William King (16 March 1685 – 30 December 1763) was an English academic and writer, Principal of St Mary Hall, Oxford from 1719, He was known for strongly held Jacobite views, and as a satirist and poet.
Early life
Born at Stepney, Middlesex, on 16 March 1685, he was the son of the Rev. Peregrine King and Margaret, daughter of Sir William Smyth, bart., of Radclive, Buckinghamshire. After attending Salisbury grammar school he entered Balliol College, Oxford, on 9 July 1701, and graduated B.C.L. on 12 July 1709, D.C.L. on 8 July 1715. He was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1712, and admitted a civilian on 20 January 1716, but having a private income, he never sought legal practice.
Jacobite don
King devoted his life to scholarship and literature, interested himself in politics, and was long recognised the head of the Jacobite party at Oxford. Politically he was a close associate of Sir John Hynde Cotton, 3rd Baronet. His views are now seen as directed to his contemporary dislikes, rather than being retrospective. He looked to gain attention to them by shock tactics.
For a time King acted as secretary to the Duke of Ormonde and the Earl of Arran, when they were Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and he was elected principal of St Mary Hall in 1719. He resigned his secretaryship in 1722, when he stood for the parliamentary representation of the university, but was easily defeated by George Clarke. St Mary Hall had few students, but one who was influenced by King was Sanderson Miller.
A lawsuit about an estate in Galway brought King to Ireland in 1727. Jonathan Swift thought well of him. In January 1739 Swift entrusted King with a copy of the verses on his own death, for publication in London. King, alarmed at the satire on Robert Walpole and Queen Caroline, omitted more than a hundred lines, "in deference", he said, "to the judgment of Pope and other friends of Swift's", but to Swift's annoyance. King excused himself in letters to Swift, but the Dublin version printed of the verses is believed to have restored essentially the original version. During the same year King met Nathaniel Hooke at Dr. George Cheyne's house at Bath, Somerset, and acted as his amanuensis while he was translating Andrew Michael Ramsay's Travels of Cyrus.
Early in 1746 William Lauder, later exposed as a literary forger, travelled south from Scotland, and King welcomed him in Oxford, approving of his politics. The group of scholars who subsequently demonstrated Lauder's bad faith included Roger Watkins, vice-principal of St Mary Hall. He with others (Robert Thyer and Thomas Newton, as well as John Bowle who already was a public critic of Lauder) therefore proceeded carefully to gather evidence. In the end John Douglas put together a full case, but did not go public in late 1750 without consulting King.
King was presented to the Stuart Pretender Charles Edward Stuart in September 1750. The Pretender was then paying a stealthy visit to England, and drank tea one evening at the doctor's lodgings at Oxford. They subsequently corresponded, but King came to dislike him. King took part in the contested election for Oxfordshire in 1754, and was in consequence vigorously libelled. He was accused of having defrauded subscribers for books never published to the extent of £1,500, was taunted with having offered himself to sale both in England and Ireland, and was accused of inspiring the Jacobite London Evening Post. In February 1755 King took Samuel Johnson his diploma of M.A., and found in him an admirer of his scholarship and politics.
Later life
King publicly severed his connection with the Jacobite party in 1761. He accompanied a deputation from the university to present George III with an address of congratulation on his marriage. He was personally introduced to the king by Lord Shelburne.
King died on 30 December 1763, and was buried on 5 January 1764 at Ealing, Middlesex. where he had resided for many years on an estate called Newby, near the church. He was also lessee of the rectory of Ealing. Throughout his life he was a water-drinker. His heart, having been enclosed in a silver urn, was deposited by his own directions in the chapel of St Mary Hall, where there is a monument to his memory, with a Latin epitaph written by himself.
