William King

Posts in The Copybook credited to ‘William King’

William King (1685-1763), a former secretary to the Chancellor of Oxford University, was elected Principal of St Mary Hall (later incorporated into Oriel College) in 1719. During this period he was the acknowledged leader of the Jacobite party at the University. King resigned in 1727, and dedicated himself to satire and public speaking (he delivered the oration at the opening of the Radcliffe Camera in 1749), always courting controversy; but after meeting ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ in 1750 his enthusiasm for the Jacobite cause faded and he formally renounced it in 1761. He was on friendly but fractious terms with Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and other literary figures of the age.

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A Cavalier Attitude by William King

Royalist soldier Sir Jacob Ashly exemplified a Christian gentleman in the heat of battle.

As secretary to the Chancellor of Oxford University, William King moved among elevated but sometimes tactless company. He remembered one dinner-time conversation in 1715 during which Sir William Wyndham, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, joked about prayer right in front of Lord Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester.

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