Charles King (fl. 1707–1735)

KING (CHARLES), bookseller in London, Judge's Head, Westminster Hall, 1707–25. His name appears for the first time in the Term Catalogues in Trin. 1707 as one of the publishers of Francis Higgins's Sermon preach'd at Whitehall on Ash Wednesday, 170⁶/₇. [T.C. Ill. 553.] A list of eight books published by him with Benjamin Barker is found in an Assize Sermon by J. A. Dubourdieu, 1714. [Bodl. Sermons, 6 (13).] In 1713 Lintot bought of him a third share in Geddes's Tracts against Popery. [Nichols, Lit. Anecd. viii. 298.] Charles King was still in business in 1725. The Mr. King mentioned by Dunton [p. 359] as succeeding him at the Black Raven in the Poultry about 1698 may have been this man, but is more probably J. King.

KING, CHARLES. He first comes into notice in 1707, when he advertises from Westminster Hall. He was still here in 1714, when Lintot bought from him one-third share in Geddes's 'Tracts against Popery' for £3 6s. 0d. (See extracts from Lintot's Account Books quoted by Nichols, and Disraeli, 'Quarrels and Calamities of Authors.') By 1719 he had moved to the Judge's Head in Westminster. The last reference I have found to him is in 1731, though Plomer's last entry for him is in 1725.
 

—Frederick T. Wood, 12 September 1731

KING, CHARLES. There appears to be some slight confusion in the addresses which are given as (i) in Westminster Hall in 1707 and (ii) "By 1719 he had moved to the Judge's Head in Westminster." According to Arber (op. cit.) Charles King was at the Judge's Head in Westminster Hall in 1707, and from the evidence which I have of his imprints it seems pretty clear that Plomer was quite correct in placing him there during the whole of the period from 1707 to 1725. In the year 1716 he published 'Neck or Nothing: A Consolatory Letter from Mr. D-nt-n to Mr. C-rll Upon his being Tost in a Blanket.'

—Ambrose Heal, 7 November 1931