House of Commons excludes John Wilkes

In February 1769 the British House of Commons expelled John Wilkes on the grounds that he was an outlaw when returned. The decision came in the context of the Middlesex election dispute, in which Wilkes fought for the right of his voters, rather than the House of Commons, to determine their representatives. On that view of the dispute, the exclusion can be read as pitting parliamentary authority against the expressed choice of his Middlesex constituents, though the passages do not state that voters were thereby denied their chosen representative. The passages record only that Wilkes was 'returned', not the by-election itself. The legacy record's specific date of 17 February 1769 and any vote count are not confirmed by the supplied passages, which date the expulsion only to February 1769.