Thomas King (probably before 1660 – 17 July 1725) was an English (after the Acts of Union 1707, British) professional soldier, lieutenant governor of Sheerness, Kent, and Member of Parliament for Queenborough, in Kent.
He was the eldest son of Thomas King (died 1688), MP for Harwich. He was the brother of John King (c. 1655 – 1737), Master of Charterhouse.
In 1678, he was commissioned as ensign in the 3rd Regiment of Foot, and was in 1687 promoted to second lieutenant. In 1688, he transferred to the 13th Foot with the rank of captain, and in the same year to the 2nd Foot Guards with the rank of captain and later lieutenant-colonel. In 1689, he served in the 1st Foot Guards as both captain and lieutenant-colonel. He was made brevet colonel in 1706, and retired before 1715. In 1688 and 1689, he was deputy governor of the Tower of London. From 1690 until his death, he was lieutenant governor of Sheerness. There seems to be no record of his having taken part in active service.
He was elected MP for Queenborough nine times: at a by-election in 1696, and at general elections in 1698, January and November 1701, 1702 and 1705; he did not stand in 1708; but was elected in 1710, 1713 and 1715. Queenborough was a rotten borough, in which a few dozen voters returned two MPs. The 1696 by-election is well-documented. Caleb Banks (1659–1696), one of the MPs, was in poor health. He tried to persuade Admiral Sir George Rooke (1650–1709) to stand for election as his successor. However, Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney (1641–1704), colonel of the 1st Foot Guards, wanted to secure the seat for King, who was lieutenant-colonel in his own regiment. He offered to support Rooke if he chose to stand in Winchelsea instead. By the time Rooke decided to stand in Queenborough, he was too late. King had been 'treating' the freemen (land-owners) of the borough (plying them with food and drink to secure their votes). Rooke visited Queenborough on 1 October, but Banks has died and Robert Crawford, the other MP, turned up late. Rooke was accompanied by four members of the Navy Board, Edmund Dummer, Sir Richard Haddock, Dennis Lyddell and Charles Sergison, and by the Commissioner of Chatham, Sir Edmund Gregory, who was responsible for Sheerness Dockyard; but neither their presence nor the expenditure by Rooke of £200 could persuade King to withdraw. Rooke thought of standing against King, and then petitioning the House of Commons for redress should King be elected; a scheme flawed by the fact that Rooke too had, by his own admission, been illegally 'treating' the voters. In another line of attack, James Vernon (1646–1727) was sure that King's superiors could be persuaded to order him to stand down. In the event, King was returned unopposed.