Stanley wrote: ↑10 May 2025, 03:18
and from the card-playing term nob, as someone who cheats.
This is from my head - no google involved.
As well as meaning a member of the aristocracy, the word was widely used in the game of cribbage (crib), where it was "one for his nob" and "two for his heels".
It's decades since I played but I think it had to do with when a Jack was turned over for the 'turn card'.
I think it is just an archaic term for 'head', and that knob is as you describe, and not the same word. Over the years nob became confused with knob, and sounded a little bit rude - so it became "one for his hat".
The Sunday lunch time crib sessions at the Boat and Horses were legendary.
My weird velcro memory tells me that a version of Jack and Jill once said "and went to bed to mend his nob with vinegar and brown paper". I can find no reference to that though, but it is hundreds of years old so perhaps has been lost.
Knob now seems lately to be reserved as a term of abuse for the US President.
