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.

George L’Estrange Eyewitness Account

16/8/1819 8pm Letter from L’Estrange to General John Byng re events of the day. No shots fired by military though some by the Populace against the Troops. Some people have suffered sabre wounds and from the pressure of the crowds.

Place: Manchester
Role: Military
Occupation: Colonel

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Elizabeth Gaunt Petitioner

Sought refuge in a carriage but was dragged from it and beaten. She was later sent to prison and thoroughly mistreated.

She was pregnant at the time of her imprisonment, and, being denied food, clean linen and medical attention, subsequently suffered a miscarriage.

Place: Manchester
Role: Demonstrator,Injured,Petitioner

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Elizabeth Cade Petitioner

Petitioner was trampled by a yeomanry horse and then hit by a Special Constable’s truncheon. Carried unconscious from the field.

Place: Manchester
Role: Demonstrator,Injured,Petitioner

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Edward Shawcross Eyewitness Account

Called but did not answer.

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Edward Dwyer Petitioner

Edward witnesses intoxicated Manchester Yeomanry indiscrimatly attack the crowd. He escapes to Quaker burial ground climbing a tree but is followed by two Yeomanry who cut at him in the tree. He falls but escapes alive as they move on to attack others.