Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/King, John Glen
KING, JOHN GLEN, D.D. (1732–1787), divine, born in Norfolk in 1732, was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1752 and M.A. in 1763. After taking orders he was presented by the king in 1760 to the vicarage of Berwick Parva, Norfolk (Blomefield, Hist. of Norfolk, x. 297), and subsequently was appointed chaplain to the English factory at St. Petersburg. During his residence in Russia he was appointed medallist to the empress; and he devoted much time to the study of the history and liturgical rites of the Greek church. He became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 10 Jan. 1771, and on 21 Feb. in the same year was elected a fellow of the Royal Society (Thomson, Hist. of the Royal Society, Append. iv. p. liv). He was incorporated M.A. at Oxford, on 19 March 1771, as a member of Christ Church, and four days later took the degrees of B.D. and D.D. in that university. He was presented to the rectory of Wormley, Hertfordshire, by Sir Abraham Hume, bart., in July 1783; and in the summer of 1786 he purchased the chapelry of Spring Gardens, Somerset. He also purchased, though at what date is not stated, Dr. John Warner's chapel in Long Acre, London (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. ii. 416). He died at his house in Edward Street, London, after a few hours' illness, on 3 Nov. 1787, and was buried in the churchyard of Wormley.
He married, first, Ann Magdalene, daughter of Michael Combrune, by whom he had one daughter, Anna Henrietta; and secondly, in August 1776, at Greenwich, Jane, daughter of John Hyde, esq., of Blackheath (she died in August 1789).
He was the author of: 1. Verses in the Cambridge University collection on the death of Frederick, prince of Wales, 1752. 2. ‘The Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek Church in Russia; containing an Account of its Doctrine, Worship, and Discipline,’ London, 1772, 4to, dedicated to the king. A learned work, illustrated with copper-plate engravings. 3. ‘A Letter to the Bishop of Durham, containing some Observations on the Climate of Russia, and the Northern Countries, with a View of the Flying Mountains at Zarsko Sello, near St. Petersburg,’ 1778. Printed in the ‘Westminster Magazine,’ 1780, viii. 65. 4. ‘Observations on the Barberini Vase,’ 1786; in ‘Archæologia,’ viii. 307. 5. ‘Catalogue of a small Library at St. Petersburg,’ London, 1786, 8vo. 6. ‘Nummi Familiarum et Imperatorum Romanorum’ [London? 1787?], 4to, consisting of 102 plates, without letterpress.
There is a neat print of him by Fourdrinier. Another portrait of him, painted by Falconet, was engraved by Gabriel Smith.
[Addit. MS. 5874, f. 45; Gent. Mag. vol. lvii. pt. ii. p. 1030, vol. lix. pt. ii. p. 916; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 623, 624, 760, ix. 6, 169; Cat. of Oxford Graduates, 1851, p. 385; Graduati Cantabr. 1823, p. 275; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 1274.]