The North Briton also served as the pseudonym of the newspaper's author, used in advertisements, letters to other publications, and handbills.
The newspaper was begun in response to The Briton, a pro-government paper started by Tobias Smollett.
It criticized a royal speech in which King George III praised the Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Years' War.
Wilkes was charged with libel (accusing the King of lying), and imprisoned for a short time in the Tower of London.
Before it could be burned, an assembled crowd rescued the text, and the ensuing events caused Wilkes to flee across the English Channel to France, and be eventually imprisoned again.