One of the many eccentrics of the eighteenth century, Lord George Gordon was a London-born, Eton-educated anti-Catholic agitator. Having failed in a career in the Royal Navy, perhaps because of his desire to help the ordinary seamen, he turned to politics. Rather than nail his colours to any party, he attacked both Whigs and Tories.
In 1778 an Act relieved some of the disadvantages that Roman Catholics suffered from, and Gordon founded a Protestant Association to attempt an appeal. In 1780, he addressed a rally in London and headed a mob of some fifty thousand people who rioted and attacked various Catholic institutions, as well as Newgate Prison.
The authorities called out the army, and over two hundred and eighty rioters were killed, one hundred and seventy-three wounded, and nearly a
