John Wilkes

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Not to be confused with John Wilkes Booth.
For other people named John Wilkes, see John Wilkes (disambiguation).

John Wilkes
Sheriff of London
1774–1775Lord Mayor of London
Personal details
Born
John Wilkes

(1725-10-17)17 October 1725
Clerkenwell, London, Great Britain
Died26 December 1797(1797-12-26) (aged 72)
Westminster, London, Great Britain
Resting placeGrosvenor Chapel
Political partyRadical
Spouse
Mary Meade
​
​
(m. 1747; sep. 1756)​
Children3
Relatives
Radicalism
Notable worksAn Essay on Woman
The North Briton

John Wilkes

House of Commons—to determine their representatives. In 1768, angry protests of his supporters were suppressed in the Massacre of St George's Fields. In 1771, he was instrumental in obliging the government to concede the right of printers to publish verbatim accounts of parliamentary debates. In 1776, he introduced the first bill for parliamentary reform in the British Parliament
.

During the

Catholic Emancipation in the 1790s. During his life, he earned a reputation as a libertine
.

Early life and character

Born in the Clerkenwell neighborhood of central London, John Wilkes was the third child of distiller Israel Wilkes Jr. and Sarah Wilkes, née Heaton. His siblings included: eldest sister Sarah Wilkes, born 1721; elder brother Israel Wilkes III (1722–1805); younger brother Heaton Wilkes (1727–1803); younger sister Mary Hayley, née Wilkes (1728–1808); and youngest sister Ann Wilkes (1736–1750), who died from smallpox at the age of 14.

John Wilkes was educated initially at an academy in

Loyal Association and readied to defend the capital. Once the rebellion had ended after the Battle of Culloden
, Wilkes returned to the Netherlands to complete his studies.

In 1747, he married Mary Meade (1715–1784) and came into possession of an estate and income in

rake. He was known to have fathered two other children, John Henry Smith and Harriet Wilkes.[5]

Wilkes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1749 and appointed High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1754. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Berwick in the 1754 parliamentary elections but was elected for Aylesbury in 1757 and again in 1761.[6] Elections took place at St Mary the Virgin's Church, Aylesbury where he held a manorial pew. He lived at the Prebendal House, Parsons Fee, Aylesbury.

He was a member of the Knights of St Francis of Wycombe, also known as the

Sir Francis Dashwood. Wilkes reportedly brought a mandrill, dressed in a cape and horns and his natural features made even more striking with daubs of phosphorus, into the rituals performed at the club, producing considerable mayhem among the inebriated initiates.[7]

Wilkes was notoriously ugly, being called the ugliest man in England at the time. He possessed an unsightly squint and protruding jaw, but he had a charm that carried all before it. He boasted that it "took him only half an hour to talk away his face", though the duration required changed on the several occasions Wilkes repeated the claim. He also declared that "a month's start of his rival on account of his face" would secure him the conquest in any love affair.

He was well known for his verbal wit and his snappy responses to insults. For instance, when told by a constituent that he would rather vote for the devil, Wilkes responded: "Naturally." He then added: "And if your friend decides against standing, can I count on your vote?"[8]

In an exchange with

Henry Brougham's Historical Sketches (1844), related from Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk, who claims to have been present,[10] as well as in Charles Marsh's Clubs of London (1828).[11] Brougham notes the exchange had in France previously been ascribed to Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau and Cardinal Jean-Sifrein Maury.[10]

Radical journalism

Pitt the Elder, and he attacked the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763)
.
crossed eyes, and two editions of his The North Briton
: Numbers 17 (in which he attacked, among others, Hogarth) and the famous 45

Wilkes began his parliamentary career as a follower of

radical weekly publication, The North Briton, to attack him, using an anti-Scots tone. Typical of Wilkes, the title made satirical reference to the pro-government newspaper, The Briton, with "North Briton" referring to Scotland. Wilkes became particularly incensed by what he regarded as Bute's betrayal in agreeing to overly generous peace terms with France to end the war.[7]

On 5 October 1762, Wilkes fought a duel with William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot. Talbot was the Lord Steward and a follower of Bute; he challenged Wilkes to a pistol duel after being ridiculed in issue 12 of The North Briton.[12] The encounter took place at Bagshot – at night to avoid attracting judicial attention. At a range of eight yards, Talbot and Wilkes both fired their pistols but neither was hit. Somewhat reconciled, they then went to a nearby inn and shared a bottle of claret. When the affair later became widely known, some viewed it as comical, and a satirical print made fun of the duelists. Some commentators even denounced the duel as a stunt, stage-managed to enhance the reputations of both men.[13]

Wilkes faced a charge of

Jacobite Rising of 1745
, commonly known as "The '45". Popular perception associated Bute – Scottish, and politically controversial as an adviser to the King – with Jacobitism, a perception which Wilkes played on.

The King felt personally insulted and ordered the issuing of

general warrants for the arrest of Wilkes and the publishers on 30 April 1763. Forty-nine people, including Wilkes, were arrested, but general warrants were unpopular and Wilkes gained considerable popular support as he asserted their unconstitutionality. At his court hearing he claimed that parliamentary privilege protected him, as an MP, from arrest on a charge of libel. The Lord Chief Justice ruled that parliamentary privilege did indeed protect him and he was soon restored to his seat. Wilkes sued his arresters for trespass. As a result of this episode, people were chanting, "Wilkes, Liberty and Number 45", referring to the newspaper.[14] Parliament swiftly voted in a measure that removed protection of MPs from arrest for the writing and publishing of seditious libel.[15]

Bute had resigned (8 April 1763), but Wilkes opposed Bute's successor as chief advisor to the King, George Grenville, just as strenuously. On 16 November 1763, Samuel Martin, a supporter of George III, challenged Wilkes to a duel. Martin shot Wilkes in the belly.

Outlaw

"John Wilkes Esq; before the Court of King's Bench", engraving from The Gentleman's Magazine for May 1768

Wilkes and

Thomas Potter wrote a pornographic poem dedicated to the courtesan Fanny Murray entitled "An Essay on Woman" as a parody of Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man".[16]

Wilkes's political enemies, foremost among them

libel and seditious libel, and was declared an outlaw on 19 January 1764.[17]

Wilkes hoped for a change in power to remove the charges, but this did not come to pass. As his French creditors began to pressure him, in 1768 he had little choice but to return to England. He returned intending to stand as a Member of Parliament on an anti-government ticket; the government did not issue warrants for his immediate arrest as it did not want to inflame popular support.[18]

Wilkes stood in the City of London and came in bottom of the poll of seven candidates, possibly due to his late entry into the race for the position. He was quickly elected as a Radical Member of Parliament for Middlesex, where most of his support was located. He surrendered himself to the King's Bench in April. On waiving his parliamentary privilege to immunity, he was sentenced by Judge Joseph Yates to two years and fined £1,000; the Lords' sentence of outlawry was overturned.[19]

When Wilkes was imprisoned in the

Drury Lane Theatre during the performance of Kelly's new play A Word to the Wise, forcing it to be abandoned.[20]

Middlesex election dispute

Main article: Middlesex election affair
The Brentford Sweepstakes, drawing from Town and Country Magazine (13 April 1769) satirising the election. Wilkes' riderless horse labelled "1143" indicating he got a majority of the vote, while his opponents founder.

Parliament expelled Wilkes in February 1769, on the grounds that he was an outlaw when returned. His Middlesex constituents re-elected him in the same month with the support of John Wheble, editor of the Middlesex Journal, only to see him expelled again and re-elected in March. In April, after his expulsion and another re-election, Parliament declared his opponent, Henry Luttrell, the winner.

Wilkes was said to hold his supporters in contempt during the election campaign. EP Thompson, in his celebrated The Making of the English Working Class wrote: “‘Do you suppose’ it is said that he asked his opponent, Colonel Luttrell, while watching the cheering throngs on the hustings, ‘that there are more fools or rogues in that assembly?’”[21]

In defiance, Wilkes became an

Society for the Supporters of the Bill of Rights,[22]
for his campaign. Wilkes eventually succeeded in convincing Parliament to expunge the resolution barring him from sitting. While in Parliament, he condemned Government policy towards the American colonies. In addition, he introduced one of the earliest radical
Bills to Parliament, although it failed to gain passage. On his release from prison in March 1770, Wilkes was appointed a sheriff in London, and in 1771 the law on publicity of the parliamentary discussions was voted in Parliament, of which Wilkes was a great defender and who authorised the literal reproduction of the interventions of the Parliament
.

Later life

Wilkes' popularity with radicals declined after he led militia to protect the Bank of England during the Gordon Riots in 1780. Wilkes became a supporter of William Pitt the Younger who became Prime Minister in 1783, and severed most of his former radical connections.

In 1774 he became

general warrants and to end Parliament's ability to punish political reports of debates.[7] In 1779 he was elected to the position of Chamberlain of the City of London
, a post of great responsibility which he was to hold until his death in 1797.

After 1780, his popularity declined as he was popularly perceived as less radical. During the uprising known as the Gordon Riots, Wilkes was in charge of the soldiers defending the Bank of England from the attacking mobs. It was under his orders that troops fired into the crowds of rioters. The working classes who had previously seen Wilkes as a "man of the people", then criticised him as a hypocrite; his middle-class support was scared off by the violent action. The Gordon Riots nearly extinguished his popularity.

While he was returned for the county seat of Middlesex in 1784, he found so little support that by 1790, he withdrew early in the election. The

American Independence
, made a similar switch.

Wilkes worked in his final years as a magistrate, campaigning for more moderate punishment for disobedient household servants.

Between 1788 and 1797 he occupied a property named "Villakin" in Sandown, Isle of Wight. The site is marked by a blue plaque.[25]

Statue of John Wilkes (Fetter Lane, London)

He was a member of the

EC4
.

Wilkes died at his home at 30 Grosvenor Square, Westminster, London on 26 December 1797. The cause of death was a wasting disease known at the time as marasmus.[27] His body was buried in a vault in Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street, London on 4 January 1798.[28]

Influence

Wilkes was at one point a hero to radicals in Britain and North America, and the slogan "Wilkes and Liberty" was heard on both sides of the Atlantic.[29]

A radical contemporary Irish politician

Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol (1741–1784), who advocated American independence and criticised the Stadtholder regime
, was inspired by Wilkes.

British colonists in the American colonies closely followed Wilkes's career. His struggles convinced many colonists that the British constitution was being subverted by a corrupt ministry, an idea that contributed to the coming of the

American constitution
to prevent Congress from rejecting any legally elected member and to proscribe general warrants for arrest.

John Wilkes's brother Israel Wilkes (1722–1805) was the grandfather of U.S. Naval Admiral Charles Wilkes.[32]

Eponyms

John Wilkes plaque in Grosvenor Chapel, London. The plaque beneath is to his daughter.
  • The Wilkes Head (public house), Eastergate, West Sussex
  • The Wilkes Head (public house), Leek, North Staffordshire

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b Simkin 2011.
  2. ^ Cash 2006, pp. 13–16.
  3. ^ McCarthy 2006.
  4. ^ Cash 2006, p. 9.
  5. ^ "Almon's Correspondence of John Wilkes". The Monthly Review. R. Griffiths. 1806. p. 47.
  6. ^ Bloy 2011.
  7. ^ a b c Lynch 2003.
  8. ^ Cash 2006, p. 211.
  9. ^ Shapiro 2006, pp. 281–282.
  10. ^ a b Brougham 1844, p. 146.
  11. ^ Marsh 1828, p. 17.
  12. ^ Sainsbury 2006, p. 71.
  13. ^ Sainsbury 2006, p. 73.
  14. S2CID 143513084
    .
  15. S2CID 144944872
    .
  16. ^ The definitive scholarly edition of the "Essay on Woman" is that of Arthur H. Cash, titled An Essay on Woman by John Wilkes and Thomas Potter: A Reconstruction of a Lost Book, with a Historical Essay on the Writing, Printing, and Suppressing of This "Blasphemous and Obscene" Work, (NY: AMS Press), 2001. It includes Pope's text of the original poem with the Wilkes-Potter parody juxtaposed on the facing pages.
  17. ^ Cash 2006, pp. 151–79.
  18. ^ Cash 2006, pp. 179–208.
  19. ^ Cash 2006, pp. 204–26.
  20. ^ Cash 2006, pp. 216–26.
  21. ISBN 0140210008
    .
  22. ^ "The Society for the Supporters of the Bill of Rights (SSBR)".
  23. ^ "History of the Mayoralty". City of London. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013.
  24. ^ Joiners 2008.
  25. ^ Allan 2011.
  26. ^ Dennis 2008, p. 90.
  27. ^ Peter D. G. Thomas, 'Wilkes, John (1725–1797)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008 accessed 19 February 2014
  28. ^ An Essay On Woman In Three Epistles Gale Encyclopedia of Biography: John Wilkes entry. Accessed February 2014.
  29. ISBN 0872207056
    .
  30. ^ Thomas 2002, p. 111.
  31. S2CID 141817525
    .
  32. ^ Israel Wilkes and his wife Elizabeth née de Ponthieu (1726–1802) had a son, John de Ponthieu Wilkes (1755–1818) who married Mary née Seton (1767–1802) wife, the parents of Charles Wilkes.
  33. ISBN 0-915430-00-2
    .
  34. ISBN 0-671-76713-5
    .

Sources

Further reading

External links

Offices and titles

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Thomas Potter
John Willes
 Member of Parliament for Aylesbury
1757–1764
With: John Willes 1757–1761
Welbore Ellis 1761–1764 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for
1769
With: George Cooke 1768
John Glynn
1768–1769 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for
George Byng 1780–1784
William Mainwaring
1784–1790 		Succeeded by
Civic offices
Preceded by
Charles Woodnoth, of Maid's Moreton
 High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire
1754–1755 		Succeeded by
Henry Uthwaite, of Lathbury
Preceded by
Sheriff of London
1771–1772
With: Frederick Bull
 Succeeded by
Preceded by Lord Mayor of London
1774–1775 		Succeeded by


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