Tour Scotland Photograph William Knox Gravestone Dunfermline Fife

Tour Scotland photograph of the William Knox, skull and crossbones, gravestone in the Abbey cemetery in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland.

This famous surname, much associated with the religious zealot John Knox, born 1505, died 1572, and with no less than three others also called John and also religious divines, can be of Scottish or English origins. In all cases it is either a topographical name for someone who lived on a hilltop, derived from the pre 7th century Old English word " cnocc " or the similar Gaelic " cnoc ", both meaning a round topped hill, or it maybe locational from one of the various places called Knock found in both Scotland and Northern England. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Cnoc, also recorded as Knoc, a charter witness who appears in the charter lists of Renfrewshire, Scotland, in 1260.



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