Wilkes, John, 1725-1797

John Wilkes was born on October 17, 1725, in the Clerkenwell neighborhood of central London, to Israel Wilkes and Sarah Heaton. He married Mary Meade on May 23, 1747, and together they had a daughter, but he was the father of three children. He was known as a bit of a rake and a member of the so-called “Hellfire Club.” He was also elected to Parliament for Aylesbury, was the author of a political newspaper called the “North Briton,” was thrown into the Tower of London for testing the boundaries of the “liberty of the press in England,” was expelled from Parliament, was declared an outlaw when he went to France to visit his daughter to avoid trial for “publishing seditious libel and impious libel,” was elected to Parliament for Middlesex while still an outlaw, was sentenced to two years in prison, bullied a reversal of that sentence, helped to form the Society for the Defence of the Bill of Rights in 1769, became an alderman in London in 1770, sheriff in 1771, and Lord Mayor in 1774. After achieving the station of Lord Mayor, he became less radical, spoke out against the American Revolutionary War, took firm action to put down rioters in the Gordon Riots against Roman Catholics, and lost popularity due to his new, less radical viewpoints. He died in London on December 26, 1797, and he is interred in a vault in Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street, London. There is a statue of him on Feter Lane in London.