Peter King, 1st Baron King, (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.

Life

King was born in

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal ...

in 1669, and educated at

Exeter Grammar School Exeter School is an independent co-educational day school for pupils between the ages of 7 and 18 in Exeter, Devon, England. In 2019, there were around 200 pupils in the Junior School and 700 in the Senior School. History The School traces its ...

. 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''. This treatise engaged the interest of his cousin,

John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism". Considered one of ...

, the

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, by whose advice his father sent him to the

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of ...

, where he stayed for nearly three years. He entered the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1694 and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call t ...

in 1698. In 1700 he was returned to

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised ...

as the member for

Bere Alston Bere Alston is a village in West Devon in the county of Devon in England. It forms part of the civil parish of Bere Ferrers. History and geography With a population of about 2,000, the village lies in the Bere peninsula, between the rivers ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon i ...

, holding the seat until 1715. He was appointed recorder of

Glastonbury Glastonbury (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury ...

in 1705 and recorder of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1708. Made a

Serjeant-at-Law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are wri ...

, he was appointed

Chief Justice of the Common Pleas The chief justice of the Common Pleas was the head of the Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench or Common Place, which was the second-highest common law court in the English legal system until 1875, when it, along with the other ...

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 Paralysis (also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, roughly 1 in 50 ...

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop funct ...

to resign in 1733. He was admitted a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematic ...

on 14 November 1728. He died at Ockham,

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, on 22 July 1734.

Assessment

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 ( 4 Geo. II. c. 26) by virtue of which

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

superseded

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

as the language of the courts.

Family

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 Grosvenor Square is a large garden square in the Mayfair district of London. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from the duke's surname "Grosvenor". It was developed for fashionable r ...

until her death in 1767. In 1835 his great-great-grandson William King (1805–1893), married Ada Byron, the only daughter of

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

and was later created

Earl of Lovelace Earl of Lovelace was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1838 for William King-Noel, 8th Baron King, a title created in 1725. History The King or Locke King family stems from the elevation of the son of Jerome K ...

. Another descendant

Peter John Locke King Peter John Locke King (25 January 1811, Ockham, Surrey – 12 November 1885, Weybridge) was an English politician. King sat and held one of the two seats as Member of Parliament (MP) for East Surrey from 1847 to 1874. He won some fame as a ...

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.

Works

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 John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who was a leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies he founded became the dominant form of the independent M ...

'' in many of his correspondences and is seen as influencing many of his view on the order of the Church.

Cases

Some notable cases on which he was involved: *'' R v Woodburne and Coke'' *''

Keech v Sandford is a foundational case, deriving from English trusts law, on the fiduciary duty of loyalty. It concerns the law of trusts and has affected much of the thinking on directors' duties in company law. It holds that a trustee owes a strict duty o ...

'' (1726) Sel Cas Ch 61 *'' Coppin v Coppin'' (1725) - a will settling land in England must conform to the rules of English law, even when made abroad *'' Croft v Pyke'' (1733) - a partner's joint estate is liable first to the debts of the partnership, before payment of legacies to heirs *'' Milner v Colmer'' (1731) *'' Brown et Uxor v Elton'' (1733) - the practice of the court was to compel a husband to make a settlement on the wife before recovering his wife's portion by equity Spoke in support of the second article brought against Dr.Sacheverell, February 28, 1709/10 - 'Tryal of Dr.Sacheverell' printed London 1710

References

;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Peter King, 1st Baron 1669 births 1734 deaths People educated at Exeter School Members of the Middle Temple Serjeants-at-law (England) Chief Justices of the Common Pleas Lord chancellors of Great Britain Lord High Stewards Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain Peter 1 English MPs 1701 English MPs 1701–1702 English MPs 1702–1705 English MPs 1705–1707 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Bere Alston British MPs 1707–1708 British MPs 1708–1710 British MPs 1710–1713 British MPs 1713–1715 Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the Parliament of England for Bere Alston