International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

John Wilkes, the son of a Clerkenwell distiller, played a central role in the development of English radicalism during the reign of George III. Wilkes was responsible for prompting several controversies that brought an end to the “general warrant” in England as well as a reassessment of the concepts of habeas corpus , due process, and freedom of the press. Wilkes's mother was a wealthy heiress of a tanner, and it is largely due to her inheritance that Wilkes received a boarding school education in Hertford. In 1744, his family sent him to the University of Leiden, but he left in 1746 without taking a degree, a common practice among the eighteenth-century elite. Upon his return to England, Wilkes married Mary Mead, a childhood friend who was ten years his senior. Mismatched, Wilkes was an affable rake while Mary was a devout Presbyterian and recluse. With his father's marriage present of land, in addition to his wife's substantial trust, Wilkes set himself up as a country squire in Aylesbury. The couple was perpetually unhappy, and by 1756 they permanently separated. Their marriage resulted in the birth of a daughter in 1750. Mary, or Polly as Wilkes called her, was his closest companion throughout his life. Wilkes was incredibly successful at cultivating the social network that he would need in the principal pursuit of his life, politics. He joined the Royal Society in 1748/9, ... log in or subscribe to read full text