William Knighton: Author of the Private Life of an Eastern King

By Judy Urquhart

William Knighton set sail for Ceylon in 1842 to manage a coffee plantation belonging to an uncle. He grew bored, took on the editorship of the Colombo Herald, then moved on to Calcutta and worked as a journalist, writer and professor of philosophy before writing the best selling Private Life of an Eastern King and becoming Assistant Commissioner in Oudh. He married and had two children that survived. He wrote more books and articles. He bought the tea estate of Ambari. In 1867 he returned to England. His son and then his wife died of Tuberculosis. He married again, a widow with a major share in an Australian sheep station.

He was my great, great grandfather and the first of five generations on my mother's side of the family to spend their working lives in India. In 1996 I travelled across northern India and Pakistan in my ancestor's footsteps. On return I continued researching their lives following them to beginnings in Devonshire and Ireland. William Knighton or WK as I shall now call him - left more evidence than others and I felt an affinity with him and his interests. However, I had reached a block in the road when Megan Stevens got in touch. She was a descendant of WK's second wife and showed me her extensive research into ancestral web sites and other archives.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BBJMBFTC
• ISBN13: 9798842871018
• Release Date: August 2022
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 92 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.5" x 8.5"