Note 57 — HOGARTH ILLUSTRATED.
Reading edition
Sir John Gonson, a justice of peace, very active in the suppression of brothels. In a view of the town in 1735, by T. Gilbert (Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge), are the following lines:—
"Though laws severe to punish crimes were made, What honest man is of these laws afraid? All felons against judges will exclaim, As harlots tremble at a Gonson's name."
Pope has noticed him in his Imitation of Dr. Donne, and Loveling in a very elegant Latin Ode. Thus, between the poets and the painter, the name of this harlot-hunting justice is transmitted to posterity. He died on the 9th of January 1765.