The first creation came in 1660 when the military commander Sir John King was made Baron Kingston, of Kingston in the County of Dublin.
He was the elder brother of Sir Robert King, 1st Baronet, of Boyle Abbey (from whom the Earls of Kingston descend).
The title became extinct in 1761 on the death of the latter's son, the fourth Baron, who had no surviving male issue.
However, the title was revived three years later when his kinsman Sir Edward King, 5th Baronet, of Boyle Abbey, was made Baron Kingston, of Rockingham in the County of Roscommon.
In 1821, George King, 3rd Earl of Kingston, was made Baron Kingston, of Mitchelstown, in the county of Cork, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, enabling him to sit in the House of Lords.