Transcript

of

Richard John King, M.A. [Obituary]

Trans. Devon. Assoc., 1879, Vol. XI, pp. 58-60.

by

Rev. W. Harpley

Prepared by Michael Steer

Mr King was also a West-country poet of note, with an example of his work, ‘Song o’ the Outlaw Murray’ presented in the Devon Poets pages.The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers. 
 

Richard John King, M.A., a native of Plymouth, represented one of the oldest families in Devonshire, and at one time was a landed proprietor. He was the eldest son of the late Mr. Richard King, of Bigadon, a pleasant country house situate near the ruins of the Cistercian Abbey of Buckfast. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1841. On succeeding to his patrimony, it was found to be heavily mortgaged; and at last everything had to be sold, including his library, one of the most magnificent private libraries in the kingdom. The sale of the books alone took three days, and many choice editions and rare folios changed hands. Mr. King then retired to his quiet little residence at the Limes, Crediton, where he lived upwards of twenty years.

Much of Mr. King's work was anonymous, and his name, therefore, is less known to the public than those of many authors of inferior note; but in literary and antiquarian circles he was well known as an authority of the highest character, especially on matters connected with the local history, customs, and folk-lore of the West of England. His knowledge of the county history of Devon in its minutest ramifications was alike extensive and profound, and it may fairly be added, unequalled. He was a patient and careful worker, scrupulously accurate in all his citations, and gifted with a style of singular gracefulness and vigour. Retiring in his habits, but always kindly, and ready to help with his advice or assistance others engaged in like pursuits, Mr. King was no mere bookworm - no literary recluse; indeed he always appeared to derive much enjoyment from the society of his friends; and the quiet, unostentatious manner in which he was accustomed to impart information from his well-stored mind, on almost every subject, rendered him at all times a welcome and interesting companion. He took his part in the proceedings of learned associations, and engaged in discussions with a readiness and geniality that won for him universal friendship and esteem.

Mr. King published in 1842 Selections from the Early Balled Poetry of England and Scotland and from that date until the present year was never really out of harness. Among his separately published and acknowledged works may be mentioned also his Anschar, a novel of northern incident, printed at Plymouth in 1850, and containing an account of the wanderings in Sweden of S. Anschar, the apostle of the North, when engaged on his mission of converting the hardy Norsemen to Christianity; The Forest of Dartmoor and its Borders, in 1856, two essays in introduction to a large work on the history of Devon, which unfortunately was never carried further; his Handbooks to the Cathedrals of England and Wales, published by Mr. Murray during the years 1861-69, in seven volumes, and containing an elaborate description of those venerable buildings such as could only have been sketched by the pen of an accomplished archaeologist, and a practised and reverential student of ecclesiastical architecture; Murray's Handbooks to Kent and Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire, Yorkshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge and Essex, and Devon and Cornwall (the latter revised and partially re-written), and a volume of gathered papers published two years ago under the title of Sketches and Studies, and chiefly selected from Mr. King's contributions to current periodical literature in the Quarterly, Fraser, and other reviews and magazines. Few more charming bits of mingled history and gossip than his Travelling in England, or the Great Shrines of England, have been contributed to periodical literature in recent years. This list, however, by no means represents the extent of Mr. King s literary work, amidst which he found time to be a frequent, as he was a valued, contributor to Notes and Queries, and to carry on an extensive private correspondence upon the subjects in which he felt so deep an interest.

Mr. King became a Member of this Association in 1874, and filled the office of President in 1875, when the Association met at Torrington, and his address on that occasion was a learned and critical contribution to the early history of Devon, full of suggestions for further investigation. At the same meeting he also read a paper on "The Folk-Lore of Devon." In 1876 he contributed a paper entitled "Coplestone Cross; and a charter of Eadgar, a.d. 974." He was a most earnest and active member of the Association, and at the time of his death was engaged on no less than eight of its special committees, being also the secretary of those on "Devonshire Folk-Lore," and "The Public and Private Collections of Works of Art in Devonshire." He was likewise engaged with several other members in translating and editing, with a view to publication, the Devonshire "Domesday."

He died at the Limes, Crediton, after a brief illness, on March 10th, 1879. His funeral was largely attended, the Association being represented on the mournful occasion. A handsome memorial window of stained glass has, through the exertions of the Rev. Prebendary Smith, been placed to his memory in the parish church at Crediton. Had Mr. King been a more ambitious man, he might have left a more brilliant name behind him; but his life was one of earnest, faithful labour in the noble cause to which he had devoted himself, and in that cause he has left a mark which will not be soon effaced, and amongst his literary friends, as well as others, none will be more sincerely mourned than Richard John King