King, Robert (1754–99), 2nd earl of Kingston , politician, was the first, and only surviving, son of Edward King (1726–97), 1st earl of Kingston, and his wife, Jane King, illegitimate daughter of Thomas Caulfeild; during his father's lifetime he was styled Viscount Kingsborough. He was educated at Eton (1767–8). On 5 December 1769 he married his cousin, Caroline Fitzgerald, daughter and heir of Richard Fitzgerald, of Co. Kildare, and his wife, Margaret, who was the daughter and heir of James King, 4th and last Baron Kingston. They had six sons and five daughters. His wife was heir to large estates in counties Cork, Limerick, and Tipperary (including Mitchelstown Castle, Co. Cork), and, unusually for the time, she retained control of her property during her life. Entering politics, King was MP for Boyle, Co. Roscommon (1776–83) and then for Co. Cork (1783–90 and 1791–7). He voted for parliamentary reform (1783), against the commercial propositions (1785), against a regency (1789), and against catholic emancipation (1795). Colonel of a Mitchelstown Volunteer regiment, he was a delegate to the Volunteer convention for Co. Cork in the early 1780s. King played an important role in heading the reformers and others who challenged the dominance of the 2nd earl of Shannon (qv) in Co. Cork in the 1780s, particularly at the county election of 1783; by 1794 he controlled four parliamentary seats. During this period he made major improvements to the estate at Mitchelstown, redesigned the castle, and employed Mary Wollstonecraft as a governess for his three eldest daughters. He was also joint governor of Co. Cork (1789–98) and colonel of Co. Antrim militia (1793).
King achieved notoriety in 1798 because of a scandal in his private life. In the summer of 1797 his third daughter, Mary Elizabeth King, was seduced by Colonel Henry Fitzgerald, who then eloped with her. Fitzgerald was the illegitimate son of King's brother-in-law, and the affair enraged the entire family. Although his daughter was soon found, after a reward was offered, and taken back to her home, King was determined to have his revenge. On 1 October 1797 his son Colonel Robert Edward King (later Viscount Lorton) fought a duel with Fitzgerald in Hyde Park in London. Between six and eight shots were fired, to no effect, and the men agreed to meet again the following day. They were arrested, however, and no second meeting occurred. They were released without charge and, in disguise, Fitzgerald fled to Ireland where he followed Mary Elizabeth to the family home at Michelstown to persuade her to elope a second time. King discovered Fitzgerald's whereabouts and decided to take the law into his own hands. Accompanied by his son Robert, he went, armed, to confront Fitzgerald at the Kilworth Hotel in Co. Cork on 11 December. They broke into his room and, as his son wrestled with Fitzgerald, Kingston shot him dead, later claiming that he had acted in self-defence. Charges of murder were brought against both men, but the complexion of the case was affected by the fact that he had succeeded his father as 2nd earl of Kingston on 8 November 1797. Now a member of the house of lords, he demanded to be tried by his peers. His son was acquitted at the assizes in Cork in April 1798.
With the country on the brink of rebellion, the Irish public was transfixed by the trial of Kingston on 18 May 1798. Such was the interest it generated that the United Irishmen even debated a scheme to stage an attack on the government and the lords using the trial as a diversion. The lord chancellor, the earl of Clare (qv), presided over the house of lords and was scrupulously fair in his handling of the case offering Kingston various defences. In the event, none was necessary, as no evidence was offered against him, and his fellow noblemen decided that Kingston had acted as any wronged father would and unanimously accepted his plea of ‘not guilty’.
Kingston died 10 April 1799 at Mitchelstown. He had been separated from his wife for many years. He was succeeded as 3rd earl of Kingston by his eldest son, George King (qv). As Lord Kingsborough, George had been a colonel in the North Cork militia based in Wexford during the 1798 rebellion, and his conduct during this period was notorious. Mary Elizabeth King moved to Wales, and in 1805 married George Galbraith Meares; she died in 1819.