JOHN WILKES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1941, Page 6

JOHN WILKES

FORMER LORD MAYOR OF LONDON. Called a stormy petrel, his features were irregular to the point of ugliness, and a squint lent them a sinister expression, a feature maliciously exaggerated in the celebrated caricature by Hogarth. John Wilkes had fine manners and an inexhaustible fund of wit and humour which' made his society acceptable even to those who distrusted him. Remembered for his firmness and courage in upholding the law' during the Gordon riots, an obelisk erected in Ludgate Circus commemorates his services as Lord Mayor of London. I The son of a wealthy malt distiller, John mixed in the best society, and kept his own coach and six. He married a woman ten years his senior, but was separated within a few years, his [Wife providing him with an allowance ’of £209 a year. ' He caused ill-feeling between himself and Dr. Johnson by criticising the doctor's dictionary, only regaining his friendship by procuring the release of * Johnson’s black servant who was in the hands of the press-gang. He never stopped at anything. He interfered with all Parliamentary work, criticising and lampooning his enemies, even exchanging pistol shots with Lord Talbot on Bagshot Heath. Committed to the Tower in 1763, his house was ransacked and all his papers seized. It was a serious thing for a member of Parliament to be imprisoned, so he was released, afterwards su-! ing the secretaries of State for their action, resulting in a verdict fo‘r Wilkes | with £lOOO damages. :