John Wilkes

John Wilkes (1725-1797), British political leader and reformer, who supported the American patriots in their War of Independence against Great Britain and fought for civil liberties at home.

Wilkes was born on October 17, 1725, and educated at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He was elected to Parliament in 1757. In 1762 he began to publish the anti-Tory weekly the North Briton; the issue, dated April 23, 1763, which criticized a speech of King George III, caused Wilkes's imprisonment for seditious libel. He was soon released on the grounds that his parliamentary privilege had been violated. An obscene parody, Essay on Woman, which he printed privately in 1763, but which he apparently did not write, brought parliamentary charges of libel and blasphemy, and he was expelled from Parliament. He went to France and, failing to return for trial, was outlawed. In 1768 he returned to England and was again elected to Parliament. Tried on the old libel charges, he was convicted and imprisoned for several months; in 1769 he was again expelled from Parliament. His Middlesex constituents re-elected him three times, but the House of Commons invalidated the election each time, the last time giving Wilkes's seat to his defeated opponent. This action caused riots among the lower and middle classes of London, who regarded Wilkes as the champion of freedom of the press. After his release from prison late in 1769, he campaigned for extensive political reforms. He also championed the cause of the revolutionaries in the American colonies and reputedly was British agent of the secret society called the Sons of Liberty.

Supported by the powerful London merchant class and others who rallied to the slogan “Wilkes and Liberty!” he reached a peak of popularity, becoming successively alderman of London (1770), sheriff of London (1771), and lord mayor of London (1774). In 1774 he was also elected to the House of Commons and was seated without opposition. From 1779 to 1797 he was chamberlain of the city of London. In 1780, through his ruthless suppression of the anti-Roman Catholic Gordon Riots, he lost much of his support, and refused to fight in the election of 1790.