born Oct. 17, 1725, London, Eng.
died Dec. 26, 1797, London
English politician.
The son of a successful malt distiller, he was educated at an academy at Hertford and afterward privately tutored. His marriage to Mary Meade (1747), heiress of the manor of Aylesbury, brought him a comfortable fortune and an assured status among the gentry of Buckinghamshire. A profligate by nature, he was a member of the so-called Hell-Fire Club, which indulged in debauchery and the performance of Black Masses, and he bribed voters to win election to the House of Commons (1757). For an attack on the government in his journal the North Briton (1763), he was prosecuted for libel and expelled from Parliament. Reelected, he continued to print his attacks on the government and was again tried for libel and expelled (1764). Regarded as a victim of persecution and a champion of liberty, he gained widespread popular support. He was again elected to Parliament and again expelled (1769). He become lord mayor of London in 1774. Back in the House of Commons (1774–90), he supported parliamentary reform and freedom of the press.