Wilkes, John, 1727–97, English politician and journalist. He studied at the Univ. of Leiden, returned to England in 1746, and purchased (1757) a seat in Parliament. Backed by Earl Temple Temple, Richard Grenville-Temple, Earl, 1711–79, British statesman; elder brother of George Grenville and brother-in-law of William Pitt, 1st earl of Chatham . He succeeded to his mother's peerage in 1752.
..... Click the link for more information. , Wilkes founded (1762) a periodical, the North Briton, in which he made outspoken attacks on George III George III, 1738–1820, king of Great Britain and Ireland (1760–1820); son of Frederick Louis, prince of Wales, and grandson of George II, whom he succeeded. He was also elector (and later king) of Hanover, but he never visited it.
..... Click the link for more information. and his ministers. In the famous issue No. 45 (1763), Wilkes went so far as to criticize the speech from the throne. He was immediately arrested on the basis of a general warrant (one that did not specify who was to be arrested), but his arrest was adjudged a breach of parliamentary privilege by Chief Justice Charles Pratt John Jeffreys Pratt, 2d Earl and 1st Marquess Camden, 1759–1840, was lord lieutenant of Ireland (1794–98).
..... Click the link for more information. , who later ruled also that general warrants were illegal. The government then secured Wilkes's expulsion from Parliament on the grounds of seditious libel and obscenity (Wilkes was notoriously dissolute and the author of an obscene parody of Alexander Pope's Essay on Man, which was used against him).

Wilkes fled (1764) to Paris and was convicted of seditious libel in his absence. He returned in 1768 and was repeatedly elected to Parliament from Middlesex, but each time he was denied his seat by the king's party. The issue, in the eyes of the angry populace, became a case of royal manipulation of parliamentary privilege against Wilkes to restrain the people's right to elect their own representatives. Wilkes was supported by Edmund Burke Burke, Edmund, 1729–97, British political writer and statesman, b. Dublin, Ireland.

Early Writings

After graduating (1748) from Trinity College, Dublin, he began the study of law in London but abandoned it to devote himself to writing.
..... Click the link for more information. and the unknown writer Junius Junius, English political author, known only by the signature Junius, which he signed to various letters written to the London Public Advertiser from Jan., 1769, to Jan., 1772, attacking George III and his ministers.
..... Click the link for more information. , but he was not seated. After 22 months in prison for his libel conviction, he was elected sheriff of London (1771) and lord mayor (1774). In 1774 he was again elected and this time allowed to take his seat in Parliament, where he championed the liberties of the American colonies and fought for parliamentary reform. He lost popular favor for his vigorous action as chamberlain of London in suppressing the Gordon riots (1780). Although a demagogue, Wilkes was a champion of freedom of the press and the rights of the electorate.

Bibliography

See biographies by O. A. Sherrard (1930, repr. 1972), C. P. Chenevix Trench (1962), L. Kronenberger (1974), A. H. Cash (2006), and J. Sainsbury (2006); I. R. Christie, Wilkes, Wyvill and Reform (1962); G. F. E. Rudé, Wilkes and Liberty (1962).

Wilkes, John

(born Oct. 17, 1725, London, Eng.—died Dec. 26, 1797, London) English politician. The son of a successful malt distiller, he was educated at an academy at Hertford and afterward privately tutored. His marriage to Mary Meade (1747), heiress of the manor of Aylesbury, brought him a comfortable fortune and an assured status among the gentry of Buckinghamshire. A profligate by nature, he was a member of the so-called Hell-Fire Club, which indulged in debauchery and the performance of Black Masses, and he bribed voters to win election to the House of Commons (1757). For an attack on the government in his journal the North Briton (1763), he was prosecuted for libel and expelled from Parliament. Reelected, he continued to print his attacks on the government and was again tried for libel and expelled (1764). Regarded as a victim of persecution and a champion of liberty, he gained widespread popular support. He was again elected to Parliament and again expelled (1769). He become lord mayor of London in 1774. Back in the House of Commons (1774–90), he supported parliamentary reform and freedom of the press.