lincolnshire, England.The school is selective; pupils wishing to enter at age 11 must sit and pass the Eleven Plus exam prior to entry...

 at Gainsborough

Gainsborough, Lincolnshire

Gainsborough is a town 15 miles north-west of Lincoln on the River Trent within the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. At one time it served as an important port with trade downstream to Hull, and was the most inland in England, being more than 55 miles from the North...

, Lincolnshire. In 1620 he was ordained (29 June, deacon; 30 June, priest), and he was presented to the vicarage of Humberstone, Lincolnshire, by John Williams, at that time bishop of Lincoln

Bishop of Lincoln

The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...

. He preached also every Sunday in the neighbouring churches of Holton-le-Clay

Holton-le-Clay

Holton-le-Clay is a village and civil parish in the extreme north of the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, south of Grimsby on the A16...

 and Scartho

Scartho

Scartho is a suburb located in the southern part of Grimsby, England, in the county of North East Lincolnshire. with a population of around 11,000. Up until the end of the Second World War it was a village; subsequent post-war expansion on the greenfield areas between Scartho and Grimsby has...

, but in two or three years resigned his living owing to scruples about ceremonies and admission to the communion, continuing, however, to preach. By 1636 he had become a separatist, and renounced his orders. He removed to London with his wife and family, and shortly afterwards fled to New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 to escape the high commission court. A warrant from that court reached him at Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, but after a brief imprisonment he was allowed to remain unmolested. He preached at Dover, New Hampshire

Dover, New Hampshire

Dover is a city in Strafford County, New Hampshire, in the United States of America. The population was 29,987 at the 2010 census, the largest in the New Hampshire Seacoast region...

. Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather, FRS was a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author and pamphleteer; he is often remembered for his role in the Salem witch trials...

 enumerated him among 'godly anabaptists;' quite when he adopted doctrine and practice to justify the comment is not clear.

On 24 December 1641 he reached London on his return, which was for his aged father, He opened a boarding-school on Great Tower Hill. Soon afterwards he was elected to the mastership of the free school in the parish of St. Mary Axe. After about a year he gave it up to become an army chaplain; but dissatisfied with the parliamentary commanders, he returned to London and to school-keeping. He learned Hebrew from Christian Ravis

Christian Ravis

Christian Ravis was an itinerant German orientalist and theologian.It has been questioned whether Ravis really mastered the languages he claimed to teach: whether his competence extended further than Turkish...

 of Berlin. In 1644 he preached in London and Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

 churches and churchyards, and occasionally, in what afterwards became quaker fashion, endeavouring to supplement the regular sermon by a discourse of his own. This led, according to Thomas Edwards

Thomas Edwards (Heresiographer)

Thomas Edwards was an English Puritan clergyman. He was a very influential preacher in London of the 1640s, and also one of the most ferocious polemical writers of the time, arguing from a conservative Presbyterian point of view against the Independents.-Life:He graduated M.A. from Queens'...

, to tumults. Knollys was twice brought before a committee of parliament, but on each occasion was absolved from blame and protected.

He gathered a church of his own in 1646, meeting first for about a year, in Great St. Helen's, then in Finsbury Fields, next in Coleman Street, subsequently in George Yard, Whitechapel

Whitechapel

Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...

, and ultimately at Broken Wharf, Thames Street. His most important convert was Henry Jessey

Henry Jessey

Henry Jessey or Jacie was one of many English Dissenters. He was a founding member of the Puritan religious sect, the Jacobites. Jessey was considered a Hebrew and a rabbinical scholar.-Life:...

, whom he baptised in June 1645. A letter (11 January 1646) from him to John Dutton of Norwich, in favour of toleration, printed by Edwards in Gangraena

Gangraena

Gangraena is a book by Thomas Edwards, published in 1646. A notorious work of "heresiography", i.e. the description in detail of heresy, it appeared the year after Ephraim Pagitt's Heresiography. These two books attempted to catalogue the fissiparous Protestant congregations of the time, in England...

, embittered the presbyterians against him. He subscribed the second edition (1646) of the confession of faith issued by London baptists, though not the original edition (1644). On 17 Jan. 1649 parliament gave a commission to him and William Kiffin

William Kiffin

William Kiffin , sometimes spelled William Kiffen, was a seventeenth-century English Baptist minister. He was also a successful merchant in the woolen trade.-Life:...

 to preach in Suffolk, on petition from inhabitants of Ipswich

Ipswich

Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...

. His name is attached to pleas for toleration addressed to parliament in 1651 and 1654, and to Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

 on 3 April 1657.

Between 1645 and the Restoration Knollys met with no interference. He held some offices of profit under Cromwell's government. On the outbreak (7 January 1661) of Thomas Venner

Thomas Venner

Thomas Venner was a cooper and rebel who became the last leader of the Fifth Monarchy Men, who tried unsuccessfully to overthrow Oliver Cromwell in 1657, and subsequently led a coup in London against the newly-restored government of Charles II...

's insurrection he was committed to Newgate Prison

Newgate Prison

Newgate Prison was a prison in London, at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey just inside the City of London. It was originally located at the site of a gate in the Roman London Wall. The gate/prison was rebuilt in the 12th century, and demolished in 1777...

 on suspicion, and detained till the act of grace on the king's coronation (23 April) liberated him. It was not safe for him to resume his ministry in London; after time in Wales and Lincolnshire he went to Germany, where he remained two or three years, returning at length to London by way of Rotterdam. In his absence, Colonel William Legge

William Legge (MP)

William Legge was an English royalist army officer, a close associate of Prince Rupert of the Rhine.-Life:He was the eldest son of Edward Legge, who was vice-president of Munster by the influence of his kinsman Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devonshire, by Mary, daughter of Percy Walsh of Moy valley,...

 in the king's name took possession of his property.

In London he once more resumed his school and his pastorate, preaching also a morning lecture on Sundays at Pinners' Hall, Old Broad Street, then in the hands of independents. On 10 May 1670 he was arrested at his meeting in George Yard, under the Conventicles Act 1670

Conventicles Act 1670

The Conventicles Act 1670 is an Act of the Parliament of England with the long title "An Act to prevent and suppress Seditious Conventicles." The Act imposed a fine on any person who attended a conventicle of five shillings for the first offence and ten shillings for a second offence...

. He was committed to the Bishopgate compter, but was considerately treated and was allowed to preach to the prisoners; at the next Old Bailey

Old Bailey

The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...

 sessions he obtained his discharge. He survived the Act of Toleration 1689

Act of Toleration 1689

The Act of Toleration was an act of the English Parliament , the long title of which is "An Act for Exempting their Majestyes Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certaine Lawes".The Act allowed freedom of worship to Nonconformists who had pledged to the...

 and despite old age, took part in efforts to consolidate the Baptists. He continued preaching to the last, with Robert Steed as his assistant.

He died on 19 September 1691, in his ninety-third year, and was buried in Bunhill Fields

Bunhill Fields

Bunhill Fields is a cemetery in the London Borough of Islington, north of the City of London, and managed by the City of London Corporation. It is about 4 hectares in extent, although historically was much larger....

. The funeral sermon was preached by Thomas Harrison (1699–1702), particular Baptist minister at Petty France, and afterwards at Loriners' Hall. He married in 1630 or 1631; his wife died on 30 April 1671; he had at least three sons and a daughter; Isaac, his last surviving son, died on 16 November 1671.