KNIGHT, Joseph.17.10.1787 — Cotta (or Colombo?), Sri Lanka 11.10.1840, when 53. Rev. British Missionary in Sri Lanka. Arrived at Colombo in June 1818 with three others (S. Lambrick, R. Major and B. Ward), then worked for Church Missionary Society at Nellore (Nallur) in Jaffna. Immediately he began to learn Tamil in order to preach to people in their own language. He founded a school and a printing press. Married 1823 Sarah Bardwell Richardes (1793–1824), then 1826 Elizabeth Shaw Nichols (1793–1838), both widows of American missionaries.
Publications: A manual Dictionary of the Tamil Language. Commenced by J. Knight and completed under the supervision of L. Spaulding. 4+771+32 p. Jaffna 1842.
– An English and Tamil dictionary; or, Manual lexicon for schools. Madras 1844.
Sources: J.W. Balding, One hundred years in Ceylon, or, The centenary volume of the Church Missionary Society in Ceylon, 1818-1918. Vepery 1918; V. Vamadevan in http://sjcoba.blogspot.com/p/rev-joseph-knight-founder-of-st-johns.html; wives in findagrave.com.
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