Concept

John Horne Tooke

Summary
John Horne Tooke (25 June 1736 – 18 March 1812), known as John Horne until 1782 when he added the surname of his friend William Tooke to his own, was an English clergyman, politician, and philologist. Associated with radical proponents of parliamentary reform, he stood trial for treason in November 1794. He was the third son of John Horne, of Newport Street, Long Acre, Westminster, a member of the Worshipful Company of Poulters. As a youth at Eton College, he had claimed "that his father was an eminent Turkey merchant" implying that, rather than a dealer in poultry, he traded with the Eastern Mediterranean. Before Eton, he had been at school in Soho Square, in a Kentish village, and from 1744 to 1746 at Westminster School. He was blinded in his right eye during a schoolboy fight. On 12 January 1754 he was admitted as sizar at St John's College, Cambridge, and took his degree of B.A. in 1758, as last but one of the senior optimes, Richard Beadon, his lifelong friend, afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells, being a Wrangler in the same year. Horne had been admitted on 9 November 1756, as student at the Inner Temple, becoming friends with John Dunning and Lloyd Kenyon. His father wished him to take orders in the Church of England, and he was ordained deacon on 23 September 1759 and priest on 23 November 1760. For a few months he was usher (i.e., an assistant teacher) at a boarding school at Blackheath. On 26 September 1760 he became perpetual curate of New Brentford, the incumbency of which his father had purchased for him. Horne Tooke retained this poor living until 1773. During part of this time (1763–1764) he travelled on a tour in France, acting as a "bear-leader" (i.e., a travelling tutor) to a wealthy man. The excitement created by the actions of John Wilkes led Horne into politics, and in 1765 he brought out a scathing pamphlet on Bute and Mansfield, entitled "The Petition of an Englishman". In the autumn of 1765 he escorted another rich young man to Italy.
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