KNOWLES, Charles (c.1704-77), of Lovelhill, nr. Windsor, Berks.

Knowles, who entered the navy as a captain’s servant, spent much of his naval career in the West Indies, where he married the daughter of a leading Barbados planter. After serving in the expeditions against Portobello and Cartagena, on which he published several pamphlets, he was appointed governor of Louisburg, but soon applied for a transfer to the West Indies, explaining to Anson that he had ‘more the glory of his Majesty’s arms at heart than views after private lucre’.Add. 15956, f. 136. Appointed commander-in-chief in Jamaica, he co-operated with Edward Trelawny, the governor of the colony, in using their posts to secure personal privileges in trading with the captured French colonies, to the exclusion of other local merchants.R. Pares, War and Trade in W. Indies, 183-4. Ordered to be court-martialled in 1749 on charges of negligence in an action of 1748, he took steps to have himself returned for Gatton on the nomination of Paul Humphrey. A letter to one of his brother officers on 5 Dec. 1749 mentions that ‘the cunning admiral has got a seat in the House of Commons last week, and it is supposed he will have art enough to acquit himself at his trial’.HMC Du Cane, 203. In the event he was reprimanded. He gave up his seat in 1752 on being appointed governor of Jamaica.

He died 9 Dec. 1777.