Joseph Knight (September 1778 - July 20, 1855 Avon Dassett), was a gardener to the Duke of Bedford, then to George Hibbert of Clapham, later (1808) established the Exotic Nursery on King's Road, Chelsea. in 1829, he received Hibbert's collection of living plants. The nursery was taken over 1853 by his niece's husband, Thomas A. Perry. In 1856, it became John Gould Veitch's (1839-1870) "Royal Exotic Nursery", continuing on the same site until about 1914.
See also Joseph Knight, Breeder.
[From The Gardener's Magazine, 1828, p. 354-355:] Knight's Exotic Nursery, King's Road. ..The effect on entering is excellent; the termination of the telescopic vista being the bronze vase with its jet d'eau, backed by two splendid plants of striped camellia covered with bloom...
[From Joseph Knight & his Exotic Nursery, The Gardens Trust, October 10, 2015.] Born in Lancashire in 1778 Joseph Knight began his professional life as a gardener to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn, before becoming head gardener to George Hibbert, the immensely wealthy sugar magnate and founder of the West India Docks, who was also an enthusiastic amateur botanist...1808, Knight bought part of the grounds of Stanley Grove in Chelsea. ...Knight converted the gardens into a plant nursery but very quickly realised their potential as a prime site on the Kings Road and turned them into horticultural showrooms instead.....When his former employer George Hibbert retired around 1829, he gave his plant collection to Knight. By then Knight was wealthy enough to follow Hibbert’s example and begin sponsoring plant collectors himself, and most famously he became one of the leaders of the consortium of London nurserymen who subscribed to send William Baxter to Australia. On Baxter’s return in 1833 Knight “became the purchaser, at, it is said £1500, of the seeds and plants” that Baxter bought home.
