Rainald Knightley, 1st Baron Knightley

[2] The Domesday Book of 1086 lists the tenant of Chenistelei as Rainald, namely "Reginald the Sheriff", who held 88 manors throughout England, said to be the ancestor of this family.

[3][4] Mark Noble (1787) wrote of the de Knightley family:[5] In 1415 Sir Richard Knightley purchased the manor of Fawsley in Northamptonshire, where the senior line of the family became seated.

Knightley entered Parliament for Northamptonshire South in 1852 (succeeding his father), a seat he held until 1892.

In 1892 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Knightley, of Fawsley in the County of Northampton.

[6] Lord Knightley married Louisa Mary, daughter of General Sir Edward Bowater, in 1869.