Robert Skakel Knight was born on May 27, 1841, in Quebec, Canada to Robert Knight (1811-c.1863), a Scottish missionary priest to Frampton, Quebec.

He was an author. In 1876, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He resigned in 1895 when he moved to Lancaster, Glengarry County, Ontario. He published the book "Exercises in English Composition, With an Introductory Chapter on Analysis" (1876).

In 1871, he married Clara Beatrice Warner Schomberg (1834–1877), and circa 1880 he married Dorothea Elizabeth Wolters (1852- ). He died on May 16, 1900.

Henry William Joseph Knolleke was the Assistant Foreign Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society.