King, Peter

King, Peter lord chancellor of England, was born at Exeter, Devonshire. in 1669; went to Holland, and studied at the university at Leyden, and upon his return to England studied law at Lincoln's Inn, and became member of Parliament in 1699. In 1708 he was appointed recorder of London, and knighted. At the accession of George I he was made lord chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and soon after promoted to the peerage as lord King, baron of Ockham. He was made lord chancellor in 1725, but does not seem to have been as successful in that position as was expected. He died in 1733. He was well versed in both ecclesiastical history and the law. His principal works are. An Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity, and Worship of the Primitive Church, etc. [Anon.] (Lond. 1712, 8vo) : in this, his first publication, he advocated, with much ability and learning, the right of Protestant dissenters from episcopacy to be comprehended in the scheme of the national establishment. The work excited much attention, and provoked much discussion, especially when the second edition was issued (1713). Prominent among the opponents was the nonjuring Sclater, who wrote an Answer to it. King himself has been said to have afterwards altered his opinion on the subject:-The History of the Apostles' Creed, with critical Observations on its several Articles [Anon.] (London, 1702, 8vo)- a work displaying extraordinary learning and judgment, and highly commended by the ablest critics, among others by Mosheim. See Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxii and lxx; Chalmers, General Biog.

Dictionary; Lord Campbell, Lives of Lords Chancellors; Allibone, Dict. of English and American Authors, s.v. (J. H.W.)