William de Knightley

• Preferred Name: William de Knightley^[1]
  
• Gender: M
  
• Death: ABT 1135 in Knightley, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom at LATI: N2.8221 LONG: E2.2807 with note: GEDCOM data
  
• Birth: ABT 1075 in Knightley, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom at LATI: N2.8221 LONG: E2.2807 with note: GEDCOM data
  
• Burial: 1135 in St Lawrence Churchyard, Gnosall, Stafford Borough, Staffordshire, England at LATI: N2.8061 LONG: E2.1182
  
• FSID: GXT9-KW7
  
• Notes:

  === Life Sketch ===
  «b»Biography«/b»
  William married Adeliza "de Cnichtel" (aka Adelise), a Flemish noblewoman whose maiden name has surely been mis-spelt and thus lost. Initially, he adopted her name as higher-born but when he inherited the manor of Knightley (aka "Cbenistelei" in the Domesday Book), from his mother, he became William de Knightley.
  
  William and his family lived at the manor farm of Knightley in Staffordshire and he died there in 1140 at age 65 years old.
  
  "The next name upon the family pedigree is that of William de Knightley, husband of Adelise. For him, authority exists. Mr. Solicitor-General Coke in the reign of King James I., anxious that his pedigree should be enriched by other descents than that of the paternal line with the somewhat roturier surname, had discovered for himself a descent from the Knightleys, and the line is accordingly marshalled amongst his ascendants. For this purpose many ancient deeds of the family were collected by him, the muniment chests of the Knightleys and of the Cotes family of Woodcote being also drawn upon. The notes taken from these deeds, themselves long since scattered, happily survive, and although they are roughly set down with great carelessness of date and detail their good faith seems unquestioned, the only doubtful deed amongst them being seemingly a note taken honestly enough from a deed which from internal evidence leads one to suspect one of the later Knightleys of Knightley of that offence of forgery which Sir Walter Scott's first readers deemed such an improbable and un-picturesque offence in the Lord Marmion.
  
  These notes of deeds then give us William of Knightley who by a deed undated, which may be dated by the occurrence of an episcopal witness as between 1125 and 1150, releases his right in the More in Knightley to the canons of Stodleigh for the souls health of himself and of Adelise his wife. We have here a William of Knightley, but knowing as we do that he appears in the pedigree by reason of this deed alone, we are still without an ancestor for Knightley of Knightley to whom we have no means of tacking the pious William."

• m. 1100 in Staffordshire, England

1. Nicholas Maucovenant de Knightley, b. ABT 1105 in Knightley, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom     d. ABT 1190 in Knightley, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom

1. Title: William de Knightley, "Find A Grave Index"
   Author: "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29R-BQ6Y : 9 July 2020), William de Knightley, ; Burial, , ; citing record ID , Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
   Publication: Name: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29R-BQ6Y;