By Joan Brown Wettingfeld
Though he was born in Massachusetts and represented that state at the Continental Congress and at the Constitutional Convention, he moved to New York in 1788 and represented us as a senator. Known as a skilled debater in his college days at Harvard, he became recognized later as a brilliant orator. As a senator, King participated in the creation of the first Bank of the United States in 1796. President George Washington appointed him minister to Great Britain in 1796 and he served until 1803. These were indeed difficult years in our relations with England so soon after the Revolutionary War. It was while serving as minister to Great Britain that he first realized his love for “country atmosphere” and he began to contemplate his future country home and farm. His dream was to materialize when in 1805 he purchased what is today King Manor in Jamaica.At the age of 32 King had been one of the most youthful delegates to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia. His notes on that experience have been valuable to historians. In an old issue of Harper's Weekly in my possession, an article reveals the rivalry between De Witt Clinton and Rufus King when both were considered for the ministerial post in Great Britain. King was given the post.In 1804 and 1808 King was the Federalist candidate for vice-president and in 1816 he became an unofficial candidate for president. In that same year he ran for the governorship of New York. Persuaded by John Quincy Adams, he was again minister to Britain in 1825. He was forced to return home the following year because of illness. Among his more local tasks was to serve as the first president of the Queens County Society for the Promotion of Agricultural and Domestic Manufactures.King Manor was deeded to the city in 1898 and served as a museum. After extensive restoration, the manor reopened to the public in 1994. It can look back proudly on its 200-year history and the 250th anniversary of its famous owner.Joan Brown Wettingfeld is a historian and free-lance writer.
