Background
He was born at Kirkby Stephen in Westmoreland in 1544, and entered Saint John"s College, Cambridge, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts 1564, and on 21 March 1567 was elected a Fellow.
He was born at Kirkby Stephen in Westmoreland in 1544, and entered Saint John"s College, Cambridge, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts 1564, and on 21 March 1567 was elected a Fellow.
Street John"s College.
In 1568 he proceeded Master of Arts, and in 1576 took his degree as Bachelor of Divinity
In 1576 he preached against their doctrines at Paul"s Cross. On 13 August 1579 he was presented by Sir William Spring to the rectory of Cockfield, Suffolk, in succession to Richard Longworth, and continued to hold the living for the rest of his life. In May 1582, an assembly of about 60 clergymen from Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire met in Cockfield Church, to confer about the Prayer Book, clerical dress and customs.
Knewstub was a strong candidate in 1595 to succeed William Whitaker as Master of Street John"s, though Richard Clayton was elected.
At the conference in Hampton Court in 1604 he appeared as one of the four ministers deputed to oppose conformity. Knewstub died at Cockfield, where he was buried 31 May 1624.
His epitaph, which has disappeared from his place of interment, has been preserved by Francis Peck. He does not appear to have been married.