James King | |
|---|---|
 King in 1782 | |
| Born | 1750 Clitheroe, Lancashire, Great Britain |
| Died | 16 November 1784 (aged 34) Nice, France |
| Buried | Nice, France |
| Allegiance | Kingdom of Great Britain |
| Branch | Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1762–1784 |
| Rank | Post captain |
| Commands | |
| Battles / wars | |
CaptainJames KingFRS (1750 – 16 November 1784) was an officer of theRoyal Navy.[1] He served underJames Cook on his last voyage around the world, specialising in taking important astronomical readings using asextant. After Cook died he helped lead the ships on the remainder of their course, also completing Cook's account of the voyage. He continued his career in the Navy, reaching the rank ofpost-captain, commanding several ships and serving in theAmerican War of Independence.
King was born inClitheroe, Lancashire, in 1750, the son ofJames King, who was at that time curate of St Mary Magdalene, Clitheroe.[2][3][4][1] According to theparish registers young James King was baptised on 13 July 1750, presumably shortly after his birth. At an early age King enteredClitheroe Royal Grammar School, where he remained until he was 12 years old.
King entered the navy on 19 November 1762 under the patronage of his kinsman William Norton, serving under him first inHMS Assistance[1] as anable seaman, although in fact he was treated as ajunior officer, and then as a midshipman in theWilliam and Mary. After further service as an able seaman ormidshipman inHMS Gibraltar andHMS Liverpool, King joinedHMS Guernsey, Captain James Chads, on 15 March 1768 as an able seaman for service on theNewfoundland Station underHugh Palliser, a commodore and friend and patron of James Cook, but there is no indication that Cook and King met at this time. It has been said that King served aboardHMS Alarm in the Mediterranean under CaptainJohn Jervis but there is no evidence of this.[4]
Having passed for lieutenant on 7 March 1769, King was promoted to this rank on 10 January 1771, serving in several ships before being placed onhalf pay in May 1773. He was then granted leave to go abroad on his private affairs for one year, visiting Paris before joining his elder brother Thomas in Auxerre. This was followed by a period with his brotherWalker King atCorpus Christi College, Oxford, where he was introduced toThomas Hornsby, a priest andSavilian Professor of Astronomy, by his father's first cousin,Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley, Speaker of the House of Commons and member of the Board of Longitude, who recommended him for Cook's third voyage.[5]
King joinedHMS Resolution as second lieutenant, sharing the duties ofastronomer with Cook, taking astronomical observations on board bysextant and withLarcum Kendall's timekeeper K1, to establish theResolution's position at sea and on shore by sextant or by astronomical quadrant to establish the geographical position of salient points during the course of Cook's surveys.[4] Thus King's geographical positions were an important contribution to the accuracy of the various surveys carried out during the voyage and his use of the early chronometers helped prove their use at sea for calculation of longitude.
Following the death of Cook, King remained in theResolution but on the death ofCharles Clerke, Cook's successor, King was appointed to commandHMS Discovery, theResolution's consort, remaining in her for the rest of the voyage. After his return to England King was very much involved in the publication of the official account ofCook's third voyage, writing the third volume atWoodstock, near Oxford, where his brother Thomas was rector of St Mary Magdalene. But shortly after his return King was promotedPost-captain and appointed commander of HMSCrocodile in theEnglish Channel.
Then towards the end of 1781 King was appointed commander of the 40-gunHMS Resistance and escorted a fleet ofmerchantmen to theWest Indies. He captured a French frigate,La Coquette, off Turks Island before returning to England at the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783 with his health much impaired. King then returned to Woodstock to continue to work on Cook's third voyage. After the publication of the three-volume account of the voyage, advancingtuberculosis drove him toNice, accompanied by his friendsJames Trevenen, who had served with him in theResolution andDiscovery, and CaptainWilliam Young, who had served with him in theGuernsey, where he died on 16 November 1784 at the age of 34, although the memorial tablet in Woodstock parish church states erroneously that he died in his 32nd year. He was made a Fellow ofthe Royal Society and in 1782[1] in recognition of his astronomical observations during Cook's third voyage he was also made an honorary L.L.D. Trinity College, Dublin, after donating his collection of Pacific artefacts to the college.[5]
King Island in British Columbia was named in 1793 byGeorge Vancouver, in honour of the family of Captain James King, under whom Vancouver had served as a midshipman on the Discovery during the latter part of the third voyage of James Cook.
