William King

Biography

William King left England as a young agricultural labourer and established himself as a farmer at Miller’s Forest on the Hunter River in New South Wales, on Australia’s east coast. Born around 1834 in the Langley area of Essex, he married Edith Maria Dodkin at Langley on April 7, 1855. They sailed to New South Wales with their infant son George aboard the Sultana the following year. The indexed passenger transcription describes William as a farm labourer, aged twenty-one.

By the end of his life, farming was still his occupation. A probate notice published in the New South Wales Government Gazette on June 11, 1880 identifies him as a deceased farmer of Miller’s Forest. It announced an intended application by his widow, Maria, whom he had named sole executrix of his will. That notice links his work, residence, wife, and estate in a single contemporary record.

William died on June 6, 1880. A death notice in the Australian Town and Country Journal, preserved in his memorial transcription, says that he died at his residence after a prolonged illness, aged forty-six. He was buried at Pioneer Hill Cemetery, Raymond Terrace. Maria survived him for more than thirty-four years.

The family compilation names his parents as Joseph King and Mary Ann Boyton. The Sultana carried the Kings as assisted immigrants; the shipping transcription describes a 588-ton barque commanded by William Tapper. The official New South Wales shipping index dates its Sydney arrival to June 27, 1856, while the family compilation gives June 28.