New recording of a ballad, set to the well-known tune 'Gee Ho, Dobbin', which sought to generate support for John Wilkes's campaign to be elected as an MP for London in March 1768, before his far more developed and successful popularising campaigns for Middlesex. In the London election Wilkes finished bottom of the poll.
'Wilkes and Freedom: A New Ballad. Tune, Geho Dobbin', in The Battle of the Quills: Or, Wilkes Attacked and Defended. An Impartial Selection of All the Most Interesting Pieces, Argumentative, Declamatory, and Humorous, in Prose and Verse, Relative to John Wilkes, Esq; Written by his Adversaries, his Partisans, and himself, from the Time of his Declaring himself a Candidate to Represent the City of London in Parliament to his being Elected Knight of the Shire for the County of Middlesex. To which is Prefixed, An Account of the Nature of Outlawry (London: J. Williams, 1768), pp. 7-8
Copyright Matt Quinn and Nancy Kerr (2022)
