John Wilkes (1750 – March 31, 1810) was an English

printer Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James ...

bookseller Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of libra ...

and

stationer Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter paper) ...

Life

Wilkes was a Freeman of Winchester and proprietor of the ''

Hampshire Chronicle The ''Hampshire Chronicle'' is a local, newspaper, based in Winchester, Hampshire, England. The first edition was published on 24 August 1772, making it one of the oldest publications in England. The paper was founded by James Linden and was ...

''. With Peter Barfoot he ran the British Directory Office in London, which published the ''Universal British Directory'' from 1790 to 1798 after obtaining a royal patent. He "compiled, digested and arranged" the ''Encyclopaedia Londinensis; or, universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature'', which was published between about 1801 and 1828 in 24 volumes, with three volumes of

copperplate engraving Intaglio ( ; ) is the family of printing and printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink. It is the direct opposite of a relief print where the parts of the matrix that ...

s. Some extensive articles were also published separately, ''viz.'' ''Horology'' (1811). Wilkes took on the engraver John Pass, of

Pentonville Pentonville is an area on the northern fringe of Central London, in the London Borough of Islington. It is located north-northeast of Charing Cross on the Inner Ring Road. Pentonville developed in the northwestern edge of the ancient parish ...

, who worked on volume 13. He owned Milland House, the "chief residence" in

Milland Milland is a village and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It is situated north of the A272 road on the border with Hampshire. In the 2001 census the parish covered and had 332 households with a total population ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

. It was described later as "a remote, old-fashioned country house of antique appearance, and difficult of access, arranged in a style that would now be considered out of date. It contained a brewery, bakery, servants hall...The house was built by Peter Bettesworth in 1584, and was completely destroyed by fire November 6th, 1901. The interior contained a very fine staircase in oak, of Jacobean character, and the drawing room was fitted with some oak panelling of the same character and date."George Heath, ''Records of the Heath Family'', 1913, quoted in
brief biography of a later resident, /Rev.John Moore Heath
'

Life

References

Further reading