Knott, William

Singer

Collection date: Sept 1911

Area: Cambridgeshire

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William Knott at Ely workhouse: age 79, 1 song ‘As I walked though the meadows’ FT2655  on 11 Sept 1911: William Knott was born in Wicklewood, Norfolk c1833, second child of William Knott Snr, agricultural labourer and his wife Mary.

His father became a brickmaker by 1851 and William Jr took up the trade. He moved south to the village of Wendy, 12 miles SW of Cambridge and married local girl Emma Thacker. They lived at nearby Croydon-cum-Clapton for 20 years, raising 2 sons and a daughter. But Emma died in the 1870s and William was on his own as a widower in Haddenham in 1891 (Sharp wrote ‘Addenham’). By 1901 he had been admitted to Ely workhouse as a pauper (RG13/1546 f81 p2) and he was still there when Sharp met him in 1911. William died April qr 1917 aged 85 (3b 592).