[1][2] The son of William King and Elizabeth Torrence,[2] he was born on the family farm near Derry and was educated at Coleraine Academy and the University of Glasgow.
In 1842, King married Mary Mourning Phares, the daughter of a local planter.
[1][3] In 1844, King travelled to Edinburgh to study divinity at the Free Church College.
King decided that he would bring his fifteen slaves to Ohio, where he could set them free.
[2] During the American Civil War, about seventy men from the settlement served in the Union Army.