Rufus King1

b. 24 March 1755, d. 29 April 1827
Rufus King|b. 24 Mar 1755\nd. 29 Apr 1827|p7000.htm|Richard King|b. c 1718\nd. 27 Mar 1775|p6995.htm|Isabella Bragdon|b. 8 Apr 1731\nd. 19 Oct 1759|p6996.htm|John King||p7359.htm|Mary Stowell|b. s 1695\nd. 7 Mar 1770|p7284.htm|Jeremiah S. Bragdon|||Tabitha Banks|||

1st cousin 4 times removed of Ruth Minerva Fairfield.
1st cousin 6 times removed of Laura Jane Munson.
Family Background:
Fairfield and Allied Families
Click to view thumbnails
Rufus King
     Rufus King was born on 24 March 1755 in Scarborough, Maine.2,3 He was the son of Richard King and Isabella Bragdon.1 He was baptized on 6 April 1755 in Second Church, Scarborough.4 He married Mary Alsop, daughter of John Alsop and Mary Frogat, on 30 March 1786 in New York City. Mary was the only child of a wealthy New York merchant, who was a member of the first Continental Congress. She was noted for beauty and an unspoiled nature, and at sixteen married Rufus King.2 He died on 29 April 1827 in Jamaica, Queens County, New York, at age 72.1,5,3 He was buried in Grace Episcopal Churchyard, Jamaica, Queens County.6,1,3
     
     Rufus King was a Delegate from Massachusetts and a Senator from New York. He attended Dummer Academy, Byfield, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard College in 1777. He served in the Revolutionary War, studied law, was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1780. He was a delegate to the Massachusetts General Court 1783-1785, member of the Continental Congress from Massachusetts 1784-1787, delegate to the Federal constitutional convention at Philadelphia in 1787 and to the State convention in 1788 which ratified the same. He moved to New York City in 1788 and was a member of the New York assembly. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1789; reelected in 1795 and served from July 16, 1789, until May 1796, when he resigned to become United States Minister to Great Britain. He was Minister to Great Britain 1796-1803, unsuccessful Federalist candidate for Vice President of the United States in 1804, again elected as a Federalist to the United States Senate in 1813, reelected in 1819 and served from March 4, 1813, to March 3, 1825. He was chairman, Committee on Roads and Canals (Sixteenth Congress), Committee on Foreign Relations (Seventeenth Congress); unsuccessful candidate for Governor of New York in 1816 and for President of the United States in 1816, and again United States Minister to Great Britain 1825-1826.3

     Rufus King wrote a letter in 1824 in which he said, "I am a native of Maine, where my relatives reside. My grandfather was English, came to America in the later part of the seventeenth century, and lived in Boston."7

Children of Rufus King and Mary Alsop

Citations

  1. [S707] John King of Boston MA, online http://members.tripod.com/~loupero/famous1.htm
  2. [S708] Rossiter Johnson, editor, Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans (Boston, MA: The Biographical Society, 1904), 250.
  3. [S709] US Government, Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949: The Continental Congress September 5, 1774, to October 21, 1788 and The Congress of the United States From the First to the Eightieth Congress March 4, 1789 to January 3, 1949, Inclusive (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1950), 1414.
  4. [S761] The New England Historical and Genealogical Register; (Online database: NewEnglandAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001), (Orig. Pub. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 148 vols., 1847-1994) 38:341.
  5. [S708] Rossiter Johnson, Bios of Notable Americans, 251.
  6. [S706] Patricia Law Hatcher, compiler, Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots (Dallas, TX: Pioneer Heritage Press, 1987), Vol. 2.
  7. [S728] Charles R. King, "Richard King", Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder 1:3 (1884): 152, the author, who was the grandson of Rufus King, wrote that the letter was in his possession.