Henry King

the eldest Son of Dr. John King, (whom I have mention’d in the first vol. of this work, under the year 1621) by Joan his wife, daughter of Hen. Freeman of Staffordshire, was born in the same house and chamber at Wornal in Bucks. wherein his father had received his first breath, in the month of January 1591. and was baptized there on the 16 of the said month, educated partly in Grammar learning in the Free-school at Thame in Oxfordsh. and partly in the College School at Westminster: from which last he was elected a Student of Ch. Ch. in. 1608, being then put under the tuition of a noted Tutor: Afterwards he took the degrees in Arts, entred into holy Orders, became a most florid preacher, and successively Chapl. in ord. to K. Jam. 1. of pious memory, Archdeacon of Colchester, Residentiary of S. Pauls Cathedral, Canon of Ch. Ch, Chapl. in Ord. to K. Ch. 1, D. of D. and Dean of Rochester, in which Dignity he was installed 6. Febr. 1638, but whether in the room of Dr. John Richardson, who occurs ((a))((a)) In reg. Pile, in the Will. Office near S. Pauls Cath. Lond Qu. 52. Dean of that Church in Apr. 1636 (in which month and year he died) or in that of Dr. Walt. Balcanquall, who had the grant of the Deanery of Durham made to him in 1638, but not installed therein till May 1639, I cannot justly tell. In 1641 he was made Bishop of Chichester, (being one of those persons of unblemished reputation that his Majesty, tho late, promoted to that honorable office) to which being consecrated (at Westminster as it seems) on the 19. of Decemb. the same year, sate there, without any removal, saving only that by the members of the Long Parliament, to the time of his death. When he was young he delighted much in the studies of Musick and Poetry, which, with his wit and fancy made his conversation much accepted. When he was elder, he applied himself to Oratory and Philosophy, and in his reduced age fixed on Divinity; in which faculty he became eminent, as his Sermons partly shew, which remain’d fresh in the minds of his Auditors many years after his death. His works are,

Several Sermons as (1) Sermon preached at Pauls cross 25. Nov. 1621. upon occasion of that false and scandalous report (lately printed) touching the supposed apostacy of Dr. John King late B. of Lond. on Joh. 15.20. Lond. 1621. qu. To which is added The examination of Tho. Preston taken before the Archb. of Cant. at Lambeth 20. Dec. 1621 concerning his being the author of the scandalous report of Bishop Kings apostacy. (2) Davids enlargement: the morning Sermon on Act Sunday, on Psalm 32.5. Oxon. 1625. qu. See more in John King in the first vol. an. 1638. p. 526. (3) Sermon of deliverance, at the Spittle on Easter Munday, on Psal. 91.3. Printed 1626. qu. (4) Two Sermons at Whitehall in Lent, on Eccles. 12.1. and on Psal. 55.6. Printed 1627. in qu. (5) Serm. at Pauls on his Maj. inauguration, on Jer. 1.10. Printed 1640. in qu. (6) Sermon at Whitehall 29. May being the happy day of his Maj. inauguration and birth, on Ezek. 21.27. Lond. 1661. qu. (7) Serm. at the funeral of Brian Bishop of Winchester in the Abbey Ch. of Westm. 24. Apr. 1662, on Psal. 116.15. Lond. 1662. qu. (8) Visitation Serm. at Lewis, 8. Oct. 1662, on Titus 2.1. Lond. 1663. qu. (9) Sermon preached 30. Jan. 1664 at Whitehall, being the day of the Kings Martyrdome, on 2 Chron. 35.24.25. Lond. 1665. qu.

Exposition on the Lords Prayer, delivered in certain Sermons, on Matth. 6.9. &c. Lond. 1628. qu. It must be now observed that this worthy Bishop being at divine Service on Sunday in a certain Church (at Langley, I think, in Bucks.) and hearing there a Psalm sung, whose wretched expression quite marr’d the Pen-mans matter, and his devotion, he did at his return home that evening, try whether from the version of our Bible, he could not easily and with plainess, suiting the lowest understanding, deliver it from that garb, which indeed made it ridiculous. From one to another he passed on until the whole book was run through: Which done, he could not resist the advice and importunity of better judgments than his own, to put it to the press. He was, as he confess’d, discouraged, knowing that Mr. George Sandys, and then lately one ((b))((b)) Francis Rous, or Will. Barton. of our pretended Reformers had failed in two different extremes. The first too elegant for the vulgar use, changing both meter and tunes, wherewith they had been long acquainted; the other as flat and poor, as lamely worded, and unhandsomly rimed as the old, which with much confidence he undertook to amend. He therefore ventur’d in a middle way, as he ((c))((c)) See in the Collection of Letters, at the end of Archb. Ʋshers life, printed 1686. nu. 265. himself said, aiming without affectation of words, and endeavouring to leave them not disfigur’d in the sense. This version soon after came out with this title.

The Psalmes of David from the new translation of the Bible, turn’d into meter, to be sung after the old tunes used in Churches. Lond. 1651. 54. in tw. &c. He hath also written,

Poems, Elegies, Paradoxes and Sonnets. Lond. 1657. oct. When these poems were first published, all the report was that Dr. Philip King Brother to the said Hen. King was the author, and thereupon it was put into the Bodleian Catalogue under the said Philips name.

Several letters—Among which are extant one or more to the famous Dr. Usher Primat of Ireland; and another to Isaac Walton concerning the three imperfect books of Rich. Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Politie, dat. 13. Nov. 1664.—Pr. at Lond. 1665. oct.

Divers Lat. and Gr. poems—Many of which are extant in several books. What remains to be observ’d of this Prelate is, that he was always puritannically affected, and therefore to please the Puritan he was promoted to the See of Chichester: That after Episcopacy was silenced by the Long Parliament he mostly lived in the house of Sir Rich. Hobart (who had married his Sister) at Langley near to Colebrook in Bucks: That being restored to his See at the return of K. Ch. 2. became esteemed by many persons of his neighbourhood and diocess, the Epitome of all honors, virtues and generous nobleness, and a person never to be forgotten by his Tenants, and by the Poor: That also being not removed to a better See, became discontented, as I have heard, and a favourer thereupon of the Presbyterians in his Diocess: And lastly that dying on the first day of Octob. in sixteen hundred sixty and nine,1669. was buried on the South side of the Choir (near the Communion Table) belonging to the Cathedral Church of Chichester. Soon after was a comly monument put over his grave, with an inscription thereon, wherein ’tis said that he was antiquâ eâque regiâ Saxonium apud Danmonios in agro Devoniensi, prosapiâ oriundus, that he was natalium splendore illustris, pietate, doctrinâ & virtutibus illustrior, &c. Near to his body was in short time after buried his eldest Son named John, to whose, as also to the, memory of the said Bishop King, did his Widow Anne, Daughter of Sir Will. Russell of Strensham in Worcestersh. Kt and Bt (now the Wife of Sir Tho. Millington Dr. of Phys.) erect the said monument at her proper charges.