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John Wilkes

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John Wilkes

by Unknown artist
silver medal, 1768
2 1/4 in. (57 mm) diameter
Purchased, 1913
Primary Collection
NPG 1702

Sitterback to top

  • John Wilkes (1725-1797), Journalist, agitator and politician; MP for Aylesbury and Middlesex. Sitter associated with 49 portraits, Artist associated with 1 portrait.

Artistback to top

This portraitback to top

Issued following Wilkes's arrest for the publication of edition No.45 of his newspaper, The North Briton, in which Ministers were attacked as 'tools of despotism and corruption'.

Linked publicationsback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1768back to top

Current affairs

William Pitt the Elder retires as Prime Minister due to ill health and is succeeded by Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton.
Radical outlaw John Wilkes returns to England from France and is elected as MP for Middlesex. He finally surrenders to the King's Bench and is imprisoned.

Art and science

The Royal Academy is founded with painter Joshua Reynolds as its first president.
Encyclopaedia Britannica begins publication in Edinburgh. It appears in weekly instalments under the editorship of William Smellie.
Philip Astley stages the first modern circus in what is now Waterloo.
Laurence Sterne publishes A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy.


International

Captain James Cook leads his first expedition to the Pacific from Plymouth, heading for Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus.
Boston citizens refuse to quarter British troops amidst growing unrest in the American colonies
Corsica is sold to France by the Republic of Genoa.

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