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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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John Wilkes
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(1725–97)
Political agitator and journalist who was as dissolute in his private life (joining in the revels of the *Hellfire Club, for example) as he was courageous in public matters. In 1762 he founded a weekly magazine, The North Briton, for the express purpose of attacking George III and his minister, Lord Bute. In no. 45, in April 1763, he went so far that a general warrant was issued against anyone, as yet unnamed, connected with this act of seditious libel. Nearly 50 people were arrested in the search for evidence, but Wilkes won the day when the court declared this type of warrant illegal.
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The rest of his career (interrupted by lawsuits, forced exile and prison sentences) was spent using the power of the electorate and of independent bodies such as the *City of London against the king and his ministers, making him the figurehead of a wider campaign for personal liberty and political reform. In 1768–9 he was three times re-elected for Middlesex after the House of Commons refused to accept him as a member; the MPs even adopted the defeated candidate, Henry Luttrell, in direct disregard of the voters' wishes. In 1774 Wilkes became Lord Mayor of London. He was known for the quickness of his wit, most famously when Lord Sandwich told him he would die either on the gallows or of the pox: 'That must depend on whether I embrace your lordship's principles or your mistress.'
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