John King (lord of the manor)

John King BA (1716-1770) was an 18th-century clergyman and Lord of the Manor of West Hall, Folke, a Grade 1 listed Elizabethan manor house in Dorset.
Early life and education
John King was the son of John King of Sherborne, Dorset, a governor of Sherborne School and Master of the Almhouse of that town. He was educated at Sherborne and Trinity College, Cambridge.
Ecclesiastical career
On 6 March 1743 John King was instituted Rector of Glanvilles Wootton under the patronage of his father, John King of Sherborne, and Edmund Morton Pleydell.
Some indication of King's style as a clergyman can be gained from one anecdote that survives; in one Sunday service, the Rev King, having left his sermon at home on a marble slab, sent a man to ride the four miles there and back to fetch it, while setting the congregation to singing Psalm 119 (Blessed are they whose ways are blameless)..
In 1742, King purchased the estate and historic manor house of West Hall, Folke, Dorset. West Hall had been built by the Hymerford family in the 15th century, passing to the family of Moleyns late in the 16th century when it underwent major rebuilding and improvements. The estate passed to the Chafe family when in 1662 Thomas Chafe married Susanna, daughter and heir of Edward Moleyns. West Hall had also been the home of Thomas Wyndham. Chafe, Wyndham and King were all Old Shirburnians.
Family Life
He married Sarah (d. 1783) by whom he had three surviving sons, Henry King JP DL (1752-1815), Lieutenant John King (1784-1804) of the Madras Army who was killed in action aged only 20, the Rev Charles Edmund King BA MA (1788-1827) educated at Balliol College, Oxford, who died after a fall from his horse, and Lieut-Colonel Henry King (1777-1839) who served with his Regiment in the Peninsula War. He had two daughters, of whom the eldest, Sarah, married Rear-Admiral Nicholas Ingram of Burton Bradstock who commanded the Weymouth district of Sea Fencibles.
John King died in 1770 and was buried at Folke.

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