John King (official)

John King (1759–1830) was an English official of the Home Office, and in other posts, who was briefly a Member of Parliament for Enniskillen in 1806.

The fifth son of James King and his wife Anne Walker, he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1777, graduating B.A. in 1781, M.A. in 1784.

King became a Home Office law clerk in January 1791. He had the support of William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, at that time Home Secretary, and at the end of the year became Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department. Under Grenville's successor Henry Dundas, King was belonged to the circle gathering government intelligence across departments, including also Richard Ford, Francis Freeling, William Huskisson, Evan Nepean, and William Windham (later Charles William Flint). One surveillance operation in which he was involved was on Alfoxton House in August 1797, where William Wordsworth was staying, and about which James Walsh reported to King because of the presence of John Thelwall, an operation partly prompted by Dr. Daniel Lysons.

Windham, a politician rather than an official, used King (an older Christ Church contemporary) as an intermediary with Greville in 1792, when entering a covert role. In 1794 Nepean moved on from the Home Office, leaving King the senior of the Under-Secretaries of State, and he started to plan for a future seat in Parliament. After the passing of the Aliens Act 1793, King also worked in the Alien Office. From an initial task of dealing with correspondence, assigned at the end of 1794, he took on further duties as the Alien Office addressed intelligence needs and countered subversion. In 1798 he became a joint superintendent of aliens, with Flint and Wickham. He stayed at the Home Office until 1806, when Grenville became Prime Minister.

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