246 Lawrence Mason, 



Bishop of Chichester departed this lih' September the thirtieth and 

 was solemnly interred October y'' 8*''."^ He had survived his four 

 younger brothers and two at least of liis sisters,^ as well as his wife 

 and five of his six children ,3 while his remaining son died fifteen 

 months after him.* Hannah was mistaken, however, in his assump- 

 tion "that we cannot carry the history of his family far beyond the 

 Bishop of Chichester himself,"^ for a correspondent in "Notes and 

 Queries" says that "the Vicar of Brighton has furnished the pedigree 

 of Bishop Henry King down to the present date,"^ i. e., 1875, and 

 the present writer in January, 191 2, met at Chichester a Mr. Free- 

 land who claimed connection by marriage with surviving descend- 

 ants of the Bishop. Henry King's fair name and fame have been 

 impeached in but one particular, which will be discussed in the follow- 

 ing section ; otherwise, Wood, Walton, Walker, and Fuller have 

 nothing but praise for him, as "'the epitome of all honours, virtues, 

 and generous nobleness,' and a person never to be forgotten by his 

 tenants, and by the poor."^ Despite the somewhat forbidding cast 

 of feature and expression evidenced by his portrait, which hangs in 

 the old Lecture Room, Christ Church, Oxford, there seems to be no 

 ground for doubting the generous character of the man : his bene- 

 factions in behalf of Christ Church ^ and the poor of Worminghall^ 



1 Hannah, Ixxvii, where it is pointed out that Wood's date "the first day 

 of Octob." ("Athen. Oxon.," Ill, 841), is simply a mistranslation of the 

 Monumental Inscription, "Prid. Kalendas Octobris." These Monumental 

 Inscriptions seem to have been strangely troublesome to the early biogra- 

 phers, for Welch ("Alum. West.," 77) quotes approvingly, "Major John 

 King," as a suitable translation of "natu major Johannes King"! 



2 "Athen. Oxon.," II, 633 ; Hannah, xciii— ciii. 

 2 p. 237, sup ; Hannah, Ixxvii, Ixxviii. 



* Hannah, ibid. ^ Ixxix. 



6 "N. & Q.," 5th Series, IV, 370; cf. also"N. & Q.," ist Series, III, 368—9, 

 on Bishop John King's sermon "on behalfe of Paule's Church," signed 

 "Richard John King." Moreover, a kind correspondent (Mr. W. L. King 

 of Ware, Herts) has recently forwarded information that John King, D.D., 

 Master of the Charter House, d. 1738, "had a brother Major King, whose 

 daughter Mary became 3rd wife of Sir Francis Dashwood (Lipscombe Hist. 

 Bucks, II, 222). Elizth Dashwood, niece of the aforesaid Sir Francis, 

 married Andrew Archer of Umberslade, Ware, and at Umberslade was a 

 King family using the Bishop's arms." 



■^ "Athen. Oxon.," Ill, 841. 



8 "Athen. Oxon.," II, 775; "Memorials of O.xford," by J. Ingram, 1837, 

 I, 7-8. 



9 "Hist, and Antiq. Bucks," by Lipscomb, I, 582—3. 



