John Horne Tooke : Biography

John Horne, the son of a prosperous poulterer, was born in Westminster in 1736. Educated at Eton and Cambridge University, he became a lawyer and later, to please his father, in 1760 was ordained a priest and became a minister in Brentford.

In the early 1760s John Horne became interested in politics. He became friendly with John Wilkes, a man whose journal, The North Briton, had upset George III and his Tory government. In 1765 Horne wrote an anonymous pamphlet, The Petition of an Englishman, that defended Wilkes.

On 20th February 1769, a lawyer, John Glynn, organised a meeting at the London Tavern to discuss the refusal of the House of Commons to accept the election of John Wilkes. Glynn subscribed £3,340 to form an organisation, the Bill of Rights Society, that would help support the campaign to reinstate Wilkes. Robert Morris, a Welsh barrister, was elected secretary, John Horne Tooke became treasurer. Other members of the group included John Sawbridge, the MP for Hythe, Sir Cecil Wray, MP for East Retford and Sir John Molesworth, MP for Cornwall.

Meetings of the Bill of Rights Society took place fortnightly at the London Tavern. At first the main objective of the society was to "maintain and defend the liberty of the subject, and to support the laws and constitution of the country." John Horne Tooke, who eventually became the most important figure in the Society, believed that the organisation should campaign for a radical programme of parliamentary reform. Tooke managed to do this but some members disagreed and it was this conflict that eventually brought the Bill of Rights Society to an end in 1771. Horne now formed his own group, the Constitutional Society, to campaign for for parliamentary reform. In 1775 Horne attacked the government's actions in America and was imprisoned for libel. After his release from prison Horne joined with Major John Cartwright to establish the Society for Constitutional Information.

'Two Pair of Portraits' by James Gillray appeared in the Anti-Jacobin
Review in December, 1798. It shows John Horne Tooke as an artist. The portraits are of the leaders of the Whigs and Tories in the House of Commons, Charles Fox (entitled 'Deceit') and William Pitt (entitled 'Truth').

John Horne's campaign against the Enclosure Acts brought him to the attention of William Tooke, a wealthy landowner from Purley. The two men became close friends and in 1782 Horne adopted Tooke's surname. John Horne Tooke was strongly influenced by the ideas of Tom Paine and after the publication of The Rights of Man in 1791 he began to work closely with Thomas Hardy and the Corresponding Society.

At the end of 1793 supporters of parliamentary reform held a convention in Edinburgh. The leaders of the convention were arrested, tried for sedition, and sentenced to fourteen years transportation. The reformers were determined not to be beaten and John Horne Tooke, Thomas Hardy and John Thelwall began to organise another convention. When the authorities heard what was happening, Tooke and the other two men were arrested and committed to the Tower of London and charged with high treason.

Cartoon by James Gillray entitled 'Political Amusements
for Young Men: The Brentford Shuttlecock'. The two men are
Lord Temple and Lord Camelford and the shuttlecock is
John Horne Tooke.

The trial began at the Old Bailey on 28th October, 1794. The prosecution, led by Lord Eldon, argued that the men were guilty of treason as they organised meetings where people were encouraged to disobey King and Parliament. However, the prosecution was unable to provide any evidence that Tooke and his co-defendants had attempted to do this and the jury returned a verdict of "Not Guilty".

After 1794 John Horne Tooke became less radical in his political ideas. He still favoured parliamentary reform but was opposed to universal suffrage. This gained him the support of the Whigs and Lord Camelford, arranged for John Horne Tooke to represent the rotten borough of Old Sarum. After Tooke's election in January, 1801, his admission to the House of Commons was opposed because he was a minister of the church. Lord Temple led the fight against the entry of Tooke and eventually a bill was passed making it impossible for clergymen to become members of the House of Commons.

John Horne Tooke died in Wimbledon 1812.