Madam Knight was born in Boston She was the daughter of Capt. Kemble who was a rich merchant of Boston he was a native of Great Britain settled in Boston built him a large house for that day near New North Square in the year 1676 this daughter Sarah Kemble was married to a son of a London trader by the name of Knight he died abroad and left her a smart young widow in October 1703 she made a journey to New York to claim some property of his there. She returned on horse-backe March 1705 Soon after her return she opened a school for children Dr. Frankelin and Dr Saml Mather secured their first rudiments of Education from her her parents both died and as She was the only child they left she continued to keep school in the Mansion house till the year 1714. She then sold the estate to Peter Papillion he died not long after in the year 1736 Thomas Hutchinson Esqr purchased the estate of John Wolcott, who was administrator of the Papillion estate Mr Hutchinson gave the estate to his daughter Hannah who was the wife of Dr Saml Mather. The force of Madam Knight’s Diamond Ring was displayed on several panes of glass in the old house in the year 1763 Dr Mather had the house new glazed and one pane of glass was preserved as a curiosity for years till 1775 it was lost at the conflagration when Charlestown was burnt by the British June 17th. The lines on the pane of glass were committed to memory by the present writer. She was an original genius our ideas of Madam are formed from hearing Dr Frankelin and Dr Mather converse about their old school misstress Through many toils and many frights I have returned poor Sarah Knights Over great rocks and many stones God has preserv’d from fractur’d bones as spelt on the pane of glass. Underneath this account was written in the clear, distinct chirography of Isaiah Thomas, the veteran printer, this endorsement:-- The above was written by Mrs. Hannabell Crocker, of Boston, granddaughter of the Rev. Cotton Mather, and presented to me by that lady.--ISAIAH THOMAS. The other manuscript account is substantially the same, though in a different handwriting; it tells of the pane of glass with the rhymed inscription being “preserved as a curiosity by an antiquicrity” (which is a delightful and useful old word-concoction), “until the British set fire to the town,” in Revolutionary times, and “Poor Madam Knight’s poetrys, with other curiosities, were consumed.” It says, “She obtained the honorable title of Madam by being a famous schoolmistress in her day. She taught Dr. Franklin to write. She was highly respected by Dr. Cotton Mather as a woman of good wit & pleasant humour.”