Edward King (antiquarian)

Edward King (1735?–1807) was an English barrister and writer. His best-known works were on castles and antiquities.

Born about 1735, was the only son of Edward King of Norwich. He studied for a time at Clare Hall, Cambridge, as a fellow-commoner, matriculating in 1752. On 18 September 1758 he was admitted a member of Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in Michaelmas term 1763. A fortune bequeathed to him by his uncle, Mr. Brown, a wholesale linendraper of Exeter, gave him financial independence, but he regularly attended the Norfolk circuit for some years, and was appointed recorder of King's Lynn.

King was elected fellow of the Royal Society on 14 May 1767, and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 3 May 1770. On the death of Jeremiah Milles in February 1784, King was elected his successor in the presidency of the Society of Antiquaries, though on the understanding that Lord De Ferrars would assume the office on the ensuing 23 April. King sought anyway to obtain re-election, by tactical means, but was defeated.

King died on 16 April 1807, aged 72, and was buried in the churchyard at Beckenham, Kent, where was his country seat was "The Oakery", on Clay Hill. His collections of prints and drawings were sold by auction in 1808.

King's treatise Vestiges of Oxford Castle; or, a small fragment of a work intended to be published speedily on the History of Ancient Castles, London, 1796, was followed by his major work entitled Munimenta Antiqua; or, Observations on ancient Castles, including remarks on the … progress of Architecture … in Great Britain, and on the … changes in … Laws and Customs (with Appendix), 4 vols. London, 1799–1806. The book is unreliable, but the content of plans and details was considered significant by antiquaries. Louis Dutens objected to King's theories on the invention of the arch in Recherches sur le tems le plus reculé de l'usage des voûtes chez les anciens, 1805. King the anticipated his fourth volume by publishing, the same year, an Introduction of 21 pages, in which he defended his views. Dutens continued the controversy in three more tracts; King replied in an Appendix to Munimenta Antiqua issued in 1806.

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