Born in Scarborough in Massachusetts Bay's Province of Maine, King attended Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and was graduated from Columbia College, New York City, in 1794.
He served as major general of the Sixth Division, Massachusetts Militia.
King was one of the founders of Thornton Academy in Saco.
He returned to Saco (then in Massachusetts' District of Maine), where he died on April 25, 1817, and was interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery.
This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress