John Wilkes Esq. before the Court of King's Bench, 1768. From the Gentleman's Magazine, May 1768. John Wilkes (1725-1797) was a British radical, journalist and politician. Here we see Wilkes standing before the Bench, charged with obscene libel and seditious libel, having, together with Thomas Potter (1718-1759), written a pornographic poem dedicated to the courtesan Fanny Murray entitled "An Essay on Woman".

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