Tooke , John Horne , 1736-1812 , radical and philologist

John Horne Tooke was born John Horne in 1736, the son of a successful poulterer. He was ordained a clergyman but also studied law and medicine. In 1764 he became a supporter of radical politician John Wilkes, anonymously publishing a pamphlet, The Petition of an Englishman, which defended Wilkes and criticised the government, particularly Lord Bute. He later met Wilkes in Paris where the latter had fled to escape prosecution.

In 1768 Horne became an enthusiastic campaigner for Wilkes who was standing for the Middlesex seat in the general elections. He hired two inns for use of Wilkes's supporters and travelled all over the constituency giving rousing speeches, using the motto "Wilkes and Liberty". Wilkes won the election but was arrested on outstanding charges and imprisoned. He was subsequently barred from taking up his seat in Parliament. Horne threw himself into pro-Wilkes activism. In 1769 he founded the Society of Gentleman Supporters of the Bill of Rights which aimed to defend the constitutional rights of the people, and to raise money to assist Wilkes. Horne also published on wider issues of political liberty and justice. In 1770-71, however, he had a dispute with Wilkes over finances and split away from the Gentleman Supporters, forming the Constitutional Society.

In 1773-74 Horne assisted his friend William Tooke in a property dispute. Tooke was grateful and giving Horne gifts and promising him an inheritance. In 1775 Horne raised money to assist Americans injured by British troops, publishing an annoucement that the Americans were "murdered by the King's troops". As a result Horne was arrested for libel and imprisoned in King's Bench for a year. In 1782 Horne added the name Tooke to his own, as an indication that he would be William Tooke's heir. In the 1780s Horne Tooke continued to actively campaign for political reform as a member of reform groups and as an author. In 1786 he published Epea Pteroenta, or, The Diversions of Purley, a philological study which attempted to democratize language.

In 1791-94 Horne Tooke's reform activities, in light of the French Revolution, were considered increasingly dangerous by the government, and his mail was opened by the authorities. In 1794 he was arrested on suspicion of planning an insurrection, placed in the Tower and tried for high treason. He was found not guilty.

The Dictionary of National Biography notes that in the general election of 1796 Horne Tooke "showed some renewed passion for politics, when he stood for Westminster against Fox and Sir Alan Gardner. He campaigned against war, taxation, economic depression, and repressive legislation, and held himself out to the electorate as a political martyr". He was not successful, although in 1801 he was given the pocket borough of Old Sarum by his friend Lord Camelford, finding it ironic that a reformer should get to Parliament using a rotten borough. After 1802, however, ill-health caused him to enter semi-retirement and he died in 1812.

Source: Michael T. Davis, 'Tooke, John Horne (1736-1812)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/27545, accessed 9 March 2011].