Grace Knight

3 June 1795–24 June 1833 (Age 38)
Byberry Township, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

The Life Summary of Grace

When Grace Knight was born on 3 June 1795, in Byberry Township, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, her father, Jonathan Knight, was 46 and her mother, Elizabeth Thomas, was 30. She married Samuel Smedley on 12 November 1828. She died on 24 June 1833, at the age of 38.

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Family Time Line

Samuel Smedley
1797–1878
Grace Knight
1795–1833
Marriage: 12 November 1828

Spouse and Children

Parents and Siblings

Siblings

(8)

+3 More Children

World Events (8)

1800 · Movement to Washington D.C.
Age 5
While the growth of the new nation was exponential, the United States didn’t have permanent location to house the Government. The First capital was temporary in New York City but by the second term of George Washington the Capital moved to Philadelphia for the following 10 years. Ultimately during the Presidency of John Adams, the Capital found a permanent home in the District of Columbia.
1803
Age 8
France sells Louisiana territories to U.S.A.
1808
Age 13
Atlantic slave trade abolished.

Name Meaning

1 English: status name from Middle English knyghte ‘knight’, Old English cniht ‘boy’, ‘youth’, ‘serving lad’. This word was used as a personal name before the Norman Conquest, and the surname may in part reflect a survival of this. It is also possible that in a few cases it represents a survival of the Old English sense into Middle English, as an occupational name for a domestic servant. In most cases, however, it clearly comes from the more exalted sense that the word achieved in the Middle Ages. In the feudal system introduced by the Normans the word was applied at first to a tenant bound to serve his lord as a mounted soldier. Hence it came to denote a man of some substance, since maintaining horses and armor was an expensive business. As feudal obligations became increasingly converted to monetary payments, the term lost its precise significance and came to denote an honorable estate conferred by the king on men of noble birth who had served him well. Knights in this last sense normally belonged to ancient noble families with distinguished family names of their own, so that the surname is more likely to have been applied to a servant in a knightly house or to someone who had played the part of a knight in a pageant or won the title in some contest of skill.2 Irish: part translation of Gaelic Mac an Ridire ‘son of the rider or knight’. See also McKnight .

Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.

Possible Related Names

McKnight
Knights
Nytes
Rider
Ritter

Sources (3)

  • Grace Knight in entry for Samuel Smedley, "Pennsylvania, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Marriage Records, 1512-1989"
  • Grace Knight, "Pennsylvania, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Births and Baptisms, 1520-1999"
  • Family Bible Record of Jonathan Knight and Elizabeth his wife

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