of Sligo chose King and Captain Chidley Coote their chief commanders. King arrived at Ballyshannon on 24 Jan. There he received a letter from the committee in Derry, with orders (as they said) from Colonel Lundy to keep the passes on the Erne Water. He obeyed these instructions with signal success, but on 15 April he received directions from Lundy to bring his men suddenly into the immediate neighbourhood of Derry. The scattered position of his troops rendered this impossible. He himself went at sunrise the next morning towards Derry to inquire into the situation of affairs, and learnt on coming within five miles of Raphoe that Lundy with his forces had fled to Derry, and that the Irish, who had reached Raphoe, would prevent him from approaching Derry. King thereupon hastened back to his troops, despatched orders for the horse to secure themselves in Enniskillen, and the foot at Donegal, Ballyshannon, and other places, and then with some of his officers went to Scotland in a French vessel, which they seized at Killybegs, co. Donegal, and hurried to give William an account of affairs (Harris, Life of William III, pp. 197–9). By Tyrconnel's proclamation of 7 March King was exempted from mercy or James's favour, he was attainted by the parliament on 7 May, and had his estate sequestered; but on 26 Aug. following he commanded a regiment of foot at the taking of Carrickfergus, and on the reduction of the kingdom took his seat in parliament on 5 Oct. 1692.
By deeds dated 19 and 20 Dec. 1693 King demised to Henry, lord Capel, Sir Robert King, and others the castle, manor, and lands of Newcastle, and part of the manor of Mitchelstown, in cos. Tipperary and Cork, for building, endowing, and establishing for ever a college in or near the borough of Boyle, co. Roscommon, to be called by the name of Kingston College, for one master and usher and a chaplain, with apartments for them and twenty poor widows, together with a free school and a chapel. He alienated his estate from his brother and successor, John, because he had become a Roman catholic and had married a servant girl; but John recovered it in 1708. King died without issue in December 1693.
[Lodge's Peerage of Ireland (Archdall), iii. 229 n., A Vindication of Sir Robert King's Designs and Actions, 1699.]
KING, ROBERT (fl. 1684–1711), composer, was a member of the band of music to William and Mary under the mastership of Nicholas Staggins. He was the composer of several songs in ‘Choice Ayres, Songs, and Dialogues,’ 1684, and wrote the music for the songs in Crowne's most popular comedy, ‘Sir Courtly Nice.’ These were printed separately in the ‘Theater of Musick’ (vol. ii. ed. 1685). King was also a contributor to ‘Comes Amoris,’ 1687–93; ‘The Banquet of Musick,’ 1688–92; the ‘Gentleman's Journal,’ 1692–4; and ‘Thesaurus Musicus,’ 1695–6. In 1690 he set Shadwell's ode on St. Cecilia's day, ‘O Sacred Harmony;’ and in 1693 ‘an ode on the Rt. Hon. John Cecil, earl of Exeter, his birthday,’ commencing ‘Once more 'tis born the happy day,’ the words of which were written by Peter Anthony Motteux [q. v.] In 1696 he took the degree of Mus. Bac. from St. Catharine College, Cambridge, and subsequently served in the band of music to Queen Anne. There are two songs by King, ‘With thee for ever’ and ‘Only tell her,’ among the manuscript collections of the Sacred Harmonic Society (Catalogue, p. 233), and a collection of twenty-four songs by him, entitled ‘Songs for one, two, or three Voices, composed to a Thorough Basse for ye Organ or Harpsichord, engraved on copper, was published by John Walsh (the elder) in 1711. King appears to have been living at this date, but the time of his death is not known.
[Groves Dict. of Music, ii. 57;, Fétis's Biog. Universelle des Musiciens, v. 33; Brown's Biog. Dict. of Musicians, p. 359; Graduati Cantabrigienses, p. 275.]
KING, ROBERT, second Earl of Kingston (1754–1799), born in 1754, was eldest son of Edward, first earl of Kingston (1726–1797), by Jane, daughter of Thomas Caulfeild of Donamon, co. Roscommon (Lodge, Peerage of Ireland, ed. Archdall, iii. 237). As Viscount Kingsborough he was returned M.P. for co. Cork in 1783, 1790, and 1798, when he was called to the House of Lords (Official Return of Members of Parliament, pt. ii.) On 5 Dec. 1769 he married a cousin, Caroline, only daughter and heiress of Richard Fitzgerald of Mount Ophaly, co. Kildare, by the daughter and heiress of James, fourth and last baron Kingston. By their marriage the family estates were reunited. They had issue six sons and five daughters. Henry Gerard Fitzgerald, an illegitimate son of Lady Kingsborough's brother, was brought up with her own family. He became a colonel in the army, and was married, but in the summer of 1797 eloped with Mary Elizabeth, Lord and Lady Kingsborough's third daughter. Fitzgerald successfully deceived the girl's parents, but his guilt was discovered and the lady restored to her parents. Her brother, Colonel Robert Edward King (afterwards Viscount Lorton), fought a duel with Fitz-
