Henry Knyvet

Sir Henry Knyvet (1537–1598) of Charlton Park, Wiltshire, was an English Member of Parliament.

He was the eldest son of Sir Henry Knyvet and the brother of Thomas Knyvet. He succeeded his father in 1546.

He held a number of public offices and was appointed High Sheriff of Wiltshire (1578–79) and a deputy-lieutenant of Wiltshire. He was elected Member of Parliament for Wootton Bassett in 1571 and 1572, for Malmesbury in 1584 and 1586, Wootton Bassett again in 1589 and finally Malmesbury again in 1593 and 1597. He was knighted in 1574.

He married firstly in 1563, Elizabeth, the daughter and sole heiress of wealthy clothier Sir James Stumpe of Malmesbury, with whom he had 2 sons and 4 daughters. She brought him the manor of Charlton Park, where he commenced the building of Charlton House.

He married secondly, by June 1595, Mary, the daughter of Sir John Sydenham of Brinton, Somerset and the widow of John Fitz of Fitzford, Devon.

He was succeeded by his surviving three daughters, Catherine (who inherited Charlton Park and eventually became Countess of Suffolk), Elizabeth and Frances. All three married earls.

Frances Knyvet (d. 1605) married Sir William Bevill, and danced in masques at the court of Anne of Denmark, including The Masque of Blackness as Notis. Her sister the Countess of Suffolk portrayed Kathare. She married secondly Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland, and had a daughter Katherine Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham. Frances Knyvet died of smallpox in the summer of 1605.