Sir Norton Knatchbull, 1st Baronet (26 December 1602 – 3 February 1685) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 politician who sat in the House of Commons

House of Commons of England

The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...

 at various times between 1640 and 1679.

Knatchbull was born at Mersham Hatch

Mersham

Mersham is a small village and civil parish, three miles east of Willesborough and the town of Ashford in the county of Kent.-History:Historically Mersham has been a farming community with close ties to the local market town of Ashford. The small village dates back to Saxon times and is mentioned...

 in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, the second son of Thomas Knatchbull and his wife Eleanor Astley, daughter of John Astley. In April 1640, Knatchbull was elected Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Kent

Kent (UK Parliament constituency)

Kent was a parliamentary constituency covering the county of Kent in southeast England. It returned two "knights of the shire" to the House of Commons by the bloc vote system from the year 1290...

 in the Short Parliament

Short Parliament

The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England, so called because it lasted only three weeks....

. He was elected MP for New Romney

New Romney (UK Parliament constituency)

New Romney was a parliamentary constituency in Kent, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1371 until 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act....

 for the Long Parliament

Long Parliament

The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

 in November 1640. He sat until 1648 when he was excluded under Pride's Purge

Pride's Purge

Pride’s Purge is an event in December 1648, during the Second English Civil War, when troops under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed from the Long Parliament all those who were not supporters of the Grandees in the New Model Army and the Independents...

.

In April 1660, Knatchbull was re-elected MP for New Romney in the Convention Parliament. He was re-elected MP for New Romney again in 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament

Cavalier Parliament

The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter century reign of Charles II of England...

 and sat until 1679. Knatchbull was knighted and on 4 August 1641, he was created a Baronet, of Mersham Hatch, in the County of Kent.

Knatchbull married firstly Dorothy Westtrow, daughter of Thomas Westtrow on 22 October 1630, and had by her three sons. He married secondly Dorothy Steward, widow of Sir Edward Steward and daughter of Sir Robert Honyewood at St Martin-in-the-Fields

St Martin-in-the-Fields

St Martin-in-the-Fields is an Anglican church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Its patron is Saint Martin of Tours.-Roman era:Excavations at the site in 2006 led to the discovery of a grave dated about 410...

 outside London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 on 27 November 1662. Knatchbull died aged 83 and was buried in Mersham Hatch. He was succeeded in the baronetcy successiveley by his sons John

Sir John Knatchbull, 2nd Baronet

Sir John Knatchbull, 2nd Baronet was an English politician and baronet.-Background:He was the oldest son of Sir Norton Knatchbull, 1st Baronet and his first wife Dorothy Westrow, daughter of Thomas Westrow. In 1685, he succeeded his father as baronet. Knatchbull was educated at Trinity College,...

 and Thomas.

The Norton Knatchbull School, situated in Ashford

Ashford, Kent

Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. In 2005 it was voted the fourth best place to live in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Great Stour river, the M20 motorway, and the South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 railways. Its agricultural market is one of the most...

is a grammar school that was founded by him.