Richard Knightley

Richard Knightley (3 June 1593 – 8 November 1639) was an English lawyer and politician, who was a Member of Parliament, and Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1626. Although not as well known as John Pym, or his neighbour and friend, John Hampden, he was a long-time, high-profile opponent of the policies of Charles I. In 1630, he was a founder of the Puritan-backed Providence Island colony, which provided an organisational structure for what became the Parliamentary opposition prior to the 1642 to 1646 First English Civil War. He died in September 1639, without children. Biographical