John Wilkes Biography Quotes 2 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
John Wilkes was born in London on 17 October 1725, the son of the prosperous distiller Israel Wilkes and his wife Sarah. He grew up in a Dissenting milieu that valued literacy and debate, and he received a solid education before spending time at the University of Leiden, a center of Enlightenment learning that shaped his taste for political argument and pamphleteering. In 1749 he married Mary Meade; the marriage soon proved unhappy and the couple separated, but it produced a beloved daughter, Mary ("Polly"), whose welfare and education remained important to him throughout his life. By the early 1750s he had cultivated urban manners, a quick wit, and an appetite for controversy that would become central to his public identity.

From Parliament to the Press
Wilkes entered Parliament in 1757 as a Member for Aylesbury. He gravitated to opponents of the court, aligning with Richard Grenville-Temple (Lord Temple) and William Pitt the Elder in their resistance to the influence of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, the favorite of George III. In 1762 he founded the weekly paper The North Briton with the poet and satirist Charles Churchill. The paper attacked Bute's ministry and, after Bute resigned, continued to scrutinize the king's new ministers and their policies. Wilkes's virtuosity with polemical prose, his mastery of the sly insinuation and the bold accusation, and Churchill's biting verse made the partnership a sensation in London's political culture.

The North Briton and the Battle over General Warrants
On 23 April 1763 The North Briton, No. 45 denounced a royal speech on the peace with France, arguing that ministers were misrepresenting the nation's interest. The Secretary of State, Lord Halifax, issued a sweeping "general warrant" authorizing the arrest of the paper's authors and printers. Dozens were seized, including Wilkes, who was confined in the Tower of London. He contested the legality of such warrants and, aided by his counsel and the sympathetic judgments of Chief Justice Charles Pratt (later Lord Camden), won a series of landmark rulings, including Wilkes v. Wood and Huckle v. Money, that declared general warrants unlawful and awarded damages. These cases strengthened protections against arbitrary search and seizure and made Wilkes a symbol of civil liberty far beyond Britain.

Exile, Outlawry, and the "Essay on Woman"
Wilkes's enemies did not relent. John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, and others in the Lords exposed a private, bawdy parody associated with Wilkes and his circle, the "Essay on Woman", as a scandal intended to discredit him. Faced with prosecutions for seditious and obscene libel, he fled to France in late 1763, and in his absence he was outlawed. While abroad he cultivated contacts and wrote, but his finances and reputation suffered. In London, William Hogarth produced a scathing print of Wilkes, and Wilkes answered with satirical counterattacks, deepening a celebrated feud that showed how personal animosities fed the politics of print. The long exile hardened his image: to supporters he was the injured champion of "Wilkes and Liberty"; to opponents, a demagogue in flight from justice.

Return, Middlesex Elections, and Imprisonment
Wilkes returned in 1768 to stand for Parliament in Middlesex, a populous county with an energized electorate. He won decisively. Arrested soon after on the revived charges, he was confined in the King's Bench Prison; large crowds gathered in support, and the St George's Fields disturbance of May 1768 left several protesters dead after troops fired on the crowd. From prison he was re-elected and became the focus of a constitutional struggle with the House of Commons, which expelled him in early 1769. Middlesex voters repeatedly chose him again, but the Commons seated his defeated opponent, Henry Luttrell, provoking national outcry. The episode fixed Wilkes as the protagonist in a contest over the rights of electors and the accountability of Parliament.

Champion of Municipal Reform and the Press
Barred from his seat, Wilkes rebuilt his influence in the City of London. He became an alderman, then Sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1771, working with civic leaders such as Brass Crosby to defend printers who reported parliamentary debates in defiance of the Commons' claims of privilege. The confrontation ended in a practical triumph for the press: newspapers increasingly published debates, a change that reshaped British political culture. In 1774 Wilkes was elected Lord Mayor of London and, in the general election of the same year, was once more returned for Middlesex, this time allowed to take his seat. Within the radical movement he helped found the Society of the Supporters of the Bill of Rights, though he later quarreled with allies like John Horne Tooke over strategy and funds. Through the later 1770s he accumulated steady civic responsibilities and, in 1779, became Chamberlain of the City of London, a post he held to the end of his life.

Parliamentary Career and Changing Tone
Back in the House, Wilkes moderated. He continued to advocate for juries, for limits on executive power, and for religious toleration for Dissenters and Catholics, but he was more pragmatic than the incendiary author of The North Briton. He supported measures to reduce corruption and championed the publication of parliamentary proceedings. His earlier allies and adversaries had shifted as well: William Pitt the Elder receded from public life, Lord Camden remained an emblem of constitutionalism, and George III's ministries changed frequently. The reputation Wilkes had forged in struggle endured, even as his speeches grew more temperate and his legislative work more routine.

Transatlantic Resonance
Wilkes's battles resonated in the American colonies, where his name and the famous number "45" became emblems of resistance to arbitrary power. Toasts to "Wilkes and Liberty" were common, and several American places later took his name. The admiration was less about his personal life than about the legal precedents and civic reforms associated with him: the curbing of general warrants, the assertion of rights of electors, and the emergence of a press free to report the acts of government.

Personal Life and Character
Wilkes cultivated a persona of audacity and charm. Nearsighted and famously plain in appearance, he joked that he needed only half an hour's start to beat any handsome man in winning a lady's favor. Friends like Charles Churchill appreciated his conviviality, while foes such as the Earl of Sandwich abhorred his irreverence. He could be tactless and combative, but he also showed administrative competence in the City and a real commitment to the material and educational welfare of his daughter. His domestic life remained separate from his public one after the early marital separation, and he relied on a circle of political allies, printers, and lawyers to sustain his campaigns.

Later Years and Legacy
In the 1780s and 1790s Wilkes remained Chamberlain of London, a respected city officer, while retaining his seat for Middlesex until 1790. The fervor of his radical youth had cooled, and he supported law and order during episodes of unrest such as the Gordon Riots. Yet the institutional changes linked to his name continued to shape public life: juries felt empowered to judge not only facts but intent in libel cases; printers reported parliamentary debates with growing confidence; and the limits on general warrants became a cornerstone of civil liberty. He died in London on 26 December 1797.

Wilkes's career was defined by the entanglement of politics, law, and print. He fought ministries associated with Lord Bute and Lord Halifax, sparred with cultural figures like William Hogarth, relied on allies such as Lord Temple and Charles Churchill, and benefited from the constitutional judgments of Lord Camden. His controversies helped redraw the boundaries between government and the governed. Whatever one makes of his flaws, the arc of his life left a durable mark on the language of rights and the practices of public accountability in Britain and beyond.

Our collection contains 2 quotes who is written by John, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Joy.

Other people realated to John: George Savile (Politician), Junius (Writer), Louis Kronenberger (Critic), James Boswell (Lawyer), George Grenville (Statesman), Henry Fox (Statesman)