When William King was born on 24 February 1804, in Williamstown, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States, his father, John King Jr., was 38 and his mother, Sarah Hawkins, was 38.
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Atlantic slave trade abolished.
War of 1812. U.S. declares war on Britain over British interference with American maritime shipping and westward expansion.
Because of the outbreak of war from Napoleonic France, Britain decided to blockade the trade between the United States and the French. The US then fought this action and said it was illegal under international law. Britain supplied Native Americans who raided settlers living on the frontier and halting expansion westward. In 1814, one of the British raids stormed into Washington D.C. burning down the capital. Neither the Americans or the British wanted to continue fighting, so negotiations of peace began. After Treaty of Ghent was signed, Unaware of the treaty, British forces invaded Louisiana but were defeated in January 1815.
English: nickname from Middle English king ‘king’ (Old English cyning, cyng), perhaps acquired by someone with kingly qualities or as a pageant name by someone who had acted the part of a king or had been chosen as the master of ceremonies or ‘king’ of an event such as a tournament, festival or folk ritual. In North America, the surname King has absorbed several European cognates and equivalents with the same meaning, for example German König (see Koenig ) and Küng, French Roy , Slovenian, Croatian, or Serbian Kralj , Polish Krol . It is also very common among African Americans. It is also found as an artificial Jewish surname.
English: occasionally from the Middle English personal name King, originally an Old English nickname from the vocabulary word cyning, cyng ‘king’.
Irish: adopted for a variety of names containing the syllable rí (which means ‘king’ in Irish).
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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