Dr WILLIAM, archbishop of Canterbury, was born at Chichester in 1582. He was educated at Merchant Tailors' School, and thence elected into St John's College, Oxford, of which he became president. King Charles I. made him bishop of London, and in 1635 promoted him to the office of lord high treasurer of England. The whole nation, and especially the nobility, were greatly offended at this high office being given to a clergyman; but he behaved so well in the administration, that he soon put a stop to all the clamour raised against him. This place he held no longer than the 17th of May 1641, when he prudently resigned the staff, to avoid the storm which then threatened the court and the clergy. In the following February an act passed, depriving the bishops of their votes in parliament, and incapacitating them from exercising any temporal jurisdiction. In these leading steps, as well as in the total abolition of the episcopal order which followed, he was involved with his brethren; but neither as a bishop nor as a treasurer was a single accusation brought against him in the long parliament. During the civil wars he resided at his palace at Fulham, where his meek, inoffensive, and affable manners, notwithstanding his remaining steady in his loyalty to the king, procured him the visits of the principal persons of the opposite party, and respect from all. In 1648 he attended his majesty at the treaty in the Isle of Wight; and, by his particular desire, waited upon him at Cotton House, Westminster, the day after the commencement of his trial, during which he frequently visited him in the office of a spiritual father; and his majesty declared he was the greatest comfort to him in that afflicting situation. He likewise attended his majesty on the scaffold, where the king, taking off his cloak and gorget, gave him the latter. After the execution, Bishop Juxon took care of the body, which he accompanied to the royal chapel at Windsor, and stood ready, with the common-prayer book in his hands, to perform the last ceremony for the king; but he was prevented by Colonel Whichcot, governor of the castle. He continued in the quiet possession of Fulham Palace till the ensuing year, 1649, when he was deprived, having been spared longer than any of his brethren. He then retired to his own estate in Gloucestershire, where he lived in privacy till the restoration, when he was presented to the see of Canterbury; and, during the little time he enjoyed it, expended, in buildings and reparations at Lambeth Palace and Croydon House, near £15,000. He died in 1663, having bequeathed £7000 to St John's College, and to other charitable uses near £5000. He published a sermon on Luke, xviii. 31, and Some Considerations upon the Act of Uniformity. K, the tenth letter, and seventh consonant, of our alphabet, being formed by a guttural expression of the breath through the mouth, together with a depression of the lower jaw, and an opening of the teeth. Its sound is much the same with that of the hard c, or qu, and it is used for the most part only before e, i, and n, in the beginning of words, as ken, kill, know, and the like. It used formerly to be always joined with e at the end of words, but is at present very properly omitted, at least in words derived from the Latin. Thus, for publick, musick, we now say public, music, and so on. However, in monosyllables it is still retained, as jach, block, moch, and the like.

K was borrowed from the Greek kappa, and was but little used amongst the Latins. Priscian looked on it as a superfluous letter, and says that it was never to be used except in words borrowed from the Greek. Dausquius, after Sallust, observes that it was unknown to the ancient Romans. Indeed we seldom find it in any Latin authors, excepting in the word kalendae, where it sometimes stands instead of c. Carthage, however, is frequently spelt on medals with a K, salvis aug. et caes. fel. kart.; and sometimes the letter K alone stood for Carthage. M. Berger has observed, that a capital K, on the reverse of the medals of the emperors of Constantinople, signified Konstantinus; and that on the Greek medals it signified KOIAH ΞΤΡΙΑ, Cete-Syria. Quintilian tells us, that in his time, some people had a mistaken notion, that wherever the letters c and a occurred at the beginning of a word, k ought to be used instead of the c. Lipsius observes, that K was a stigma anciently marked on the foreheads of criminals with a red-hot iron.

The letter K has various significations in old charters and diplomas; for instance, KR. stood for choros; KR. C. for cara civitas; KRM. for carmen; KR. AM. N. for earus amicus noster; KS. chaos; KT. capitale tonsus, &c. The French never use the letter k excepting in a few terms of art and proper names borrowed from other languages. Abancourt, in his dialogue of the letters, introduces K as complaining that he has been often in a fair way of being banished from the French alphabet, and confined to the countries of the north.

K is also a numeral letter, signifying 250, according to the verse,

K quoque ducentos et quinquaginta tenebit.

When it had a stroke above it, K̄, this letter stood for 250,000. K on the French coinage denotes money coined at Bordeaux.