John Knight (Exmoor pioneer)

John Knight (1765–1850) of Lea Castle, Wolverley,[2] of 52 Portland Place[3] in London, and of Simonsbath House, Exmoor, Somerset, was an agricultural pioneer who commenced the reclamation of the barren moorland of the former royal forest of Exmoor in Devon and Somerset, England.

In August 1818[9] he purchased at public tender the 10,262 1/4 acre former royal forest of Exmoor and began what became the largest single land reclamation project in England.

[11] He had a connection with the area as his aunt Mary Knight was the wife of Col. Coplestone Warre Bampfield (d.1791) of Hestercombe, Somerset, the nephew of Sir Coplestone Warwick Bampfylde, 3rd Baronet (c. 1689–1727),[12] lord of the manors of Poltimore and North Molton, both in Devon.

He built a stock-proof stone-faced wall or hedgebank around the whole estate, nearly 29 miles long, together with about 22 miles of public roads,[13] and commenced the great task of reclaiming the rough grazing of the high moors, all over 1,000 ft, to arable production, and built two farmsteads, Honeymead and Cornham, to the east and west respectively of his own residence at Simonsbath House, Simonsbath, formerly the only residence on the forest, built by James Boevey (1622–1696) in 1654,[14] which already had enclosed farmland of 108 acres.

[16] He married twice:[18] In 1842,[33][34] aged 76, he retired to the Villa Taverna[35] in Rome (or perhaps in Frascati,[36]),[37] leaving his 30-year-old eldest son Frederick Knight to complete his work, to whom he had handed over the management of the Exmoor estate in 1841.