Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/King, Daniel
KING, DANIEL (d. 1664?), engraver, son of William King of Chester, baker, was apprenticed on 3 Sept. 1630 as painter for ten years to Randle Holme the elder [q. v.] After carrying on business for some years at Chester, he removed to London, where in 1656 he published ‘The Vale Royall of England, or the County Palatine of Chester Illustrated,’ folio. This was written by William Smith, William Webb, and Samuel Lee, with an appendix on the Isle of Man by James Chaloner. The dedication alone is by King; indeed, Dugdale told Wood that he was not able to write one word of true English, being ‘a most ignorant, silly fellow,’ and moreover ‘an arrant knave.’ The engravings to the ‘Vale Royall’ are admirably done by King himself in the style of Hollar. The ‘Vale Royall’ is embodied in Ormerod's ‘History of Cheshire,’ 1819, and an abridgment with notes by Thomas Hughes, F.S.A., was published in 1852. King also published:
- ‘The Cathedrall and Conventuall Churches of England and Wales Orthographically Delineated,’ 1656, oblong 4to, containing fifty engravings, three or four of them by Hollar.
- A translation of the ‘Universal Way of Dyaling, by G. de Desargues,’ 1659, 4to (Brit. Mus. Cat.).
- ‘An Orthographical Design of severall Viewes upon ye Road in England and Wales,’ about 1660.
He etched some plates for Dugdale's ‘Monasticon.’ On visiting Chester in 1660 he was received and entertained by the Stationers' Company of that city. Wood states that he made an unfortunate marriage, and that after his wife had robbed and left him, he died heartbroken near York House, in the Strand, about 1664.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 503; T. Hughes in Chester Archæol. Soc. Journal, ii. 25, 256; Sir W. Dugdale's Diary (Hamper), 1827, p. 108; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers (Graves), i. 732; Brit. Mus. Cat.]