Two years later, as a recognition of his defence the previous January of the expulsion of John Wilkes he was appointed Solicitor-General in the government of Lord North.

[2] He held this post for a little under a year, chiefly involved in the prosecution of libels and limitations on the freedom of the press, until he was promoted to Attorney General in January 1771.

He is noted for his defeat in the case of Woodfall, who was publisher of the Letters of Junius, upon which a verdict of mistrial was entered by Lord Mansfield.

Partly to please the king, he consistently and strongly supported Warren Hastings, and negotiated with the Whigs to ensure his continued power in the event of a change of government.

However, in 1797 he intrigued for the formation of a government from which Pitt and Fox should be excluded, and in which the Earl of Moira should be prime minister and himself Lord Chancellor.

[2] Thomas Creevey described Thurlow towards the end of his life:Thurlow was always dressed in a full suit of cloaths of the old fashion, great cuffs and massy buttons, great wig, long ruffles, &c.; the black eyebrows exceeded in size any I have ever seen, and his voice, tho' by no means devoid of melody, was a kind of rolling, murmuring thunder.

[5]Thurlow had a number of illegitimate children[6] Two of his daughters, Caroline and Catharine, had their portrait painted by George Romney in 1783.

John Poynder's Literary Extracts (1844) attributes to Thurlow the following widely quoted saying:[9] Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned; they therefore do as they like.