Robert King, 2nd Earl of Kingston

{{Short description|Irish accused murderer and property developer}}

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| title = Earl of Kingston

| image = Robert King, 2nd Earl of Kingston .PNG

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| predecessor = Edward King

| successor = George King

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| spouse = Caroline FitzGerald

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| birth_date = 1754

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| death_date = 17 April 1799

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Robert King, 2nd Earl of Kingston (1754 – 17 April 1799) was an Anglo-Irish peer. He was styled Viscount Kingsborough between 1768 and 1797. He achieved notoriety in 1798 when tried and acquitted by his peers in the Irish House of Lords for murder of his nephew Henry Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald had eloped with his daughter Mary.

Biography

He was the eldest surviving son of Edward King, 1st Earl of Kingston and Jane Caulfeild. From 1767 to 1768 he was educated at Eton College. He sat in the Irish House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Boyle from 1776 to 1783, and for County Cork between 1783 and 1797, and served as a Governor of County Cork in 1789.E. M. Johnston-Liik, [https://books.google.com/books?id=jitdluWSybIC&q=king&pg=PA92 MPs in Dublin: Companion to History of the Irish Parliament, 1692-1800] (Ulster Historical Foundation, 2006), p.100 (Retrieved 6 October 2016). In 1797 he succeeded to his father's titles and assumed his seat in the Irish House of Lords. Between 1797 and his death he was Custos Rotulorum of Roscommon.

On 18 May 1798, he was tried by his peers in the Irish House of Lords after allegedly murdering his nephew Colonel Henry Gerald FitzGerald. FitzGerald was a married man who eloped with King's daughter Mary, and had submitted to an inconclusive duel with her brother Robert. Public sympathy was on King's side and when after three summonses no witnesses came forward he was acquitted.{{Cite book |last=Todd |first=Janet |title=Rebel Daughters, Ireland in Conflict 1798 |publisher=Penguin |year=2004 |isbn=0141004894 |location=London |pages=224-234, 241-249.}} The Lord Chancellor pronounced the verdict, broke his wand and dismissed the assembly.{{Cite journal |last=Lyall |first=Andrew |title=The Irish House of Lords as a Judicial Body, 1783-1800 |url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/irishjur26&collection=journals&index=&id=320 |journal=Irish Jurist |volume=28 |pages=314–360 |jstor=44026395|year=1993 }}{{cite book |last1=Johnston-Liik |first1=Mary Edith |title=history of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800 Volume I |date=2002 |publisher=Ulster Historical Foundation |location=Belfast |isbn=190368871-X |page=328 }}

=Family=

File:Caroline, née Fitzgerald, Countess of Kingston.png

He married Caroline FitzGerald, daughter of Richard FitzGerald and Margaret King, on 5 December 1769, from whom he later separated. Together they had nine children: {{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

Hon. John King (died young)
Hon. Mary King
George King, Viscount Kingsborough (28 April 1771 – 18 October 1839), succeeded to his father's titles and married Lady Helena Moore, daughter of Stephen Moore, 1st Earl Mountcashell
Hon. Henry King (1772 – 26 November 1839), married Mary Hewitt
Hon. Edward King (1772 – 14 February 1848)
Lady Margaret King (1773 – 29 January 1835), writer, married 1st Stephen Moore, 2nd Earl Mountcashell and 2nd George William Tighe, agricultural theorist
Hon. Robert King (12 August 1773 – 20 November 1854), raised to the peerage as Viscount Lorton, married Lady Frances Parsons, daughter of Laurence Parsons, 1st Earl of Rosse
Hon. Richard FitzGerald King (8 April 1779 – 22 September 1856), married Williamina Ross
Lady Jane Diana King (1780 - 9 April 1838), married 1st Count Wintzingerode (1778-1856), foreign minister of the king of Württemberg; 2nd General John de Ricci.

A Naval Biographical Dictionary (1849) by William Richard O'Byrne states that Robert King had a sixth son, James William, who became a rear-admiral in 1846. He married Caroline Cleaver, daughter of the Archbishop of Dublin;{{Cite NBD1849 |wstitle=King,_James William |page=614}} one of their daughters was the prominent evangelist Catherine King Pennefather.