International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

John Horne Tooke was an English political activist and philologist, and the only Briton to be put in prison for opposing the war with America . Born in Westminster to a well-to-do poulterer, he went to school at Eton and Cambridge and was a law student until being ordained as a priest in 1760, taking up a position in Brentford. His public engagement in politics began with a 1765 pamphlet in defense of the radical John Wilkes . In 1769 Horne, Wilkes, and others founded the Society for Supporting the Bill of Rights to support Wilkes's election to parliament, but also more generally to support freedom and the constitution. They met regularly at the London Tavern, but disagreements about priorities split them apart by 1771. In 1775 Horne publicly attacked the government's actions in America, raising money for relatives of Americans “murdered” by British troops. He was tried on the charge of seditious libel and spent over a year in prison. After his release he remained a strong supporter of free speech, writing pamphlets, raising money for the defense of prosecuted printers and booksellers, and financing radical works such as Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man. In 1791 he began to work closely with Thomas Hardy and the London Corresponding Society , campaigning for the vote, attacking the government's foreign policy, and working to create links with other reform groups in Britain. ... log in or subscribe to read full text