Back to W Index

A letter to the worthy electors of the borough of Aylesbury in the county of Bucks / by John Wilkes. -- 22 October 1764. -- Manuscript, 22 p.

John Wilkes, politician, man of fashion, and dilettante, was born in Clerkenwell on 17 October 1727 and educated by a Presbyterian minister, Leeson, at Alylesbury, Buckinghamshire before going on to the University of Leyden. Through marriage he gained an estate at Aylesbury and was before long separated from his wife. As a supporter of Pitt, he was returned in the general election of 1761, and together with Pitt's brother-in-law, he organized the Bucks. militia of which he was appointed colonel in June 1762. Foiled in his plan to either become an ambassador or the Governor of Quebec, he began to write pamphlets, published anonymously, against the government. He was answered by Smollet in The Briton and helped to found The North Briton in order to have a vehicle for response. Its first issue was published on 5 June 1762. Wilkes had a very chequered career with repeated arrests, a conviction on libel, and a successful return to the House of Commons. The letter of 22 October 1764 was written in response to his conviction while he was in exile in France where he spent several years. He died in London on 26 December 1796.

The letter is bound with issues 1-46 of The North Briton, 1762-1763 in the Periodicals collection. The first five leaves are bound at the front while the remaining six leaves are bound at the end.
A previous owner was Dan. Spurgeon of Emanuel College, Cambridge. Later provenance and date of acquisition are not known.
Finding aid available as part of this description in hard copy and electronically. The letter was transcribed in A Complete Collection of the Genuine Papers... Paris, 1768 (B16860).
There are no access restrictions.
Further accruals are not expected.

Contact: archives@mcmaster.ca
Last Reviewed: June 9, 2003
URL: