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KNIGHT, Edwin – emigrated 1874

Edwin Knight (1855-1926) was born at Badsey on 6th July 1855, the second of three children of William Knight, an agricultural labourer, and his wife, Elizabeth (née Hartwell).  His family had lived in Badsey since the 17th century.

The Knight family had been living at Sharps Row, Badsey, in 1851By 1861 they had moved to Badsey Fields Lane, where John’s father worked as a carter.  Whether Edwin was born at Sharps Row is not known.  Several of the Knight family neighbours at Sharps Row were also to emigrate to America in the 1870s:  John Hicks and his daughter, Mary Anne Sears, William and Elizabeth Edgington, John Wheatley.  By 1871 they were living on Brewers Lane.

In 1872, Edwin’s older brother, John, then aged 22, decided to seek his fortune overseas.  Together with his friend from the village, Owen Joseph Hall, they sailed from Liverpool steerage class, arriving in Baltimore, Maryland, on 30th April 1872, from whence they headed to Auburn, Ohio.  Whereas Owen later returned to Badsey, John settled in America.  Two years later, Edwin and his parents and his younger sister, Ann, decided to join John in America.

At the time of the 1880 census, Edwin was farming in Auburn, Geauga County, Ohio.  The household his parents, his two siblings and John’s wife and son.  They lived eight houses away from the Edgington family.

In the early 1880s, the whole Knight family moved to Duplain Township, Clinton County, state of Michigan, where the brothers had farms next to each other.  Edwin married Emma in about 1886; they had no children.

At the time of the 1900 census, John and family were still at Duplain, with Edwin and his wife next door.  Their mother had died in 1885, so their widowed father was living with Edwin.  William Knight died in 1907.  The two brothers still lived next door to each other in 1910.

Edwin died at Duplain, Clinton, on 27th April 1926, aged 70; the cause of death was Bright’s Disease.  He was buried at Elsie, Clinton, three days later.