John Williams (satirist)

John Williams (1761–1818) was an English poet, satirist, journalist and miscellaneous writer, best known by the pseudonym of Anthony Pasquin.

He attacked the government in the Volunteers' Journal during the administration of the Duke of Rutland, a prosecution was started against him in 1784, and he was obliged to decamp, leaving the printers to face the judgment.

In 1787 Williams accompanied his friend Pilon to France, and on his return he started a paper called The Brighton Guide.

In 1797 he appeared in the Court of King's Bench as plaintiff in an action against Robert Faulder, the bookseller, for a libel contained in William Gifford's poem The Baviad.

In one of the notes Gifford, speaking of Williams, observed that ‘he was so lost to every sense of decency and shame that his acquaintance was infamy and his touch poison.’ In this cause the plaintiff was nonsuited, based the proof that was given of his having himself grossly libelled every respectable character in the kingdom, from the sovereign down to the lowest of his subjects.