(L-R) John Wilkes, Member of Parliament for Middlesex and Samuel Martin, Member of Parliament for Ca
(L-R) John Wilkes, Member of Parliament for Middlesex and Samuel Martin, Member of Parliament for Camelford. A noteworthy duel took place in Hyde Park, in 1762, between John Wilkes, the witty agitator, and Samuel Martin, a rather truculent member of Parliament. Martin, in his place in the House of Commons, had alluded to Wilkes as a “stabber in the dark, a cowardly and malignant scoundrel.” Wilkes prided himself as much upon his gallantry as upon his wit and disloyalty, and lost no time in calling Martin out. The challenge was given as soon as the House adjourned, and the parties repaired at once to a copse in Hyde Park with a brace of pistols. They fired four times, when Wilkes fell, wounded in the abdomen. His antagonist, relenting, hastened up and insisted on helping him off the ground; but Wilkes, with comparative courtesy, as strenuously urged Martin to hurry away, so as to escape arrest. It afterwards appeared that Martin had been practising in a shooting gallery for six months before making the obnoxious speech in the House; and soon after, instead of being arrested, he received a valuable appointment from the ministry. Source: Old and New London Vol. 4. Edward Walford, 1878 via British History Online -- source link
#18th century#duelling#british history#politicians#parliament#sedition#radicals#john wilkes#samuel martin