Chapter 13: KING of Romsey and Cheltenham

King as a surname is a nickname from Middle English, derived from Old English cyning (originally merely a tribal leader, from Old English cyn(n) ‘tribe’, ‘race’ + the Germanic suffix -ing). The word was already used as a byname before the Norman Conquest, and the nickname was common in the Middle Ages, being used to refer to someone who conducted himself in a kingly manner, or one who had played the part of a king in a pageant, or one who had won the title in a tournament. In other cases it may actually have referred to someone who served in the king’s household.

King families in 1891

There are particular concentrations of the name in Hampshire, the southeast and the north. It is the former county that is the place of origin of our King family.

Samuel King was a grocer living on Middle Bridge Street in Romsey, a small town to the northwest of Southampton, in the early nineteenth century. He had two known children, brothers Henry and George. George, an agriculural labouer, appears to have died in the mid 1840's. Henry became a baker. With his wife Jane he had at least four children, the first thrree born in Romsey and the last in Cheltenham. Henry possibly died in Cheltenham in 1855. Jane became a nurse, probably looking after the children of, or elderly, gentlefolk in Cheltenham.

Henry and Jane's oldest son, James Daniel, was first a police constable in the Metropolitan Police Force, before returning to live in Prestbury, enar to Cheltenham, where he worked as a cellerman. James Daniel's brother Henry also worked in a the public house trade, for he was a barman in Birmingham. Mary Elizabeth married Benjamin Eggleton (Chapter 12) in Cheltenham in 1868.

0 .Samuel KING b.c1776 d.>1841 m.- -
1 . . Henry KING b.c1818 d.>1861 m.Jane - b.c1818 d.>1871
2 . . . James Daniel KING b.1840 d.>1871 m.Annie - b. ABT 1836 d. AFT 1871
2 . . . Henry John KING b.1842 d.1869
2 . . . Mary Elizabeth KING b.1843 d.1930 m.Benjamin EGGLETON (Chapter 12)
2 . . . Oliver Edward (known as Edward) KING b.c1856 d.>1861
1 . . George KING b.c1821 d.>1841