James G. King

James Gore King (May 8, 1791, New York City - October 3, 1853, Weehawken, New Jersey) was an American businessman and Whig Party politician who represented New Jersey's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1849 to 1851. King was the third son of Rufus King, and brother of John Alsop King, who served as Governor of New York.

King was born in New York City on May 8, 1791. He pursued classical studies in England and France, returned to United States and graduated from Harvard University in 1810. He studied law at the Litchfield Law School. He served in the War of 1812 as assistant adjutant general of the New York Militia. After the war, he married the daughter of Archibald Gracie, and engaged in mercantile pursuits in New York City in 1815. In 1818, he established a banking establishment, King & Gracie, in Liverpool, England with his brother-in-law, Archibald Gracie Jr. He returned to New York City in 1824 and engaged in banking as a partner in the firm of Prime & Ward (thereafter Prime, Ward & King), with residence in Weehawken, New Jersey. He became president of the Erie Railroad in 1835, until 1837, when by his visit to London he secured the loan to American bankers of $1,000,000 from the governors of the Bank of England.

King was elected as a Whig to Congress, serving in office from March 4, 1849 to March 3, 1851, but declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1850.

After leaving Congress, he resumed the banking business. By this time the firm he had worked for had undergone dissolution, and so was succeeded by the House of James G. King & Son. He died at his country place, “Highwood,” near Weehawken on October 3, 1853, of a "congestion of the lungs" and was interred in the churchyard of Grace Church, Jamaica, N.Y.

His daughter, Frederika Gore King, married Bancroft Davis, an American lawyer, judge, diplomat, and president of Newburgh and New York Railway Company. His great-great-granddaughter Ellin Travers Mackay married Irving Berlin. Another great-great-grandchild was Wolcott Gibbs, who was also a direct descendant of Martin Van Buren (James Gore King's grandson married Martin Van Buren's granddaughter, and Wolcott Gibbs was their grandson).

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press 
• Obituaries, The New York Times, October 5, 1853. Retrieved September 23, 2007

External links

• James G. King at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• James Gore King at The Political Graveyard
• James Gore King at Find a Grave
• James Gore King V New-York Historical Society