USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania : from its first beginnings to the present time, including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume I > Part 90
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103
A week after his rencounter with Lord Talbot Wilkes wrote to Earl Temple as follows: :
"The affair between me and Lord Talbot is much talked of, and the camp censure Lord Talbot for firing only one pistol ; the seconds both having declared that before we went out Lord Talbot asked me how many rounds we should fire, and my answer was, 'Just as many as your Lordship pleases.' I am caressed more than I will tell ; and a most favorite object, whom I have unsuccessfully made tenders to ever since I first met
* See "The Grenville Papers," I : 477.
This was a note addressed by Wilkes to Earl Temple and reading as follows: "My Lord-I am here just going to decide a point of honour with Lord Talbot. I have only to thank your Lordship for all your favours to me, and to entreat you to desire Lady Temple to superintend the education of a daughter whom I love beyond all the world."
Į See "The Grenville Papers," I : 486.
532
her here, now whispers me that she will trust her honour at the first shepherd's minute to a man who takes so much care of his own. I must look into my old friend Johnson for what is synonymous to the word 'honour,' to guess at the fair one's meaning."
Wilkes' attacks on the Government in the columns of The North Briton were so vigorous that he frightened Lord Bute into resigning his office as Prime Minister, which he did on the 8th of April, 1763, and was succeeded by George Grenville,* "one of the most destructive statesmen with whom a nation can be cursed-a man who mistakes obstinacy for firmness." Unnoticed by the authorities forty-four num- bers of The North Briton had passed from the press, although some of them contained scurrilities that might well have called for attention ; but Bute had wisdom enough to let Wilkes alone. Finally, on the 23d of April, 1763, "No. 45" of this journal came from the press. It con- tained nothing as bad as many of the preceding numbers, but it did con- tain a severe criticism on the King's speech at the opening of Parlia- ment. The following paragraphs have been extracted from an original copy of that issue of the journal :
"The King's speech has always been considered by the Legislature, and by the public at large, as the speech of the Minister. This week has given the public the most abandoned instance of Ministerial effrontery every attempted to be imposed on mankind. I am in doubt whether the imposition is greater on the Sovereign or on the Nation. Every friend of his country must lament that a Prince of so many great and amiable qualities, whom England truly reveres, can be brought to give the sanction of his sacred name to the most odious measures, and to the most unjustifiable public declarations from a Throne ever renowned for Truth, Honour and unsullied Virtue. * * *
"The preliminary Articles of Peacet were such as to have drawn the contempt of mankind on our wretched negotiators. All our most valuable conquests were agreed to be restored. *
* The Minister cannot forbear, even in the King's speech, insulting us with a dull repetition of the word Economy. I did not expect so soon to have seen that word again, after it had been so exploded, and more than once, by a most numerous audience, hissed off the stage of our English theatres. Let the public be informed of a single instance of Economy-except, indeed, in the Household ! Is it not notorious that in the reduction of the army not the least attention has been paid to Economy? Many unnecessary expenses have been incurred, only to increase the power of the Crown-that is, to create more lucrative jobs for the creatures of the Minister. *
* A despotic Minister will always endeavor to dazzle his Prince with highflown ideas of the prerogative and honour of the Crown, which the Minister will make a parade of firmly maintaining. I wish as much as any man in the kingdom to see the honour of the Crown maintained in a manner truly becoming Royalty. I lament to see it sunk even to Prostitution. What a shame was it to see the security of this country, in point of military force, com- plimented away, contrary to the opinion of Royalty itself, and sacrificed to the prejudices and to the ignorances of a set of people the most unfit from every consideration to be consulted on a matter relative to the security of the House of Hanover !"
.
Within a few days after the publication of "No. 45" of The North Briton Grenville ordered the issue of a General Warrant against the authors, printers and publishers of this "seditious and treasonable
* GEORGE GRENVILLE-younger brother of Earl Temple, mentioned on page 529-was born October 14, 1712. In December, 1744, he was made Lord of the Admiralty. He was Treasurer of the Navy from 1754 till May, 1762, when he was made Secretary of State for the Northern Department. He was leader of the House of Commons from October, 1761, till October, 1762, when he became First Lord of the Admi- ralty. In April, 1763, on the resignation of Lord Bute, he became First Lord of the Treasury and Chancelor of the Exchequer. In July, 1765, he was dismissed from office, and never again accepted any appoint- ment in the Government.
He obtained the nickname of "The Gentle Shepherd" as the result of an encounter which he had with Pitt. "He interposed in defense of Dashwood's proposition of an additional duty on cider, and re- minded the House that the profusion with which the late war with France had been carried on neces- sitated the imposition of new taxes. He wished gentlemen would show him where to lay them. On his repeating this question in his querulous, languid, fatiguing tone, Pitt, who sat opposite to him, mimick- ing his accent aloud, repeated these words of an old ditty : 'Gentle shepherd, tell me where !' and then, rising, abused Grenville bitterly,"
The principal measure with which Grenville's name is associated in history is that of the American Stamp Act. It has been said, and probably with truth, that he was not the author of that measure; but that he adopted it, and ever defended it with the utmost zeal and ability, cannot be denied. The measure may have been patriotic and well-intentioned on the part of Grenville, but the result was unfortunate to Great Britain. It was not, however, until the result became known, that it met with so much of party condemnation, for it is notorious that the Stamp Act originally passed both Houses of Parliament with very little discussion and less opposition.
George Grenville died at London November 13, 1770.
| The Definitive Treaty of Peace between England and France had been concluded at Versailles in February, 1763, and was referred to in the King's speech.
.
533
paper." Under this warrant Wilkes was arrested and brought before Lords Egremont and Halifax, the Principal Secretaries of State, for examination. He refused to tell them anything, and April 30, 1763, was committed to the Tower "for treasonable practices"-in other words, for libeling the Government. The documents in the case set forth that Wilkes, as the author of the article in The North Briton, "No. 45," had attacked and treated with unreserved freedom the King's speech, and had "endeavored to sow sedition and alienate the affections of His Majesty's subjects." Upon his reception at the Tower Wilkes desired that he might not be lodged in any room in which a Scot had ever been confined ; and he refused to occupy a room in which Lord Egremont's father had been a prisoner years before on account of his Jacobitism. Such was Wilkes' popularity after he had been committed to the Tower that his enemies found they were burning their hands in attempting to roast him.
Wilkes' house in Great George Street was thoroughly ransacked by order of Egremont and Halifax, and all his papers, of every descrip- tion, were bundled up, carted away and delivered into the possession of these noble Lords.
Under date of May 3, 1763, the Duke of Grafton wrote to Earl Temple as follows* :
"A letter from Mr. Wilkes, which I enclose, came to me while I was out riding this morning. *
* I went, as I think every acquaintance is almost bound to do, to see Mr. Wilkes in his confinement, to hear from himself his own story and his defence. * * Hearing of the shyness of lawyers in general to undertake his cause, as also the manner (perhaps unwarrantable) of his confinement, I was more desirous than ever to show that no subject of this country should want my countenance against oppression."
Two days after the Duke of Grafton's visit to Wilkes in the Tower Earl Temple, who was still Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, received orders to dismiss Wilkes from the Bucks militia, "His Majesty deeming it improper that he should continue to be Colonel." Lord Temple did as he was directed, at the same time expressing the concern he felt at the loss of an officer who was, "by his deportment in command, endeared to the whole corps." Two days later Lord Temple was dis- missed from the office of Lord Lieutenant. On the 6th of May Wilkes was brought into Court on a writ of habeas corpus. Chief Justice Pratt (afterwards Lord Camden) justified the warrant and the action of the Crown on the general merits of the case, but ordered the release of Wilkes on the technical ground that he was a Member of Parliament. In one day Wilkes became a popular idol by the folly of the Ministry and the King .. He emerged from the Tower a lion. London was illum- inated. Ladies marked their brooches with "No. 45," and gentlemen their coaches. The excitement of the occasion was fanned by the enthusiasm for "Wilkes and Liberty !" When the news of Wilkes' release from the Tower reached Aylesbury there were great rejoicings, bonfires, illuminations, etc., in all parts of the town.
On the day of his release Wilkes wrote from his house in Great George Street to Lords Egremont and Halifax as follows :
"On my return here from Westminster Hall, where I have been discharged from my commitment to the Tower under your Lordships' warrant, I find that my house has been robbed, and am informed that the stolen goods are in the possession of one or both of your Lordships. I therefore insist that you do forthwith return them to your humble servant,
[Signed] "JOHN WILKES."
* See "The Grenville Papers," II : 53.
534
Wilkes subsequently brought actions for false imprisonment against both the Secretaries of State, and the printers who had suffered with him did likewise. They all recovered heavy damages, and Lord North after- wards confessed that these futile and disastrous proceedings had cost the Treasury in all no less than £100,000 in legal expenses.
The day after his return to his home Wilkes wrote to Lord Temple : "I hope by two [o'clock] to have the excellent pamphlet 'On the Seizure of Papers' ready to submit to your Lordship." This was a pamphlet written by Lord Temple anonymously. The manuscript was revised by Wilkes, and the pamphlet was the second production of the private press which Wilkes had established at his house in Great George Street.
The King's enemies and those of the Ministry were naturally the friends of Wilkes. Among them Lord Temple must be accorded the first place, for the energy he showed, not only in giving counsel, but also the sinews of war for carrying on the campaign. Nor were his talents by any means despicable. By some writers and critics of his time and later he was believed to be the author of the celebrated "Letters of Junius."*
BERTY
ORTH BRITON
YUNgrR 1
NORTH BRITON
JOHN WILKES.
Reproduced from an engraving after the original caricature etched by Hogarth.
There is no doubt that he was a very clever and ma- lignant antagonist, who preferred dealing his blows with the least dan- ger to himself. Macaulay wrote of Temple : "Those who knew his habits tracked him as men track a mole. It was his nature to grub underground. Wherever a heap of dirt was flung up, it might be suspected that he was at work in some foul, crook- ed labyrinth below." Temple's support of Wilkes, however, was quite above-board, and the King retaliated by remov- ing him from the Lord Lieutenancy of Bucks, as previously mentioned, and appointing Lord Le Des- pencer to the vacancy.
Shortly after this Ho- garth published his cele- brated caricature of Wilkes, in which the lat- ter is represented with a leering, impudent face, with the expression of a
satyr. Some 4,000 impressions of this etching were sold at the time, and nothing that was done to injure Wilkes had more effect than this * Written and published during the years 1769-'72. They are referred to"more fully in the succeeding chapter.
535
caricature with its "inhuman squint and demoniac grin." Men looked at it and unhesitatingly pronounced the subject of it a villain. Wilkes, who had been the friend and was the warm admirer of the artist, justly said that such a pencil as Hogarth's should "speak to all ages and to all nations," and not "be dipped in the dirt of a faction of a day." More- over, he displayed at once good nature and good sense by writing as follows with regard to this pictorial attempt to villify him :
"It must be allowed to be an excellent compound caricature, or, rather, a carica- ture of what Nature had already caricatured. I know but one apology to be made for this gentleman, or, to speak more properly, for the person of Mr. Wilkes ; it is, that he did not make himself, and that he never was solicitous about the case of his soul (as Shaks- peare calls it), only so far as to keep it clean and in health. I never heard that he once hung over the glassy stream, like another Narcissus, admiring the image in it, nor that he ever stole an amorous look at his counterfeit in a side mirror. His form, such as it is, ought to give him no pain, while it is capable of giving so much pleasure to others. I believe that he finds himself tolerably happy in the clay cottage to which he is tenant for life, because he has learned to keep it in pretty good order, while the share of health and animal spirits which Heaven has given him should hold out. I can scarcely imagine he will be one moment peevish about the outside of so precarious, so temporary, a habitation. * *
Equally memorable was Wilkes' reply to a friend who, some years later, requested him to sit to Sir Joshua Reynolds and have his portrait painted to be placed in the London Guildhall-he then being so popular a character that the Court of Aldermen would willingly have paid the expense. "No !" replied he. "No! they shall never have a delineation of my face, that will carry to posterity so damning a proof of what it was. Who knows but a time may come when some future Horace Wal- pole will treat the world with another quarto volume of historic doubt, in which he may prove that the numerous squinting portraits on tobacco- papers and half-penny ballads, inscribed with the name of John Wilkes, are 'a weak invention of the enemy'; for that I was not only unlike them, but-if any inference can be drawn from the partiality of the fair sex- was the handsomest man of the age I lived in."*
Under date of June 30, 1763, at his house in Great George Street, Wilkes wrote to Lord Temple as follows :
"My character has been most wickedly and maliciously attacked, on account of my conduct as Colonel of the Bucks militia, and particularly in respect to the clothing of the regiment. * * I am so deeply engaged with Serjeants, Counselors, Attornies, etc., that I shall not be able to eat a single strawberry out of my own garden."
A week later Wilkes wrote from the same place to Lord Temple as followst :
"I beg to congratulate your Lordship on the glorious verdicts which the English juries of yesterday and to-day have brought in .¿ The iron rod of oppression was lifted very high, but a few honest Englishmen have saved their country. The joy of the people is almost universal. The trial of yesterday lasted nearly twelve hours. I found almost as much difficulty to get to the 'King's Arms,' where we dined, as I did to get from West- minster Hall to George Street, and the people were almost as loud in their applauses. The two days have been most propitious to Liberty, most honourable to me. The Chief Justice is adored, and Serjeant [John] Glynn has increased a very great stock of reputation."
The following was written to Lord Temple by Wilkes, July 9, 1763 :
"The trials of last Wednesday and Thursday have demonstrated to me where the strength of our cause really lies ; for the merchants are firm in the cause of Liberty. They refused to bring in a special verdict, though the Chief Justice wished, and Attorney
* The portrait of Wilkes as Lord Mayor of London, which appears as a frontispiece to this History, is a reproduction from an engraving by W. Dickinson (published in London November 9, 1774, and now owned by Mr. George S. Bennett of Wilkes-Barré) after a portrait painted by R. E. Pine.
+ See "The Grenville Papers," II : 70.
# On a trial before Lord Chief Justice Pratt, July 6, 1763, in which the plaintiff was one of the journey- men printers who had been taken into custody by the King's messengers under the General Warrant in the previous April, as hereinbefore described, the jury brought in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, with £300 damages. The following day another plaintiff obtained a verdict of £200.
536
General Yorke and the Solicitor General and three Serjeants repeatedly urged it. * * The City are warmly my friends, and talk of £20,000 damages to me. * * In the pleadings the Attorney General highly condemned The North Briton for private scandal, for attacking public characters and for creating disunion between England and Scotland, and said that lenity had been mistaken for weakness, that the attack had at last reached the Throne itself, the sacred person of the King, etc. That this question was between Government and faction, between order and confusion, and in defence of the King's personal honour-with an infinite deal of other trash. * * *
"The effect these causes have had on the public is amazing, and the Bill of Excep- tions is universally condemned as tyrannical. My spirit is applauded for having first dared to attack the Secretaries of State. * * I hear from all hands that the King is enraged at my insolence, as he terms it. I regard not his frowns nor his smiles. I will ever be his faithful subject-never his servant. *
* Hypocrisy, meanness, ignorance and insolence characterize the King I obey. My independent spirit will never take a favour from such a man. I know that I have neither the lust of power nor of money ; and if I leave my daughter less dirty coin, I will leave her more honest fame. I trust, next to her own virtues, her greatest honour will be derived from her father. * The North Briton is almost finished. I wish to know your Lordship's opinion about print- ing 'No. 45' in the volumes. My name does not appear. I have cured the paper by a variety of extracts of the Duke of Argyle's speech. I have printed 2,000 copies of The North Briton. There are not 120 subscribers. They will be sold at a half guinea. I am not a little out of pocket by such a bold undertaking-but The North Briton and Wilkes will be talked of together by posterity, and the work is, I believe, the most just and ani- mated account of last year's politics at home."
The North Briton was still in course of publication, being set up and printed in Wilkes' house in Great George Street by the journeymen employed by Wilkes ; who, at the same time, was preparing to republish, in book form, all the back numbers of the periodical. Lord Temple advised against the republication of "No. 45", but in opposition to his judgment Wilkes republished it singly, and reprinted it as well for in- sertion in the volume to be issued. On the 26th of July Wilkes left London for Paris, where he had the happiness of finding his daughter in perfect health." She was then in her fourteenth year, and for some time had been living in Paris with a lady who was superintending her education. Wilkes wrote Lord Temple that his daughter gave him "the most sincere testimonies of real affection-many, many tears of joy." He wrote also that, en route from London to Paris, he had been received at Canterbury and Dover "with many marks of regard; and I [he] found the true glory and stability of our country-the English sailors- no enemies to Wilkes and Liberty !" Wilkes continued in Paris for some weeks, and on the 29th of August wrote to Lord Temple :
"I am detained here much beyond my intention, for I find the house in which Miss Wilkes is does not quite answer my plan of her education ; and I need not mention to your Lordship how much in my heart her welfare rises superior to every other con- sideration."'
One day in Paris, while walking with Lord Palmerston to the Church of Notre Dame, Wilkes was accosted by a certain Captain Forbes-a fervid Scot, whom he had never before seen or heard of- who insisted that Wilkes should fight a duel with him that day for hav- ing spoken disrespectfully of Scotland and the Scots. Wilkes promised to indulge him, but said that he was then under an engagement of a similar nature with Lord Egremont, previously mentioned. (A few months later Egremont died very suddenly, and was succeeded in his office by Lord Sandwich.) In September, 1763, Wilkes returned to England, and from Stowe Lord Temple wrote to him : "I am very glad you are once again upon English ground, and that your usual spirit and fortitude have extricated you so far from another extraordinary situa- tion." With this letter Lord Temple sent an original poem of twenty- four verses addressed "To John Wilkes, Esq." It ran, in part, as follows :
537
"What Muse thy glory shall presume to sing ? So highly honoured by a mighty King ! The Minion, doubtless to exalt thy praise Beyond the bounds of humble poet's lays, Devised the contest, whence such triumphs rose O'er lovely Freedom's most malicious foes. What groveling Courts or influenced juries find, Shakes not the tenor of thy manly mind.
Thy cause hath been by a whole nation tried ; For thee that mightier jury dares decide, And from her ashes bids fair Truth revive, In all her native charms of 'Forty-five.' When Kings to measure with a subject deign,
The lustre of imperial state they stain ;
For competition on a level brings The meanest subject and the proudest Kings."
A few months prior to this there had been printed on Wilkes' private press some twelve or thirteen copies of a brief poetical tract entitled "An Essay on Woman." Through the faithlessness and treachery of one of Wilkes' printers an incomplete copy of this tract was placed in the hands of the Rev. Mr. Kidgell, a disreputable fellow, who was chaplain to the Earl of March, an iniquitous nobleman, better known later as "Old Q." This "Essay" had been written many years previ- ously, originally in French, and only recently then had been translated into English by Thomas Potter, mentioned on page 528, ante. Wilkes was not the author, although he may have written some of the notes ap- pended to the poem. The scandalous "Essay" was neither published nor intended to be published. Only a dozen copies were ordered by Wilkes to be printed-intended, no doubt, as presents for the twelve "Monks of Medmenham." The work had not yet been completed when Wilkes went to Paris, and he later declared that he had never given a copy of the "Essay" to any one. The following description of the tract is from a "review" of it published by Chaplain Kidgell in the Winter of 1763 .*
"This Essay is a parody on Mr. Pope's 'Essay on Man,' almost line for line, printed in red, with annotations under the name of the Bishop of Gloucester. The frontispiece, engraved curiously on copper, contains a motto very suitable to a work which is calculated to depreciate the sex ; and a most obscene print by way of decoration, under which is en- graved in Greek characters 'The Savior of the World.' Beneath that inscription some- thing too scandalous and defamatory of private character to endure a repetition. * * The title is succeeded by a few pages entitled 'Advertisement and Design,' in which every degree of decency is renounced, in order to prepare a welcome and familiar reception to the foulest of all language, and a species of impiety that is incredible. The expressions throughout the whole book, in every page, and almost every word of it, shameful and obscene, without any manner of concealment or reserve. *
* In the variations and notes upon this obscene parody the Holy Scriptures are illiberally prostituted to illustrate the gross ideas of a libidinous blasphemer. The profaneness throughout the work is of a shocking, new and wonderful invention."
The ridicule which the "Essay" heaped on the Athanasian Creed Wilkes subsequently justified by quoting Archbishop Tillotson's wish that the Church were fairly rid of that creed; and, with regard to the alleged indecencies of other portions of the "Essay," after making sun- dry cracks in the glass houses in which many of his accusers dwelt, he confessed that the "Essay" contained "a few portraits drawn from warm life, with the too high coloring of a youthful fancy ; and two or three descriptions, perhaps too luscious, which, though Nature and Woman might pardon, a Kidgell and a Mansfieldt could not fail to condemn."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.