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John Horne Tooke

(1736-1812), Radical politician; MP and philologist

Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue Entry

Sitter associated with 49 portraits
The radical politician Horne Tooke was an ardent campaigner for liberty and parliamentary reform. Born simply John Horne, he added ‘Tooke’ to his name in 1782 after living with William Tooke and becoming heir to William’s wealth, built through co-owning a plantation in Grenada worked by enslaved Africans. Horne Tooke had little interest in stopping the enslavement and trading of Africans, yet when it came to the issue of American Independence he was sympathetic to the demands stating ‘the people of America are enslaved’. He helped establish 'The Society for Supporting the Bill of Rights', and was instrumental in organising the distribution of Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man in 1791. In 1794 he was wrongly accused of planning an uprising and imprisoned in the Tower of London.

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