Hon James Gore King

[Hon. James Gore King] began his studies in a private school near London, England, studied the languages in Paris, France, and was graduated from Harvard, in America, in 1810. He then studied law for a year but did not seek admission to the bar. In 1813 he was married to Sarah Rogers Gracie, 1791–__, daughter of Archibald Gracie and his wife Esther Rogers, who was the daughter of Moses Rogers and his wife Hannah Fitch. The latter was the daughter of Thomas Fitch, a colonial governor of Connecticut.
In the war of 1812, James Gore King was an Assistant Adjutant General of N. Y. State troops. In 1815 he established the banking house of James G. King & Company., in New York City. In 1818 he removed to Liverpool, England, and entered into business there with his brother-in-law, William Gracie. In 1824 he declined the offer of John Jacob Astor, who desired to make him the head of the American Fur Company, and instead became a member of the firm of Prime, Ward, Sands & King, in New York City, which afterwards became the firm of James G. King & Sons. For several years he was President of the Erie Railroad Company, retiring therefrom in 1837. He then visited England and secured a loan of one million pounds in gold, by means of which his house was enabled to carry the merchants and banking institutions of New York through a great financial crisis. For many years he was an active member of the Chamber of Commerce, of which he, in 1841, was First Vice-President, and a little later President, filling that position until 1848, when he was elected from the Weehawken district of New Jersey a Member of Congress, and served as such from 1849 to 1851. At the expiration of his term in Congress he retired to private life, spending his remaining years at his home in Weehawken.

—Weygant, The Sacketts of America

KING, James Gore, (1791 - 1853)

KING, James Gore, (son of Rufus King and brother of John Alsop King), a Representative from New Jersey; born in New York City May 8, 1791; pursued classical studies in England and France; returned to United States; was graduated from Harvard University in 1810; studied law at the Litchfield Law School; served in the War of 1812 as assistant adjutant general of New York Militia; engaged in mercantile pursuits in New York City in 1815 and in banking in Liverpool, England, in 1818; returned to New York City in 1824 and engaged in banking, with residence in Weehawken, N.J.; president of the Erie Railroad in 1835; elected as a Whig to the Thirty-first Congress (March 4, 1849-March 3, 1851); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1850; resumed the banking business; died at his country place, “Highwood,” near Weehawken, N.J., October 3, 1853; interment in the churchyard of Grace Church, Jamaica, N.Y.