James King of William

James King of William (January 28, 1822 – May 20, 1856) was a crusading San Francisco, California, newspaper editor whose assassination by a criminal in 1856 resulted in the establishment of the second San Francisco Vigilance Committee and changed the politics of the city. King was among the first newspapermen to be honored by the California Journalism Hall of Fame.

James King was born January 28, 1822, in the Georgetown district of Washington, D.C., the seventh and youngest son of William King, a native of Ireland. When he was age sixteen, he began to style himself "James King of William", to distinguish himself from other James Kings in the area.

It was said that "He was an eager student, acquired a fair knowledge of Latin and English literature, and learned to speak French, Spanish and some German." He was married in 1843 to Charlotte M. Libbey of Georgetown, and they had six children. In 1848 he departed for the Pacific Coast "to improve his prospects and establish a new home for his family," whom he left behind until 1851, when they joined him in California.

King left home at the age of fifteen and worked first as a clerk in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then in St. Joseph, Missouri, from whence illness forced him to return to Georgetown in 1838, where he was a post office clerk. Soon he became a political journalist on Kendall's Expositor, a Democratic-leaning newspaper issued in Georgetown, and on the Washington Daily Globe, where he was also advertising manager. He was later a bookkeeper for the mercantile or financial firm of Corcoran & Riggs, until 1848.

Influenced by the letters of a brother, whose name was variously reported as Thomas, who assertedly wrote from Oregon, or as an elder brother, Henry, who wrote from California, King on May 24, 1848, sailed for Cartagena, Colombia, and made his way to the Pacific Ocean at the isthmus of Panama, where he was disappointed to find there was no ship on the west coast to take him north. He journeyed to Callao, Peru, and then Valparaiso, Chile, where, having heard about the gold strike in California, he purchased a stock of goods and hired nine men to sail with him to California aboard the Undine. After arrival on November 10, most of the men deserted him, but with the others he gathered enough gold near Hangtown (now Placerville), to make a "considerable financial success" of the placer mining venture. Soon he began trading gold coins or offering bills of trade for the miner's .

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