The Age of George III

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The family history of John Wilkes

John Wilkes (1727-1797) was the second son of Israel Wilkes, a malt distiller from Clerkenwell, and his wife Sarah, daughter of John Heaton of Hoxton. John Wilkes was born in St. John's Square, Clerkenwell on 17 October 1727.

Israel Wilkes was son of Luke Wilkes, chief yeoman of the removing wardrobe to Charles II, and grandson of Edward Wilkes of Leighton Buzzard. Israel Wilkes became wealthy from his distillery and lived in the style of a city magnate, keeping his coach-and-six. He was hospitable and fond of lettered society, and, though a churchman, tolerant of dissent in his wife. He died on 31 January 1761, leaving, besides John, two sons and two daughters. Sarah, the elder daughter, was an eccentric recluse, a prototype of the Miss Havisham of Dickens's Great Expectations. Her sister Mary was married three times. Heaton, the youngest son, succeeded to the distillery business, mismanaged it, and died on 19 December 1803, leaving no children.

The eldest son, Israel, emigrated to the United States, and died in New York on 25 November 1805, leaving some issue by his wife, Elizabeth De Ponthieu.  In Drake’s Dictionary of American Biography, Rear-Admiral Charles Wilkes, U.S.A., is described as nephew of John Wilkes.

John Wilkes was initially educated at a private school at Hertford, where he showed such quickness that it was decided to give him a liberal education. He was placed under the charge of the Rev. Leeson, a Presbyterian minister in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, from whom he received sound instruction in the classics and some education in Arian theology, which predisposed him to freethinking. From Aylesbury he went to the university of Leyden, where he was entered on 8 September 1744. Among his contemporaries there were Alexander Carlyle, William Dowdeswell and Charles Townshend but his especial friends were Andrew Baxter, then at Utrecht, and Baron d'Holbach. Wilkes remained abroad for less than two years, part of which was spent in travel in the Rhinelands. It is very improbable that he devoted himself seriously to study but he returned to England with the tone and bearing of a scholar and a gentleman.

Wilkes was a rake, gambler and adventurer. Wilkes boasted that he loved all women except his wife. Wilkes had two (known) illegitimate children. His overt sexual promiscuity began before his arranged marriage. He did not remain faithful even to his mistresses of whom there were many.

While still under age and in deference to his father's wishes, Wilkes married Mary, daughter and heiress of John Mead, a wealthy London grocer. She was ten years his senior. The marriage placed him in possession of an estate at Aylesbury, the prebendal house and demesne, worth £700 a year. His wife had a handsome jointure, and greater expectations: her mother died on 14 January 1769 worth £100,000; however,  Wilkes's habits did not accord with the principles of the ladies, who were both strict dissenters, and in a few years a separation was arranged by mutual consent.

Wilkes retained the Aylesbury estate and the custody of his only legitimate child, Mary, born on 5 August 1750. His wife surrendered her jointure for an annuity of £200. In 1758 she sought the protection of the King’s Bench against the persecution by which Wilkes was endeavouring to extort from her the surrender of her allowance. In April 1749 Wilkes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.  On 19 January 1754 he was admitted into the Sublime Society of the Beef Steaks. His proclivities were literary and rakish. With John Armstrong (1709-1779), Thomas Brewster, and John Hall-Stevenson he early formed durable friendships. Under the finished roué Thomas Potter he graduated in the fashionable vices. By Sir Francis Dashwood he was enrolled in the profane and profligate confraternity of Medmenham Abbey. This set included Robert Lloyd, Charles Churchill, and Paul Whitehead, all of whom became his fast friends.

An illegitimate child, born in 1762 to his housekeeper Catherine Smith (d. 1795), was passed off as his nephew John Smith, a "papal nephew" as Wilkes put it. In 1782 Wilkes obtained a post for his son in India. Smith was stationed at Dinapore and wrote a number of letters to his father asking for recommendations so that Smith could seek promotion. Smith added the name "Henry" to differentiate himself from at least one other "John Smith" in the East India Company.

The last letter was written on 14 November 1792, after which nothing more was heard of Smith.

The most long-lasting affair was that with Amelia Arnold whom he set her up in a nearby house for the last two decades of his life. She was mother of an acknowledged daughter, Harriet Wilkes, born in 1778. She died unmarried.

A number of Americans have claimed descent from John Wilkes through Wilkes' son, John "Henry" Smith. It is not known with any certainty that Smith survived his stay in India; neither is it known whether he had any family. It seems very unlikely that John Wilkes MP/Alderman has any direct descendants in the USA. There is a family link to a John Aston Wilkes, who is probably from a totally different lineage.

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