Grampian Club > Genealogical memoirs of John Knox and of the family of Knox

GENEALOGICAL MEMOIRS OF JOHN KNOX. 21
formed part of the estate of the Earls of Donegal, he left
Belfast and retired to his possessions. Consequently, on
the 17th October 1697, he addressed to the corporation of
Belfast a letter resigning his position as a burgess. The
letter proceeds thus :
" Whereas I have now changed the place of my residence,
and removed from Belfast to Dungannon, where I cannot be so
useful or serviceable to the corporation as my inclinations do
lead me, and my place of a burgess doth require, I do there-
fore resign my place of burgess into the hands of the Et.
Hon. Arthur, Earl of Donegal, sovereign of the said borough,
and to the rest of the burgesses, to be by them disposed of, as
in justice and equity they shall think fit. As witness my
hand this 17th October 1697. Thomas Knox." 1
Thomas Knox of Dungannon has, by George Crawfurd the
genealogist, been celebrated thus :
" He was all his life long firmly attached to the Protestant
interest, and distinguished himself eminently that way in
the reign of King James VII. As he had always the settle-
ment of the Crown in the Protestant line much at heart,
so when he saw that settled by Act of Parliament, no man
had greater joy or expressed more satisfaction in it as the
surest and firmest bulwark of the religion and liberties of
the subject, Mr Knox eminently distinguished himself in
his zeal in the latter end of the reign of Queen Anne, in
maintaining and supporting the right of succession in the
illustoious House of Hanover, and even lessened his estate,
at least for a time, in making representatives for the House
of Commons in Ireland that were all firm to the Protestant
succession. Upon the accession of King George I. to the
crown, Mr Knox's eminent merit and services having been
justly represented and laid before his Majesty, his Majesty
1 History of Belfast, by George Benn, p. 265.
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