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Personal Dignity of Knights

As regards personal dignity of Knights, according to the Commentaries on the laws of England By Sir William Blackstone, and Peerage, baronetage and knightage of Great Britain and Ireland By Charles Roger Dod

1. a knight of the order of St. George, or of the garter, first instituted by Edward III, AD. 1344, ranks next after the nobility. It . very rarely happened that the members of this Order depend altogether for their rank upon the distinction which their knighthood confers, for the knights companions of the Garter generally belong to the highest classes of the peerage. One instance of this distinction having been conferred on a British subject, not being a peer, was the case of Prince Albert.
2. Next (but not till after certain official dignitaries) follows a knight banneret; who indeed by statutes is ranked next to barons ; and his precedence before the younger sons of viscounts was confirmed to him by order of king James I., in the tenth year of his reign. But that he may be entitled to this rank, he must have been created by the sovereign in person, in the field, under the royal banners, in time of open war. Else he ranks after baronets ; who are the next in order ;
3. baronets are the next in order, the baronetage being a dignity of inheritance, created by letters patent, and usually descendible to the issue male. It was first instituted by king James I., A.d. 1611; in order to raise a competent sum for the reduction of the province of Ulster in Ireland; for which reason every baronet has the arms of Ulster superadded to his family coat.
4. Knights Bannerets, provided they be not made in the manner described at No. 106. Ihis position was allotted to such as were created by the commanders of armies in the king's name on the open field of battle.
5. Knights of The Thistle. The Order of the Thistle is scarcely ever conferred on any but Scottish nobles of very high rank, and of course they take precedence according to their peerage. The statutes of the Order are silent respecting precedence, and we have not been able to discover any acts of Parliament, royal ordinances or letters patent, on the subject. In the absence of these authorities, the natural cour»e is to place the orders according to priority of institution or revival.
6. Knights of Of St. Patrick. This Order has never been, and probably never will be conferred upon a commoner. Its right, therefore, to the place here assigned it in the scale of precedence is not likely to be soon decided. The warrant under which the Order was instituted, declares, that in Ireland the knights of St. Patrick shall take precedence immediately after the eldest sons of barons. It has been sometimes supposed that the warrant gave them this rank in England, which wuuld amount to granting them precedence over the knights of the Garter.
7. Next follow knights of the bath; an order said to have been instituted by king Henry IV and revived by king George I. They are so called from the ceremony of bathing the night before their creation.
8. Knight Grand Cross of the Bath are declared by the 19th statute of the Order, made in pursuance of letters patent dated Hth April, 1847, to have precedence "next to and immediately after Baronets;"
9. Knights Grand Cross Of St. Michael And St. George are here placed under the authority of the statutes establishing tbe order in which each rank was granted precedence next after the corresponding ranks of the Order of the Bath.
10. Knights Commander Of The Bath are here placed on the authority of the 19th statute of the Order made in pursuance of letters patent dated 1 Uh April, 1847.
11. Knights Commander Of St. Michael And St. George are here placed under the authority of the statute
12. The last of these inferior nobility are knights bachelors; the most ancient, though the lowest order of knighthood. Knights Bachelor, whether created by the Sovereign (personally or by patent), or by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, rank amongst each other according to seniority of creation.