per annum to him if he be diligent and sober.’ King, however, was incapable of diligence. Upon the influx of an unusual amount of matter he had to sit up till three or four in the morning to correct the proofs. King therefore resigned the office on 1 July 1712. On the same day Lintot paid him 4l. 1s. 6d. for the ‘Useful Miscellanies, Part the First,’ containing the tragi-comedy of ‘Joan of Hedington’ and an ‘Account of Horace's behaviour during his stay at Trinity College in Cambridge.’ In August he published some verses, ‘Britain's Palladium, or Lord Bolingbroke's Welcome from France.’
During the summer of 1712 King lived in a friend's house between Lambeth and Vauxhall. He visited his friends in London, especially his relation Lord Clarendon at Somerset House. In the autumn his health grew worse. Clarendon had him conveyed on 24 Dec. to a lodging opposite Somerset House. That night he made his will, by which he appointed his sister, Elizabeth King, sole executrix and residuary legatee; and on the following day he died. On 27 Dec. he was buried in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey. King seems to have been sincerely religious and moral in his life, though given to occasional conviviality. Pope told Lord Burlington in 1716, ‘I remember Dr. King would write verses in a tavern three hours after he could not speak.’ He sometimes said ill-natured things, but was generally amiable and easy-going. His ‘Adversaria’ proves the width of his general reading, and he was certainly well skilled in law. A eulogistic ‘Pindarick Ode to the memory of Dr. William King’ appeared after his death.
Many of King's writings were published anonymously, and some without date. Among the fragments left by him are an ‘Essay on Civil Government’ (reprinted by Dr. Johnson in 1776), and ‘Crapulia,’ translated from Joseph Hall's ‘Mundus alter et idem.’ King wrote also several papers for Harrison's continuation of the ‘Tatler,’ and a few songs and tales in verse, which are of little value. One of these, ‘Apple Pye,’ was printed in ‘The Northern Atalantis,’ 1713, and in the following year it was included in Hill's collection of ‘Original Poems and Translations.’ King in his early years translated some books from the French, and was one of the translators, from the French of De la Croix, of ‘The Persian and the Turkish Tales compleat,’ published in 1714, having begun the work, as the dedication states, at the request of Lady Theodosia Blye, baroness of Clifton. In 1732 King's ‘Remains’ were published, with an account of his life, and a dedication to Lord Orrery; and in 1734 they were edited as ‘Posthumous Works,’ by Joseph Browne, M.D. A portrait, engraved by J. Vandergucht from a painting by Dellow, was prefixed to both collections. In 1776 the ‘Original Works of William King, LL.D.,’ in three volumes, were published, carefully edited by John Nichols. On the title-page is a portrait in a circle, engraved by Cook.
[Memoirs of Dr. King, prefixed to Nichols's edition of the Original Works; Biog. Brit.; Add. MSS. 28883 ff. 137, 180, 255, 28885 f. 169, 28887 f. 369, 28890 f. 17 (Brit. Mus.); Welch's Alumni Westmonasterienses, 1852, pp. 147, 183, 190–2; Swift's Works, ed. Scott, 1824, vols. i. ii. vi. x. xv.; T. Cibber's Lives of the Poets, iii. 228; Gent. Mag. 1776, 465; European Mag. vii. 400; Johnson's Lives of the Poets; Coote's Catalogue of Civilians, pp. 104–5; Monk's Life of Bentley, 1833; Oxford Graduates; Chester's Registers of Westminster, 1876, p. 275; Noble's Continuation of Granger, ii. 260; Pope's Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope, x. 207, 295; Ideal Commonwealths, 1885 (Morley's Universal Library), pp. 273–84; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. 1812, i. 25, 32–5, 327, iii. 227, iv. 715; D'Israeli's Quarrels of Authors (Miscellanies, 1840), pp. 206, 219–21. Dr. King is constantly confused, especially in indexes, with Dr. William King [q. v.], archbishop of Dublin, or with Dr. William King [q. v.] of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, the author of ‘The Toast.’]
KING, WILLIAM, D.D. (1650–1729), archbishop of Dublin, son of James King, a native of Barra in Aberdeenshire, the original seat of the family, was born on 1 May 1650 in the town of Antrim in Ireland, whither his father had migrated some time between 1639 and 1649, in order to escape the solemn league and covenant, and where he is said to have pursued the calling of a miller (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. p. 416; Noble, Continuation of Granger, ii. 103). At the age of twelve King was sent to a Latin school at Dungannon, co. Tyrone, and on 7 April 1666 (Mason, St. Patrick's, p. 207) he was admitted a sizar into Trinity College, Dublin. He studied hard, and having obtained a scholarship he graduated B.A. on 23 Feb. 1670, was ordained deacon by Dr. Robert Mossom, bishop of Derry, on 25 Oct. 1671, and proceeded M.A. in 1673. He failed to obtain a fellowship, but having attracted the attention of John Parker, archbishop of Tuam, he was by him ordained a priest on 12 April 1674, and was collated to the
