Son of a sailor (his father Robert Knox Snr, a Captain of a commercial ship) Robert Knox was no scholar. Robert Knox Snr had brought his ship to Trincomalee to repair damage caused by a storm while at sea. Dispirited and sick, Captain Robert Knox died a broken man before long. His son Robert Knox asked the villagers for help to bury his father. Robert Knox was a keen observer of the land, the people and their ways.