King was born in Worminghall, Buckinghamshire, to Philip King and Elizabeth (née Conquest). After an early education at Westminster School, he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1577, taught under Dr Thomas Holland, graduating B.A. in 1580 and M.A. in 1583.[1] A chaplain to bishop John Piers, King became preacher to the city of York before becoming domestic chaplain to Thomas Egerton in London. As Rector of St Andrews, Holborn in 1597 and prebend of Sneating in St Paul's in 1599, King became a well-known Calvinist anti-Catholic preacher. Appointed a chaplain in ordinary to James I, James then made John King dean of Christ Church in August 1605. He was Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1607 until 1610. He was consecrated Bishop of London on 8 September 1611.[1]
In 1617, according to Samuel Purchas, while Pocahontas was in London King entertained her "with festival state and pomp beyond what I have seen in his greate hospitalitie afforded to other ladies".[2]
King died on 30 March 1621 (Good Friday), seemingly of gall stones or kidney stones. Roman Catholic propagandists' claims that he converted to their church on his deathbed were denied in a sermon preached by his son, Henry King, the following November.[1]
Family
King married Joan Freeman, and had five sons and four daughters:[3]
Henry King (1592–1669), poet, Bishop of Chichester
^ abcP. E. McCullough, ‘King, John (d. 1621)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 26 Jan 2009
^Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus, Vol. 19, p. 118
^Clarke, A. W. Hughes (1935). London Pedigrees and Coats of Arms. p. 77. Retrieved 14 January 2025. William King, educ. Ch. Ch. and All Souls' Coll., Oxford; matric. 19 April 1616, aged 15; Rector of St. Botolph, Billingsgate, 1629–1635-6; succeeded by his brother Philip.
^"Anne Dutton, Née King, Later Howe (1621-after 1671)". Early Modern Women Poets (1520-1700): An Anthology. 2001. p. 294. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198184263.003.0105.
^"Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral" Sinclair, W. p99: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909
^"HUC History". Hammersmith United Charities. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
