Person:Lambert Garbrants (4)

A family tradition says the Knott family came originally from England, in the area between Scotland and Wales, and fled to The Netherlands because of religious persecution. While the story is not documented, neither can it be discounted.

Lancashire, one of the places in England where the Knott name is concentrated, is between Scotland and Wales. It is possible that some ancestors emigrated from England in the late 1500s or early 1600s. By that time, Protestant Reform was gaining favour in some parts of Lancashire, particularly in the southeast, and more particularly in the areas around Manchester. At the outbreak of the English Civil War, in 1642, many of these converts were Presbyterians, Calvinists who rejected the Episcopalian organization of church authority, but who also did not share the Separatist belief in the autonomy of each individual church. As Presbyterians, especially during a time when protestant belief was first developing in Lancashire, local Lancastrians could have faced opposition, if not outright persecution, for their beliefs.

In the city of Groningen, the name Knot, used as a family name, appears in church records at least as early as 1649. In the province more generally, the name appears by 1635 with leaseholders of lands confiscated from the abbeys at the time of the reformation.^[1]

But Lambert did not live in the city of Groningen, nor was he a leaseholder. Perhaps he was descended from someone who had fled England two or three generations earlier, someone whose descendants dropped the family name in favor of the Dutch use of patronyms. Or perhaps not.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Garbrant en Garmt zijn 2 versies van dezelfde naam
2. ↑ Eelswerdertil
3.   Background sources related to family story include:
   References for background include:
   Christopher Haig, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire. Cambridge University Press, London, 1975.
   Peter Milward, SJ, The English Reformation: From Tragic Reality to Dramatic Representation. Family Publications, Oxford, 2007.
   Ernest Broxap, The Great Civil War in Lancashire. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1973
   Wikipedia Protestant Reformation (7 August 2008), English Reformation ( 7 August 2008), Episcopal polity (24 October 2008), Presbyterian polity (24 July 2008)
   Algemeen doopboek Goningen 1640-1657 (18 August 2008), Cornelisien, son of Luitien Knot and Etjen Lamberts, born in Helpman, was baptized 03-10-1649.
   
   And last but far from least, special thanks to Jan Verster for showing me land records associated with people named Cnote. Thanks to Jan, as well, for all his help so many years ago in showing me how to work with the Parish records and for sharing the information he had on his own family