KNOWLES PROGENITOR BIOGRAPHIES
Robert Knowles (1666 - 1703)
Knowles Progenitor: MA - 04 (Suffolk Co.)
(based on research by Charles Thornton Libby & Virginia Knowles Hufbauer)
Capt. Robert Knowles, whose gravestone stands at Charlestown, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts, died of Smallpox, 2 April 1703 at the age of 36. Robert first appears as a prisoner on a pirate ship in 1691, and was then called of Barbados, boatswain. Later he had married a Charlestown heiress and was half owner and master of the ketch MARY of Barbados. His wife was Katherine Graves, a granddaughter of Richard Russell, Esq., whose mother, after the death of her husband, Nathaniel Graves, married Capt. John Herbert of Reading. Capt. Robert and Katherine (Graves) Knowles had three children:
1. Elizabeth, born 27 July 1695, who married John Stanley
2. Robert, born 18 April 1700, who died early
3. Graves, born 14 May 1702
Mrs. Katherine Knowles married in 1702, Calvin Galpin, and after his death she was a licensed retailer in Boston. Katherine's son, Graves Knowles, served on the eastern frontier as armorer, under Colonel Westbrook. Graves Knowles married in 1730, Ann Rayner; he may have been married previously.
Graves Knowles may be the father of a Richard Knowles. No other father is known for the Richard Knowles who married in Boston, 2 October 1749, Mary Pines; and no prior appearance, if not this Richard, is known for the Richard Knowles who married at Topsham, Sagadahoc Co., Maine (intentions recorded at Brunswick, Maine 27 October 1755), Mary Orr. This last Richard was in the eastern service in the French and Indian War. He deposed in 1794, aged 76, that he was at Brunswick on the Androscoggin in 1742. He may have been an immigrant, as many of his neighbors were.
In his will, proved at Pownalborough, Maine, in 1798, a Richard Knowles names his son Richard and four daughters, Margaret Skolfield, Mary Le Roys, Susannah Holt, and Rebecca Blair. The daughters Mary and Susannah being evidently the Mary and Suzannah Knowles whose parentage was sought in 1895 by the writer of a note in the NEHGS Register (Vol. 49, Pg. 75-76) which can be consulted for further information about them and their descendants.
Obviously this Knowles line needs further research, but there may not be any Knowles descendants from this line; hence this research is currently a low priority.
R. B. Noles
December 29, 2004
