Gilbert Wakefield

Who was Gilbert Wakefield?

Gilbert Wakefield was an English scholar and controversialist.

Gilbert Wakefield was the third son of the Rev. George Wakefield, then rector of St Nicholas' Church, Nottingham but afterwards at Kingston-upon-Thames. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. as second wrangler in 1776. Wakefield took orders, but left the ministry and the Church of England to become a Unitarian. He earned his living as a classical tutor in various Dissenting academies, including the famous one at Warrington.

Wakefield was a controversial writer, and both he and his publisher, Joseph Johnson, went to prison for his writing. Wakefield was a strong defender of the French Revolution and partook in the Revolution Controversy; he wrote a seditious pamphlet, and was imprisoned in Dorchester gaol for two years for it.

Wakefield wrote A Reply to Some Parts of the Bishop Llandaff's Address to the People of Great Britain, a Unitarian work attacking the privileged position of the wealthy. This was in response to An Address to the People of Great Britain, by Richard Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, which argues that national taxes should be raised to pay for the war against France and to reduce the national debt. Johnson and others were put on trial for sedition for selling Wakefield's Reply. Johnson was fined £50 and sentenced to six months imprisonment at King's Bench Prison in February 1799, after which he published very few political works and no controversial ones.