Joseph Philip Knight
British composer (1812–1887)
Joseph Philip Knight (Bradford-on-Avon, 26 July 1812 – Great Yarmouth, 1 June 1887) was a British clergyman, singer and one of Britain's most popular song composers. He published over 200 songs, first under the name Philip Mortimer then under his own name.
Knight was the son of an Anglican clergyman, Rev. Francis Knight, and went to America in 1839 to sing and teach music in a school run by Emma Willard, a proponent of women's education. He set to music her poem "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep," which became a very popular hymn in the 19th century.
He set many of the lyrics of Thomas Haynes Bayly, and Thomas Moore wrote the words for him for "The Parting" and "Let's take the world as some wide scene".
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5915266. VIAF identifies the subject as 63158423. The Library of Congress control number is n89664753. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1812, 1887 and 1839.
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This entry incorporates text from “Joseph Philip Knight” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.