John Wilkes
✓ Source-basedstableEnglish radical, journalist, and politician (1725-1797)
John Wilkes was a British radical, journalist, politician, magistrate and writer. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of his voters - rather than the House of Commons - to determine their representatives.
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Lord Bute, prime minister between 1762 and 1763, and a major target for Wilkes' paper The North Briton. It angered Wilkes that Bute had displaced Pitt the Elder, and he attacked the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763).
Riots in 1763 to stop the burning of issue No. 45 of The North Briton
"John Wilkes Esq.", a satirical engraving by William Hogarth, who shows him with a demonic-looking wig, crossed eyes, and two editions of his The North Briton: Numbers 17 (in which he attacked, among others, Hogarth) and the famous 45
"John Wilkes Esq; before the Court of King's Bench", engraving from The Gentleman's Magazine for May 1768
The Arms of Liberty Punch Bowl, commemorating Wilkes actions on 1768 (1769, Art Institute of Chicago)
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.
The Gordon Riots by John Seymour Lucas, 1879. 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.Awards 1
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About this person
John Wilkes was a British radical, journalist, politician, magistrate and writer. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of his voters - rather than the 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.
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