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.

William Morris Eyewitness Account

Saw hundreds of people in formation in Middleton on morning of 16 August.

Place: Middleton,Rochdale
Role: Spectator
Occupation: Weaver

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John Molyneux Eyewitness Account

Had attended a dinner with Hunt previously, during which Paine’s memory was toasted. This evidence was disallowed by the court.

Place: Manchester
Role: Demonstrator
Occupation: Lamp-Manufacturer,Tin-Plate Worker

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Joseph Mills Eyewitness Account

Saw people attending SPF in military formation. In his judgment “a meeting calculated to inspire terror and alarm into the minds of the inhabitants of Manchester.”