King, Edward, Viscount Kingsborough (1795 -1837)

Edward King, Viscount Kingsborough, was the eldest son of George King, 3rd Earl of Kingston, and Helena, only daughter of Stephen Moore, 1st Earl of Mountcashel. He matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, and obtained a second class honours degree in Classics but did not take his degree. He was elected Member of Parliament for Cork in 1818 and 1820, but resigned his seat in favour of his younger brother, Robert. The sight of a Mexican manuscript in the Bodleian Library determined him to spend his life studying the antiquities of that country. His Antiquities of Mexico made available facsimiles of the surviving texts, and descriptions of the antiquities of that country. The book, published at his own expence, cost him £32,000. Thrown into a debtors prison in Dublin at the suit of a papermaker, who was his creditor for paper used in the book, he died of typhoid contracted there 27 February 1837. The library of Edward King Tenison, Viscount Kingsborough was sold by Charles Sharpe, Angelsey Street, Dublin, 12 July and 1 November 1842.