John King

Who was John King?

John King was an important English clergyman. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford on 4 July 1678, receiving his B.A. in 1682, his M.A. in 1685, and his B.D. and D.D. in 1704. He then became the rector of Shalden, Hampshire. From the mid-1690s, he was Preacher at the Charterhouse School, and, upon the death of Thomas Burnet in 1715, King was made Master of Charterhouse. A devout man who carried a copy of Thomas à Kempis's Imitation of Christ with him everywhere, King had a formative influence on John Wesley, who was a gownboy at the Charterhouse School 1714-1720. King was made Archdeacon of Colchester in 1722, and a Canon of Bristol in 1728.