Alexander King (1654)

Died [date unknown] in Wickford, Rhode island

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Biography

As of March 2024, very little is known of Alexander King. Three sources have been found which corroborate his presence in the Kingstown, Rhode Island area in the second half of the 17th century:

The first of these is from the writings of James Savage, who merely states on page 3, Vol 3 of his Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, that "Alexander King was of Wickford, R.I. in 1674. ^[1] This tidbit is then augmented with the following from Gov. Andros' 1687 tax roll.

1687, Sep. 6: On 6 September 1687, Alexander King is cited on Gov. Andros' tax roll at Rochester (renamed later to Kingstown), Rhode Island owing a “pole” (poll) tax of 1s, and a property tax of 6s 10d, which places him as an adult, resident and property landholder in Kingstown, RI on this date. ^[2] This tax roll identifies a sum total of 136 heads of house living in the roughly 22.5 square mile area associated with Kingstown, RI on this date in 1687; one consequence of this sparse population is that he would have been well acquainted with many, if not all, of the individuals identified on this list. Therefore, this tax list is a defacto definition of the people who were available to be his friends, neighbors, and allies; it would be essential to cultivate strong working relationships with these neighbors in order to survive on this frontier landscape. This cross reference tool provides hot links to peruse most of the 136 Wikitree families identified in this tax roll; families who were very frequently interconnected, or became interconnected, by marriage, over the course of their lives and throughout the ensuing generations, further binding a network of neighbors into extended families. ^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ James Savage; Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England; showing three generations of those who came before May, 1692, on the basis of Farmer's Register, Vol III; Little, Brown, and Co.; Boston; 1861.
2. ↑ Roberts, Gary Boyd; Genealogies of Rhode Island Families, Vol. II, Niles - Wilson; Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore 1989. RI Taxes under Gov. Andros pages 592- 594.
3. ↑ Randolph Beebe; Cross Reference: Gov. Andros 1687 Rochester RI Tax Register to Wikitree profile; Wikitree Free Space Profiles, 2024.

• RIHS page 271; In 1692 Alexander King was noted to be living on Boston Neck land of Kingstown, RI owned by Richard Smith Jr (1630-1692), which Richard Smith Jr., in 1692, bequeathed to his sister Elizabeth (Smith) Viall Newman (1627-1693).