Supported by a modest patrimony, King devoted himself to scholarship, literature, and politics. He was embroiled in a lawsuit for a number of years that cost him a lot of money in legal fees. He wrote a lot of Latin poetry, some of which he translated in English himself. Much of his prose and poetic works were political satires, some in Latin verse, for the Tory/Jacobite cause before he became increasingly disillusioned with the Stuart cause in 1761. He was a good friend of J. Swift before a fallout. He had a solid reputation for oratory and writing.