Updated 2nd April 2013
The KNOTT family are the direct ancestors of the current McDanielson family through Maria KNOTT (born 1876 in North Ormesby, Middlesborough) who in 1900 at Leeds, married Fred SCHOFIELD. In 1924 their daughter Annie Maud SCHOFIELD married Arnold McDANIELSON. Annie Maud’s ancestors have so far been traced back to c1780 in Durham, Middlesbrough and Whitby. They were the KNOTT, BURTON, HUSTLER, HODGSON and (to be confirmed) RIDLEY families.
John KNOTT and his descendants
John KNOTT, an Agricultural Labourer/Husbandman (c1780 Hart, Durham) and Elizabeth (surname not known, c1783 Hartburne, Durham) are found on both the 1841 and 1851 censuses, resident at Ormesby, Middlesbrough. Their date of marriage is not known.
John and Elizabeth Knott had six children so far known of, all born in Ormesby: John born 19th Jun 1810; Mary 1st Jan 1813; Robert c1815; Ann c1820; Jane 24 Sep 1822; and Elizabeth c1825. The 1841 census records John and Elizabeth and their unmarried daughter Mary Knott age 28 resident with them. Also in the household are three young children: John age 8, Ann age 4 and Jane 1 month which implies these were Mary’s children.
The parish records list a baptism at Ormesby for Anne KNOTT on 7 April 1837 to father John FAWCITT and mother Mary Knott, who were presumably unmarried. On 13th June 1841 the same church records list a baptism for Jane KNOTT born illegitimately to Mary Knott.
In 1851, resident with John and Elizabeth were their recently married daughter Jane and her husband Henry DOUTHWAITE. Also resident were two Knott grandchildren born in Ormesby; Jane age 10 and Thomas age five (later father of Maria Knott). Thomas had been born illegitimately to Jane KNOTT c1846 and his baptism entry is found at Ormesby on 4th November 1849.
Next door to John and Elizabeth was their daughter Elizabeth, who in 1847 had married Durham-born John OLIVER, an Agricultural Labourer. They are listed with their infant son William OLIVER.
John and Elizabeth’s son Robert KNOTT is likely to be the person listed on the 1851 census resident at Loftus and working as an ‘Alum’ Labourer. His wife Elizabeth was born in Durham and their children were born in Loftus: John age 10; Hannah age 8; Mary Jane age 6 and Robert age 1.
The 1861 census finds John KNOTT age 81 now widowed and living in the household of his daughter Elizabeth at Ormesby Street, Ormesby. Her husband John Oliver had died sometime in the early 1850s and she had remarried, in 1855, to John MUDD. Their children Mary, age 1 and Thomas MUDD, age 4 are also listed, along with William OLIVER and his brother Robert OLIVER. A likely entry for Elizabeth KNOTT’S burial is found in the register for St Cuthbert’s, Ormesby, on 20th March 1860, giving her age as 77, which suggests her year of birth as 1783, supported by her entry on the 1851 census.
John KNOTT’S date of death is not known, but a possible entry is found in the burial register at St Cuthbert’s, Ormesby on 17th March 1868 for a John KNOTT aged 90. In 1870, Thomas KNOTT (illegitimate son of Jane KNOTT, later DOUTHWAITE) married Whitby-born Isabella BURTON, at Stockton. The couple are missing from the 1871 census but appear on the 1881, at which time Thomas’ occupation was an Engineer at an Ironworks. Their children were: Isabella Jane c1871; John Burton c1871; Sarah Elizabeth c1873; Thomas c1874; Maria c1876; Richard Hustler c1878; Ethel May c1883; Annie Maud c1885; all born in Middlesborough/Stockton/Ormesby districts. (In 1907 Annie Maud KNOTT married Whitehaven-born William RONEY in Lancaster and they are found on the 1911 census with their 1 year-old daughter, Ethel May, resident at 58 Prospect St, Lancaster. William’s occupation was a Slater/Roof Tiler).
In 1891 Thomas’ occupation was a ‘Locomotive Driver’ and resident with him and Isabella at 4 Gasworks Road, Ormesby, were only Thomas, Richard, Ethel and Annie. No certain trace of the absent members has been found on the census for that year. Thomas KNOTT (1874) served as a Private in the Yorkshire Regiment from 1896 to 1908 and saw service in India and Somaliland. In 1907 at Middlesbrough he married Elizabeth Maud HALL, daughter of Robert HALL and Ann WILSON.
