Massacre of St George's Fields

Background. John Wilkes, a British radical, journalist and politician, had returned to England in 1768 under pressure from his French creditors. He stood in the City of London and came bottom of the poll of seven candidates, possibly because of his late entry into the race. The protest that ended in the massacre arose from his imprisonment for writing an article severely criticising King George III.

The Massacre. When Wilkes was imprisoned in the King's Bench Prison on 10 May 1768, his supporters assembled just south of the prison on St George's Fields, a large open space between Southwark and Lambeth, chanting "Wilkes and Liberty." After the Riot Act was read, giving the crowds an hour to disperse, troops opened fire on the unarmed demonstrators. Six or seven people were killed and fifteen were wounded.

Aftermath and Related Violence. The episode became known as the Massacre of St George's Fields, and Wilkes's angry supporters' protests were suppressed there in 1768. The sources also record separate incidents of 1768 unrest whose connection to the massacre itself is not stated: a scuffle in which two prisoners were wounded and four escaped into fields, where the Bucks Militia hunted them down; a man chased to a barn, where a pursuing soldier shot a person inside wearing a red coat; and a contemporary title recording the murder of Allen by a grenadier.