Biography

John Wilkes. (1725-1797)

Journalist and politician. Son of Israel Wilkes (1689-1761) and Sarah Heaton (1699-1765). Married (1747) to Mary Meade, heiress of the manor of Aylesbury.

In 1757 he was elected Member of Parliament for Aylesbury. In 1762 he founded the weekly The North Briton, which was primarily used as a platform for attacking the government headed by Lord Bute and his successor George Grenville. In this venture he was assisted by his friend Charles Churchill. Following the publication of the infamous Issue 45, Wilkes was arrested on April 30, 1763 charged with libel. He was released a week later as his arrest was found to be a breach of parliamentary privilege. In November, 1763, he was wounded in a duel with Secretary to the Treasury, Samuel Martin. ¹ In December 1763 he travelled to Paris, and on January 20, 1764 he was expelled from parliament. In february he was found guilty, in absentia, of seditious libel (for the North Briton) and of obscene and impious libel (for Essay on Women, a parody on Pope which he had written years before, intended for a select group of friends).

In 1768 he returned to London, and again ran for parliament. He was elected member for Middlesex, but in February 1769 was again expelled. The following months he was expelled and re-elected a couple of times, due to large popular support, until in April his opponent was (unduly) deemed the winner of the election. He then initiated a public career in the City of London culminating in 1774 when he was elected Lord Mayor. The same year he was again elected to Parliament for Middlesex, a seat which he kept until 1790.

Life with James Boswell:

Boswell knew Wilkes by sight when, on May 5, 1763, he went to The Tower of London to watch his release from prison (he was too late, as it turned out). At this time he was also a frequent reader of The North Briton, which he mailed each week to West Digges in Edinburgh. Tbey may have met as early as November 26, 1762, when Boswell accompanied Lord Eglinton to a dinner in the Beefsteak Club, of which Wilkes was also a member, but from the journals it would seem as if they weren't actually introduced to each other until they met at Bonnell Thornton's on May 24, 1763. Although Boswell isn't explicit about it in his journal, it is evident from letters to William Temple and David Dalrymple that he had met and become friendly with Wilkes in the ensuing months, and on the day before Wilkes went into exile in Paris, he let Boswell have a number of "franks" (i.e. free postage given to Members of Parliament). In a letter to Dalrymple dated August 2, 1763, Boswell writes that "[t]he truth is, Wilkes is a most agreeable companion. He is good-humoured and vivacious, and likes the Scots as well as anybody; only he considers the abusing that nation as a political device, which he must make us of. [...] Wilkes and I are exceeding well, when we meet." Later on they developed a closer friendship and met on several occasions.

External links:

• E-paranoids: John Wilkes
• Portraits of John Wilkes - at the National Portrait Gallery

Literature:

From Amazon.co.uk

• Infamous Essay on Women: Or John Wilkes Seated Between Vice and Virtue
• John Wilkes: A Friend to Liberty

Several books by or about John Wilkes can be found on the Abebooks used books search engine. Some titles are the biography Portrait of a Patriot, Four Portraits (1947 ) by Peter Quennell (which includes bios of Wilkes, Boswell, Edward Gibbon and Laurence Sterne), Sherrard's A Life of John Wilkes (1930), Postgate's biography That Devil Wilkes (1956), reports about his trials in 1763/4 and 1770 (search for The Case of John Wilkes), An Essay On Women by John Wilkes and Thomas Potter and even original copies of The North Briton.

This article was last updated at February 05 2008 12:03:56 CET

Other links of possible interest