Edward Knott, real name Matthew Wilson (1582–1656) was an English Jesuit controversialist, twice provincial of the Society of Jesus in England.
He was born at Catchburn in the parish of Morpeth, Northumberland, After studying humanities in the college of the English Jesuits at St. Omer.
he was on 10 October 1602 admitted an alumnus of the English College at Rome, under the assumed same of Edward Knott, which he retained through life.
He entered the Society of Jesus on 2 October the same year, and upon the expiration of his novitiate in 1608 he was appointed penitentiary in Rome.
He was apprehended in 1629, and was committed to the Clink prison in Southwark, but at the instance of queen Henrietta Maria's mother, Marie de' Medici, he was released and banished in January 1632 (ODNB).