Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/King, John (1696-1728)
KING, JOHN (1696–1728), classical writer, eldest son of John King (1652–1732) [q. v.], was born at Adstone, Northamptonshire, on 5 Aug. 1696. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. 1718 and M.A. 1722, and being elected a fellow. Though he did not take a medical degree, he settled at Stamford as a physician, and soon acquired a great reputation. In 1727 he married Lucy, daughter of Thomas Morice, paymaster of the forces at Lisbon, and his intention then was to settle in London, under the direction of John Freind [q. v.], who married his wife's sister, but he was cut off by fever at Stamford, 12 Oct. 1728. He was buried at Pertenhall, Bedfordshire. His only son, John King, patron and rector of Pertenhall 1752–1800, and also fellow of King's College, Cambridge, died 6 Oct. 1812, aged 85.
King was author of: 1. ‘Epistola ad Johannem Freind, in qua D. W. Trilleri epistolam Medico-criticam super primo et tertio Epidemicorum ad examen revocavit,’ Cambridge, 1722; an attack on the remarks of Triller on the treatises of Hippocrates on epidemics. 2. ‘Euripidis Hecuba, Orestes et Phœnissæ,’ Cambridge, 1726; the original Greek, with a Latin translation; this had occupied him nearly five years, as he had collated ten manuscripts. Thomas Morell published for use at Eton in 1748 the same three plays, with the addition of ‘Alcestis,’ in which he gave nearly the whole of King's translation and notes. King was elected on 12 Aug. 1724 a member of the Gentlemen's Society at Spalding. In the ‘Rel. Galeanæ’ (Bibl. Topogr. Brit. iii. 80) is the statement of Roger Gale, under date 1742, that he ‘always took Dr. King's skill in medals to be more that of a trader than a scholar.’
[Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, iii. 752, vi. 13, 93; Gent. Mag. October 1812, p. 405; Harwood's Alumni Eton. p. 294.]