English lawyer and politician
Peter King, 1st Baron King
,
PC
,
FRS
(c. 1669 ? 22 July 1734), commonly referred to as
Lord King
, was an English lawyer and politician, who became
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
.
[1]
Life
[
edit
]
King was born in
Exeter
in 1669,
and educated at
Exeter Grammar School
.
In his youth he was interested in early church history, and published anonymously in 1691
An Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity and Worship of the Primitive Church that flourished within the first Three Hundred Years after Christ
.
[3]
This treatise engaged the interest of his cousin,
John Locke
, the
philosopher
, by whose advice his father sent him to the
Leiden University
, where he stayed for nearly three years. He entered the
Middle Temple
in 1694 and was
called to the bar
in 1698.
In 1700 he was returned to
Parliament of England
as the member for
Bere Alston
in
Devon
, holding the seat until 1715.
He was appointed recorder of
Glastonbury
in 1705 and recorder of
London
in 1708. Made a
Serjeant-at-Law
, he was appointed
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
from 1714 to 1725, when he was raised to the peerage as a Lord Justice and
Speaker of the House of Lords
. In June of the same year he was made
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
, holding office until compelled by a
paralytic
stroke
to resign in 1733.
He was admitted a
Fellow of the Royal Society
on 14 November 1728.
[4]
He died at
Ockham
,
Surrey
, on 22 July 1734
and was buried in
All Saints' Church
. In 1735, the King Chapel was added to the church, separated from the main aisle by a round headed, and there is a vaulted plaster ceiling springing from angle pilasters. Intended as a chapel over the
family vault
of the
Lords King of Ockham
and their descendants, the
Earls of Lovelace
, it features several
church monuments
, including the monument to Peter King, 1st Baron King, and his wife Anne Seys, which was sculpted by
Michael Rysbrack
. It is on the north wall, white marble in Palladian style, with two figures sitting either side of large urn in front of pyramidal ground. Symbols of office surround Lord King.
[5]
Family
[
edit
]
King married Anne Seys in 1704. They had six children: two daughters and four sons. Each of their sons succeeded in turn as
Lord King, Baron of Ockham
.
After his death in 1734, the widowed Lady King lived in
Grosvenor Square
until her death in 1767.
[6]
In 1835 his great-great-grandson
William King
(1805?1893), married
Ada Byron
, the only daughter of
Lord Byron
and was later created
Earl of Lovelace
. Another descendant
Peter John Locke King
was a Member of Parliament for Surrey from 1847 to 1849 and won some fame as an advocate of reform, being responsible for the passing of the
Real Estate Charges Act 1854
, and for the repeal of a large number of obsolete laws.
Assessment as Lord Chancellor
[
edit
]
Lord King as chancellor failed to sustain the reputation which he had acquired at the common law bar. Nevertheless, he left his mark on English law by establishing the principles that a will of immovable property is governed by the
lex loci rei sitae
, and that where a husband had a legal right to the personal estate of his wife, which must be asserted by a suit in equity, the court would not help him unless he made a provision out of the property for the wife, if she required it. He was also the author of the Act (
Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730
) by virtue of which
English
superseded
Latin
as the language of the courts.
Works
[
edit
]
Lord King published in 1702 a
History of the Apostles' Creed
(Leipzig, 1706; Basel, 1750) which went through several editions and was also translated into Latin.
His earlier work
An Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity and Worship of the Primitive Church that flourished within the first Three Hundred Years after Christ
was published 1691 and was quoted by
John Wesley
in many of his correspondences and is seen as influencing many of his view on the order of the Church.
[7]
Cases
[
edit
]
Some notable cases on which he was involved:
Spoke in support of the second article brought against
Henry Sacheverell
, February 28, 1709/10 - 'Tryal of Dr.Sacheverell' printed London 1710
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"KING, Peter (c.1669-1734), of the Middle Temple, London and Ockham, Surr"
. History of Parliament Online
. Retrieved
13 July
2016
.
- ^
"
An Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity and Worship of the Primitive Church that flourished within the first Three Hundred Years after Christ
"
(EPUB, Full Text, Kindle, PDF and others)
. The Internet Archive
. Retrieved
16 September
2018
.
- ^
"Lists of Royal Society Fellows"
. Retrieved
15 December
2006
.
- ^
All Saints' Church, Ockham, Surrey
- ^
"Grosvenor Square: Individual Houses built before 1926 Pages 117-166 Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings)"
.
British History Online
. LCC 1980
. Retrieved
5 December
2022
.
- ^
Eayrs, George (November 2010).
John Wesley: Christian Philosopher and Church Founder
. p. 216.
ISBN
9781608999811
.
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