John Knibb I
Mayor of Oxford 1698/9 and 1710/11
John Knibb senior (1650–1722) was the son of Thomas Knibb, a yeoman of Claydon in Oxfordshire, and Elizabeth (née Wise). He was born on 21 January 1650.
In about 1664 John joined his older brother Joseph, a clockmaker in St Clements, Oxford, as an apprentice or assistant. After a year, the business moved to the south side of Holywell Street, a few doors down from the Broad Street corner. Their younger brother, Daniel, came to Oxford as an undergraduate at St Edmund Hall in 1668.
When Joseph became a member of the London Clockmakers' Company in 1670, John (then 20) presumably had to looked after most of the Oxford business. On 13 September 1672 John applied for his freedom, and although he had none of the necessary qualifications the council agreed to the suggestion of the Mayor, William Cornish, that he should be admitted free on 27 September 1673 on payment of £30. Knibb thought this was excessive, and enlisted the help of Brome Whorwood, MP for Oxford and Doctor of Civil Law of Trinity College (which in 1667 had got Knibb matriculated as a privileged person). Whorwood managed to get Knibb’s fine reduced to 20 marks, and he became a freeman by Act of Council on 11 April 1673.
Between 1673 and 1722 Knibb took on ten apprentices, including Thomas Gillett in 1697 and George Wentworth in 1706.
Knibb and his wife Elizabeth had the following children:
- Elizabeth (baptised at Holywell Church on 24 March 1679/80)
- Mary (baptised at Holywell Church on 1 November 1681, buried there on 1 August 1704)
- Hannah I (baptised at Holywell Church on 16 November 1782, buried there 10 March 1687/8)
- Jane (baptised at Holywell Church on 4 January 1684/5, buried there on 13 April 1698)
- John (baptised at Holywell Church on 8 September 1689)
- George (baptised at Holywell Church on 20 March 1691/2)
- Hannah II (baptised at Holywell Church on 7 May 1693, buried there on 18 October 1693)
- Joseph (baptised at Holywell Church on 20 February 1694/5).
Knibb became a council bailiff in September 1686 and was chosen to fill up the 24, taking his oath in September 1688. On 11 April 1689 Knibb went with the Mayor to the Coronation of William & Mary at Westminster.
In 1690 he made the clock for St John’s College. On 16 November 1693, Anthony Wood records in his diary, "Borrowed a brass watch of Mr Knibb".
In November 1697 Knibb was elected one of the eight Assistants, and in November 1698 started his first term as Mayor.
In September 1710 Knibb started his a second term as Mayor, selecting Robert Vicaris, a mercer, to be his Child.
During the mayoral year 1716–17 Knibb was chosen Alderman. Thomas Hearne says of him, "This Nibb is a man of so little understanding that he was never known to laugh".
John Knibb died in 1722, and Hearne records:
1722 July 19. Last night, about 8 Clock, died suddenly Mr Alderman Knibb of Oxford, an old, quite, harmless Man abt. 4 score years of Age. He lived by Smith-Gate in Holywell Parish [Smith Gate was in Catte Street, near the Octagonal Chapel]. 'Tis said he eat his supper heartily, went round New Parks with his Wife, sate himself down in his chair and died. A few days since I talked with him about Antiquities, when he told me he hath seen Anslap Spire in Bucks from Brill, he having, it seems, some Estate or Fortune at Anslapp.
Knibb died at the age of 72 and was buried inside St Cross Church on 22 July 1722. His wife Elizabeth lived another 18 years and was buried with him on 27 December 1740. There is a memorial to them, their four dead daughters, their son Joseph’s wife, and their son John and his wife (below) on the wall of that church:
Near this Place Lyeth Interrd the
Daughters of IOHN & ELIZ: KNIBB
of this Parish.
Hannah, HANNAH, Jane, & MARY
as also
IOHN KNIBBE Alderman OF YS CITY
Died Iuly 22. 1722 Aged 72.
&
ELIZ. the Wife of Joseph KNIBB
who Died Dec. 5 1726 aged 24
Mrs ELIZTH: KNIBB Wife of the above
Aldern: KNIBB died Decr: 23 1740.
JOHN KNIBB Jnr: Ald'n of this CITY
died Feb: 14th 1754.
Also DEBH: his Wife died [Aug] 8th 1751
Knibb’s children
Knibb was survived by:
- Elizabeth, his unmarried daughter, who was buried with him on 5 December 1726
- John (who was also to become Mayor of Oxford)
- George (who had been an undergraduate at Magdalen College and ended up as Rector of Appleton)
- Joseph.
At some time after the death of John junior in 1754, the above memorial stone tablet to the Knibb family was placed on the north wall of the aisle.
See also:
- John Knibb II, Mayor 1733/4 and 1747/8
- MS Wills Oxon W. 208.371; 40/1/19
- Knibb one-name study by Alan Jackson, including this family
- Oxford Mail, 18 October 1968
- C.F.C. Beeson, Clockmaking in Oxfordshire 1400–1850 (Oxford: Museum of the History of Science, 1989), pp. 117–22
- J. James, "Johannes Knibb Oxoniae fecit: the country lad who became mayor of Oxford", Antique Collector, 1936, vol. 7, 212–15
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entries numbered 422 and A44