The correspondence series contains 69 letters. The earliest are from William King to his brothers, while in China in the late 1840s. They mainly concern trade conducted by Russell & Co., and frequently contain figures and purchasing instructions. During early 1850s, King writes several letters from New York discussing stocks and business matters.
A major shift occurs in the mid-1860s, when the most frequent topic of correspondence becomes William King’s mental health. One letter, from N.P. Russell, urges David King, Jr., to make William “obedient…to the stronger will of others” or else face “a public disgrace” and “wreck of both mind and frame” (October 16, 1864). Letters document several unsuccessful attempts to keep King’s behavior in check, including instructions from a physician to King, prescribing a healthier lifestyle (July 21, 1865), but by July 1866, the King brothers were corresponding with the McLean Asylum, where William had already arrived.
The few letters between 1867 and 1895 reveal more about King’s condition, mentioning “delusive fancies,” “acts of violence,” and a belief that “other patients are here as spies upon him” (July 29, 1870). Reports from doctors and friends during this period document a gradual worsening of King’s health and faculties. No correspondence documenting the legal case with Eugenia Webster Ross survives. The two folders of undated correspondence contain several letters in French as well as some unusual ruminations on women, night, and other topics, which appear to be in William King’s handwriting, and may have been addressed to a female love interest.
The documents series contains 36 items, including legal documents such as David King, Sr.’s will, tax documents, land indentures, and lease, loan, and rental papers, dating from the 1840s to 1900. Of particular interest is a printed 1893 Massachusetts Supreme Court record concerning William King’s condition, and Eugenia Webster Ross’ petition.
The King Family papers primarily concern the King brothers, who were the children of Dr. David King, Sr. (1774-1836), and his wife, whose maiden name was Gordon. The eldest of the brothers was George Gordon King (1807-1870), followed by David King, Jr. (1812-1882), Edward King (about 1817-1875), and William King (about 1819-1897). All four brothers were born in Newport, Rhode Island, and graduated from Brown University.
While George studied law and served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1849-1853), Edward, William, and David went to China and made large fortunes as traders, dealing primarily in tea, but also in silks and essential oils. Each of the three in turn was a partner in Russell & Co., the largest and most important trading house in China during the period. Their correspondence shows that they were particularly active in Macau and Canton (Guangzhou). By 1851, William H. King, now a millionaire several times over, had returned to the United States and was doing business around Syracuse.
William King had apparently always been eccentric, but in the 1850s, his mental health began to unravel. In 1864, his brothers attempted to intervene by limiting his access to alcohol and tobacco, but with little success. The same year, King purchased a mansion in Newport, which he named Kingscote. On July 1, 1866, he planned to marry an unknown woman in Troy, New York, but his brothers halted the proceedings and had him committed to the McLean Asylum for the Insane in Belmont, Massachusetts. Though he outlived all his brothers, King’s condition never improved and was characterized by outbursts of violence, paranoid delusion, and, eventually, seizures.
In 1893, a woman named Eugenia Webster Ross petitioned for King’s release from the Asylum. She claimed that the real William King had disappeared in China, and another man, Pelatiah Webster Gordon, was impersonating him in order to avoid prosecution in Boston. She maintained that Gordon was her uncle, and was not actually insane, and that she was heir to his large fortune. The Massachusetts Supreme Court found no truth to her claims, and King died on March 6, 1897, at the Hotel Brunswick in Boston. In February 1898, Ross dropped her request for a new trial, and King’s fortune stayed within the family.
