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.

David Ellis Petitioner

David Ellis described the Yeomanry Cavalry riding through and cutting and trampling the crowd. He received a sabre cut to the head and hand which left him disabled for a month.

Place: Manchester
Role: Demonstrator,Injured,Petitioner

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David Dawson Petitioner

David described how his son Edmund aged 16, was knocked unconscious by two blows to the head by Yeomanry Cavalry as he tried to escape. Edmund died from these injuries fifteen days later at Manchester Infirmary.

Place: Oldham,Saddleworth
Role: Demonstrator,Petitioner
Occupation: Yeoman

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Catherine Coltman Petitioner

Widowed mother of nine children, Catherine witnessed the Yeomanry Cavalry approach and indiscriminately sabre the crowd. She suffers three broken ribs as people fall on her and she believes this shielded her from even worse injury.