Chabot, for William Pitt, the
great Prime Minister, told Lord Aberdeen that he knew who wrote the
Junius Letters, and that it was not Francis; and Lady Grenville sent a
letter to the editor of _Diaries of a Lady of Quality_ to the same
effect.
While Mr. Greatrake was lying ill at the "Bear Inn" he was visited by
many political contemporaries, including the notorious John Wilkes, who,
born in 1729, had been expelled three times from the House of Commons
when Member for Middlesex; but so popular was he with the common people,
whose cause he had espoused, that they re-elected him each time. So "the
powers that be" had to give way, and he was elected Alderman, then
Sheriff, and then Lord Mayor of London, and when he died, in 1797, was
Chamberlain of London. Mr. Greatrake was born in County Cork, Ireland,
about the year 1725, and was a great friend of Lord Sherburn, who
afterwards became Prime Minister, in which capacity he had to
acknowledge the independence of the United States, and was eventually
created Marquis of Lansdowne. Mr. Greatrake was known to have been an
inmate of his lordship's house when the letters were being published,
and the motto on them was _Stat nominis umbra_--the words which appeared
on the tomb of Mr.
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