Eyewitness Accounts

To commemorate the 200 year anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre the Peterloo 2019 Ambassadors have worked in partnership with Professor Robert Poole (University of Central Lancashire), author of Peterloo: the English Uprising and the Age of Revolution at University of Kent to compile the 400+ eyewitness accounts which include press reports and petitions.

This is the first time the original accounts have been compiled into an online archive. You can now use the website to search by name, place and role and learn more about the eyewitness accounts from 1819.

John Smith Eyewitness Account

Testifies to seeing unprovoked attack by Yeomanry on people. Notes that only at St Peter’s Field in capacity as a reporter–attends reform meetings but only in hometown.

Place: Elsewhere
Role: Press
Occupation: Reporter "Liverpool Mercury'

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Jacob Deakin Eyewitness Account

Saw procession heading from Middleton to SPF. Saw all was peaceful. Recalls previous rioting from four years previous.

Place: Middleton,Rochdale
Role: Spectator
Occupation: Calico Printer

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Matthew Cowper Eyewitness Account

Recites Hunt’s speech of the 16^th August 1819 from notes. Recalls slogans on flags, and states that the meeting was designed to inspire fear in the inhabitants of Manchester.

Admitted to taking money from his previous employment. Had been dismissed.