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KNIGHT, William – emigrated 1868

William Knight (1846-1912), the eighth of 11 children of Robert Knight and his wife, Mary (née Dowsil), was born at Aldington in 1846.  He was baptised at St James’ Church, Badsey, on 1st November 1846.

William grew up in a thatched cottage in Aldington (knocked down in the 1920s to make way for council housing) where he was to be found at the time of the 1851 and 1861 census; in 1861 he was working as a plough boy.

In 1868, William emigrated to America and settled in Ohio.  He was not the first from Badsey to go to Ohio.  In 1852, Edwin Knight (a distant relative) and his fiancé, Mary Marshall, had gone to Auburn, Ohio.  At the time of the 1870 federal census, William was working as a farm labourer for farmer, Ozro Truman, in Auburn, Geauga County, Ohio.

William married Anna Maria Mace in about 1874 who had recently emigrated from England.  They had three children:  Mary Elizabeth (1875-1916), George Gladstone (1877) and Julia (c1879-1955).  In 1880 they were living in Parkman Township, Geauga County, Ohio, where William was by now a farmer.

When his mother died in 1889, William, jointly with his younger brother, Thomas, inherited Vine Cottage, Badsey.  As they were both living overseas by this time, they sold Vine Cottage to their sister, Emma Knight.

In 1910 William and Annie were living in Farmington Township, Trumbull County, Ohio. 

William died in 1912 and was buried at Hillside Cemetery, Trumbull County.  Anne was living with her married daughter, Julia Webb, in Clark, Ohio, in 1920.