Nigel Brown's 'British Gunmakers' simply lists Wilkes at Coventry Crt, 1796 and St. James St. 1799-1810. That's all I have access to. I can't find any information on Patents by Wilkes; do you have any more information on the BL Flintlock system?
 
David

Very many thanks for your information David and Bill.  
 
James is an ancestor. His son S Wilkes who was appointed as armourer to perry on the artic explorations in the early 1820's and mentions in his diary that his father james wilkes of St james st "was gunsmith to his majesty".  
 
Could this be true?
Is there a record of royal appointments?
 
regards
 
David

Another snippet... Howard Blackmore in his "British Military Firearms 1650-1850" notes:
 
"...in 1801 a breechloding rifle by James Wilkes, the sword cutler and gunmekr of Covent Garden, was given extensive trials by Col. Manningham at Caesar's Camp, Bagshot. Tow more rifles were ordered and the gunmaker asked to adjust the sights and "to form the Plughole at the Breech precisely of the same size as the Calibre of the Rifle". The trials of the rifle came to a conclusion in May, 1805, with a payment of eleven guineas to the so-called inventor. I use that adjective as the Wilkes breechloading action was simply a screw plug let into the top of the barrel with a link to prevent its loss - one of the oldest of ideas."
 
There is a picture of the Wilkes flintlock... have you seen this?
 
David

Wilkes guns are not common. �The listing of Firearms Patents covering the period show that he did not register a patent for his design which was, basically, merely a variation on the La Chaumette design of many years earlier. �The differences seem to have been to place the plug on the side and to provide a linkage to prevent it being lost, not a new idea either.
 
John Wilkes was born in 1801 according to the Census of 1841 and was listed as a gunmaker at Gloster Builldings, St.Georges.
 
The rifle is in the collection of the Royal Armouries now at Leeds.