Sir William Knighton went from general practitioner in Devon to close friend and adviser of King George IV. He contributed remarkably to the stability of the Crown, bringing this dysfunctional King's finances under control and enabling the work of government requiring Royal decision-making to proceed much more effectively than it might otherwise have done. Inevitably he was involved in the making and breaking of ministries but appears to have done so with some reluctance. His detractors appear to have been motivated mainly by envy, fear of loss of patronage and social prejudice. His Royal career echoes physicianly virtues of fidelity to trust, empathy and honesty. He made every effort to keep a low public profile in order to minimize envy and intrusion into his private life. His success in this regard may account for the fact that he is practically unknown today despite a unique career in British medicine.
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References
1.
KnightonLady. Memoirs of Sir William Knighton Bart GCH Keeper of the Privy Purse during the reign of His Majesty King George the Fourth. Including his Correspondence with Many Distinguished Personages. Philadelphia: Carey Lea and Blanchard, 1838:2–18. Knighton's widow Dorothea wrote the Memoirs soon after his death in 1836. These consist, in large part, of selected correspondence. Dorothea is said to have destroyed most of her husband's papers including those concerning the major events in his life and times. We are thus dependant on other sources for insights into his relationship with his major patron the Marquess Wellesley, and with Sir John McMahon and Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, Knighton's predecessors as secretary to George IV. The Memoirs also never allude to the purpose of Knighton's many trips to the Continent in the King's service or to his political influence. Dorothea appears to have been an accomplished landscape painter
2.
3.
KnightonLady(op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 18–32
4.
Ibid.: p. 33
5.
MunkW. The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London. London: The Royal College of Physicians, 1878;3:39–41
6.
KnightonL.(op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 35–7
7.
FletcherE, ed. Conversations of James Northcote RA with James Ward on Art and Artists. London: Methuen, 1901:126. James Northcote RA (1746–1831) was born in Plymouth. He came to London in 1777 where he was a pupil of fellow Devonian Sir Joshua Reynolds. He was a respected portrait, history and animal painter becoming a Royal Academician in 1787. He also found fame as an author notably with his 1813 biography of Reynolds. He gave a collection of autobiographical notes to Knighton with the intention of a memoir of his life being published. Knighton owned several of his paintings, including portraits of members of the Knighton family
8.
KnightonLady(op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 44–7
9.
Royal College of Physicians Library Document RCP-Reguc/env34/1. In 1783 the College resolved to provide licences to practitioners in midwifery for the ‘ars obstetrica’ only. This offered a distinction to such practitioners who could satisfy an examination with high standards in knowledge and character. It did not and could not under college statutes have made such practice without the licence illegal. Some of the licentiates in midwifery, not otherwise licensed to practise as physicians, appear to have done so as did so many other man-midwives. The College in 1804 repealed the statute that created licentiates in midwifery. A cynic might consider the apparently altruistic appeal by Knighton and his colleagues for reinstatement of the licence for the public good to have not a little to do with reducing the competition to their own practices
10.
11.
AspinallA, ed. The Diary of Henry Hobhouse (1820–27). London: Home and Van Thal, 1947:76. Henry Hobhouse (1776–1854) was Undersecretary of State at the Home Office from 1817 to 1827
12.
KnightonLady(op. cit. ref. 1): p. 284
13.
Ibid.: pp. 57–61
14.
AspinallA.George IV and Sir William Knighton. The English Historical Review1940;55:58–82. Sir Henry Halford (1766–1844), Physician Extraordinary to George III, and Physician Extraordinary to George IV, William IV and Victoria. President of the Royal College of Physicians 1820–44. During his tenure of office the college moved to Pall Mall East and non-Oxbridge graduates were first admitted to the fellowship. Sir Matthew Tierney (1776–1845), Physician Extraordinary to George IV and William IV. Met Jenner in Gloucestershire in 1798 and became a prominent advocate of vaccination. Established a vaccine institution in Brighton, the first outside London. He was a contemporary of Knighton at Edinburgh
15.
16.
QuennellP. The Private Letters of Princess Lieven to Prince Metternich (1820–26). London: John Murray, 1948:152. Letter of July 1822: Knighton's ‘influence rules him in the first place and dominates his affections, tastes, everything. … the chief cause of his intimate relations with the King is having seized all his papers at the death of the King's confidential secretary MacMahon …‘. She also made accusations that he poisoned his wife and was editor of the anti-government journal John Bull that are patent nonsense. Princess Dorothea de Lieven (1785–1857) was the wife of the Russian Ambassador and on close if not intimate terms with the leading political and diplomatic figures of Europe
17.
Gentleman's Magazine1836part 2; p. 652
18.
HibbertC. George IV Regent and King 1811–30. New York: Harper and Row, 1973:225
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AspinallA(op. cit. ref. 11): p. 43
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KnightonLady(op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 70–2
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HibbertC(op. cit. ref. 18): pp. 225–7(for Hobhouse see reference 11)
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AspinallA(op. cit. ref. 11): p. 83
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LievenPrincess(op. cit. ref. 16): p. 267
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25.
AspinallA. The Letters of King George IV 1812–30. London: Cambridge University Press, 1938:220
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HibbertC(op. cit. ref. 18): p. 239
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AspinallA(op. cit ref. 11): p. 94
28.
Wellington, Seventh Duke of. Wellington and his friends. Letters of the first Duke of Wellington to the Rt Hon Charles Arbuthnot and Mrs Arbuthnot, the Earl and Countess of Wilton, Princess Lieven and Miss Burdett-Coutts. London: Macmillan, 1965:50. The Order of the Guelph was founded in 1815 but not conferred by the British Crown after the death of King William IV in 1837 when the personal union of the United Kingdom and Hanover ended
29.
BamfordFand the Duke of Wellington. The Journal of Mrs Harriet Arbuthnot, 1820–1832. London: Macmillan, 1950:245–6
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BamfordFand the Duke of Wellington(op. cit. ref. 29): p. 36
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32.
MelvilleL. The Huskisson Papers. London: Constable, 1931:230John Charles Herries (1778–1855) was Commissary-General from 1811 and as such in 1813 was responsible for financing Wellington's invasion of France. In this capacity he became intimate with the banker Nathan Mayer Rothschild. (See reference 30, p. 10)
33.
FergusonN. The World's Banker. The History of the House of Rothschild. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1998:155. Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777–1836) first came into contact with British royalty thanks to his father's purchase of debts owed by the Prince Regent and his brothers. He was close to Herries who as British Commissary-general was responsible for financing Wellington's invasion of France in 1813. Rothschild was against the liberal monetary and commercial policies of Huskisson and a supporter of Wellington whose foreign policy was favourable to Rothschild interests. He came into contact with Knighton around the time of a loan of £125,000 to George IV in 1823
34.
35.
Sidmouth MSS quoted by Aspinall A (op. cit. ref. 11): p. 62
36.
HibbertC(op. cit. ref. 18): p. 244. Charles Greville (1794–1865) was clerk to the privy council from 1821 to 1859
37.
KnightonLady(op. cit. ref. 1): p. 92
38.
AspinallA(op. cit. ref. 25): pp. 391–2n
39.
HibbertC(op. cit. ref. 18): pp. 301–2
40.
TromansN. David Wilkie The People's Painter. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007;240. Sir David Wilkie (1785–1841) whose first commission from George (then Prince Regent) was in 1812. In 1822 Wilkie was commissioned to record the King's visit to Scotland in 1822. In 1823 the year Knighton was appointed Keeper of the Privy Purse, Wilkie had been appointed King's Limner in Scotland on the death of Sir Henry Raeburn that year. He was appointed Painter in Ordinary to the King (official royal portraitist) in 1830 on the death of Lawrence and knighted in 1836. He died at sea on his return from a visit to the Holy Land, an event commemorated in JMW Turner's painting Peace. Burial at Sea (Tate Britain, London)
41.
Lloyd C.GeorgeIV, WilliamKnightonSir, DavidWilkieSir. Apollo2002;155:53–6. Works by Knighton and his wife Dorothea were also sold at the auction
42.
CunninghamA. The Life of Sir David Wilkie. London: John Murray, 1843;3:49
43.
RobertsH. For the King's Pleasure. The Furnishing and Decoration of George IV's Apartments at Windsor Castle. London: The Royal Collection, 2001:25, 48
44.
Le MarchantD. Memoir of Sir John Charles, Viscount Althorp, 3rd Earl Spencer. London: Richard Bentley, 1876:217n
45.
AspinallA(op. cit. ref. 25): p. 306
46.
Wellington, Seventh Duke of (op. cit. ref. 28): p. 70
47.
HibbertC(op. cit. ref. 18): p. 327
48.
MunkW(op. cit. ref. 5): pp. 100–5. Dr Robert Gooch (1784–1830) met Knighton in Edinburgh in 1804 and ‘was not slow to appreciate the profound sagacity and commanding power over the minds of others which so characterised this distinguished person, and throughout his life was accustomed on all matters of importance to apply to Sir William Knighton for advice … In 1826 he was appointed librarian to the King … for this and numerous other acts of kindness he was indebted to Sir William Knighton’
49.
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