Robert Knight (industrialist)

Robert Knight
Born	Template:Birth date Old Warwick, Rhode Island, U.S.
Died	November 26, 1912(1912-11-26) (aged 86)
Occupation(s)	Industrialist, businessman, philanthropist
Known for	Co-founder of B. B. & R. Knight and Fruit of the Loom

Robert Knight (January 8, 1826 – November 26, 1912) was a prominent industrialist and benefactor from New England. Alongside his brother Benjamin Knight, he co-established B. B. & R. Knight, which had become one of the world's leading textile producers by 1912. Additionally, he was a co-founder of the apparel brand Fruit of the Loom, currently owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

Early life

Knight was born in Old Warwick, Rhode Island and started working at the age of eight at Cranston Print Works. He subsequently gained employment under Elisha Harris in Coventry, Rhode Island, where he earned $1.25 weekly until he turned seventeen. In 1843, he joined his brother Benjamin as a clerk in a store. After attending Pawcatuck Academy for approximately eighteen months, he briefly took up teaching in Exeter, Rhode Island.

Manufacturing career

In 1846, Knight accepted a clerkship with John Hopkins Clarke at Arnold's Bridge (present-day Pontiac, Rhode Island). Following Clarke’s election to the U.S. Senate, Knight partnered with another individual to purchase Pontiac Mills. By 1852, Robert and Benjamin launched B. B. and R. Knight, broadening their operations into manufacturing and grain industries throughout New England. Their ventures extended into banking and insurance sectors, and they invested in worker housing and mill communities, also providing funding for churches serving their employees.

Knight founded Fruit of the Loom in 1851 and secured a trademark for its distinctive fruit emblem during the early years of trademark registration in the 1870s. At the time of his passing in 1912, he was acknowledged as the largest cotton manufacturer globally.

The business grew further through the acquisition of the Dedham Manufacturing Company located on Mother Brook in Dedham, Massachusetts in 1877.

Knight Memorial Library

The Knight family lived in Providence’s Elmwood neighborhood. In 1924, Robert Knight’s descendants financed the building of the Knight Memorial Library on land that was part of their estate. Initially managed by the Elmwood Public Library Association and supported by the Knight family, control shifted to the Providence Public Library in 1962, with ownership transferring to the city in 2011.

The Knight residence on Elmwood Avenue was torn down in 1963.

See also

• Fruit of the Loom
• Benjamin Knight
• Knight Estate
• River Point, Rhode Island
• Royal Mill Complex
• Lippitt Mill
• Pontiac Mills
• Valley Queen Mill