Last week’s article on the Richard King family told of the recent unveiling of new signage at the King Burial Ground on Susan Avenue off the Broadturn Road near Dunstan Corner by the Scarborough Historical Society. A short walk to the top of the burial mound reveals an unusual monument that honors Scarborough’s noteworthy native sons along with new signage offering information and pictures of King’s sons.

Richard King’s older son, Rufus, was an American Founding Father who was born to Richard King and Isabella Bragdon King in 1755. Thanks in part to the persistence of his stepmother, he attended boarding school and then Harvard College, where he became an ardent patriot. But after war with the mother country broke out, people in Scarborough continued to harbor doubts about the family’s loyalties. Given his father’s outspoken support of the British regime, Rufus King’s commitment to the Revolutionary cause was questioned. When charges of disloyalty were leveled against him in the summer of 1777, he decided to suspend his legal training to join a military unit. He served as an aide to Brigadier Gen. John Glover, and in that role, narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Redcoats.

Rufus King later settled in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where his legal practice thrived. In 1783 he was elected to the state Legislature, and the following year he was chosen to serve as a delegate to the Continental Congress. In 1787, he joined other delegates as a representative from Massachusetts to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, and on the convention floor he quickly joined James Madison in leading the fight for national union. His brilliant oratory and clear pragmatism helped win over wavering delegates to favor increased powers for the federal government.

After moving to New York, Rufus King was elected a New York senator in the very first gathering of the United States Senate. Although we can document that Rufus King’s father had owned at least seven slaves – something not uncommon for people of means at that time – Rufus King was an early strong opponent of slavery. He denounced it as an anathema to the principles underlying the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In the greatest speech of his career, he fervently opposed admitting Missouri as a slave state in 1820, but rather believed in compensated emancipation and the colonization of slaves.

Rufus King declined President George Washington’s offer of a Cabinet post, but he agreed in 1796 to represent the president as ambassador to Great Britain. He was honored in 1816 to be the Federalist nominee for President of the United States, an election he lost to James Monroe. Rufus King remained in the Senate until 1825, when he accepted President John Quincy Adam’s appointment to serve another term as ambassador to Great Britain. He was not able to fulfill that obligation, as he passed away in 1827.

Rufus King’s younger brother, William King, was born in Scarborough in 1768 to Richard King and his second wife, Mary Black King. Only seven years old when his father died, he was mostly self-educated. He eventually moved to Bath, where he became a shipbuilder and leading ship-owner. He was an extremely successful businessman who opened Maine’s first cotton mill in Brunswick.

The political career of William King began in 1795 when he was elected to the state Legislature. Tall, loudly vocal, and a bit on the haughty side, King had a tendency to take charge of a room. When the War of 1812 broke out, he was made a major general of the Massachusetts Militia in charge of the Maine district.

The next year, William King began a seven-year effort for Maine to achieve independent statehood by initiating a petition for separation from Massachusetts, and he led a move to write the new state’s constitution. Under the Missouri Compromise, in 1820 both Maine and Missouri were recognized as states, Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Soon afterward, William King was elected to be Maine’s first governor. He strongly opposed the prevalent policy of supporting churches by taxation, and he sponsored a law to protect the holdings of squatter settlers called the King Betterment Law.

Before he passed away in 1852, William King became a U.S. Commissioner who worked on treaty negotiations with Spain. Each state is allowed two statues in the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol, and along with a statue of Lincoln’s vice president, Hannibal Hamlin, Maine is represented by a statue of William King.

Another King brother, Cyrus King, was born in 1772. Although his achievements didn’t rise to the level of his older brothers, he served as private secretary to his brother, Rufus King, when he was minister to England. Later Cyrus King became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was one of the founders of Thornton Academy in Saco.

The monument and accompanying signage on the King Burial Ground are worthy reminders of the distinguished men who played so large a place in the history of our country and state. Scarborough is proud to call these men our native sons.

Linda Snow McLoon is a director of the Scarborough Historical Society.