Richard Knightley (3 June 1593 – 8 November 1639) was an English lawyer and politician, who was a Member of Parliament, and Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1626.

[2] Only five years old when his father died, he became a ward of Sir Thomas Smythe, who among many other business ventures, served as treasurer of the Virginia Company from 1609 to 1620.

[3] Although Knightley attended legal school at Gray's Inn, its major impact seems to have been introducing him to a group of Puritan divines, including renowned preacher, Richard Sibbes.

He married in 1614, then succeeded his uncle Sir Valentine in 1618; he later used his new status to install the Puritan nonconformist John Dod as vicar of St Mary's, Fawsley.

[a] It also reflected wider concerns James was failing to support Protestant Europe, and his own son-in-law, when it was under attack from a Catholic Counter-Reformation.