Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/King, Richard (1774-1834)
KING, Sir RICHARD, the younger (1774–1834), vice-admiral, born in 1774, was only son of Admiral Sir Richard King [q. v.] He entered the navy in 1788 on board the Crown in the East Indies with Commodore (afterwards Sir William) Cornwallis [q. v.], by whom he was made lieutenant in 1791, commander in 1793, and captain in 1794. On his return to England he was appointed in November 1794 to the Aurora for cruising service in the Channel. During the continuance of the war he commanded different ships with credit in the Channel and the North Sea. In April 1804 he was appointed to the Achille of 74 guns, in which, on 21 Oct. 1805, he took part in the battle of Trafalgar. On the death of his father in November 1806, King succeeded to the baronetcy, but continued in the Achille, employed on the west coast of France or Spain till 1811, when he was appointed captain of the fleet to Sir Charles Cotton [q. v.] in the Mediterranean and afterwards in the Channel. He was promoted to be rear-admiral on 12 Aug. 1812, and for the rest of the war had his flag in the San Josef, in the Mediterranean, as second in command to Sir Edward Pellew [q. v.], afterwards Viscount Exmouth. He was nominated a K.C.B. 2 Jan. 1815, was commander-in-chief in the East Indies from 1816 to 1820, and became a vice-admiral on 19 July 1821. In July 1833 he was appointed commander-in-chief at the Nore, and died at Admiralty House, Sheerness, on 5 Aug. 1834. King was twice married, first, in 1803, to Sarah Anne, only daughter of Sir John Thomas Duckworth [q. v.]; secondly, in 1822, to Maria Susanna, daughter of Sir Charles Cotton, and left issue by both wives. His second son by the first marriage, Admiral Sir George St. Vincent Duckworth King, K.C.B. (d. 1891), succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his elder brother in 1847, was captain of the Leander, and afterwards of the Rodney, in the Black Sea during the Russian war in 1854–5, and was second in command of the naval brigade at the siege of Sebastopol. He became a rear-admiral in 1863, was commander-in-chief in China from 1863 to 1867, was made vice-admiral in 1867, and admiral in 1875. He died on 18 Aug. 1891.
[Marshall's Royal Nav. Biog. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 545; Ralfe's Nav. Biog. iii. 126; O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict. (s. n. ‘King, George St. Vincent’); United Service Journal, 1834, iii. 232; see also Foster's Baronetage.]