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 Benjamin Smith Eyewitness Account

Account of demonstrator John Benjamin Smith, providing background context to the meeting of 16th August 1819, and an eye-witness account of the day.

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Francis Riley Eyewitness Account

Evidence given by demonstrator Francis Riley at the trial of the reformer John Knight.

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Thomas Redford Eyewitness Account

Thomas Redford’s petition to Parliament, read on 19th December 1819, petitioning for an inquiry into Peterloo.

Place: Middleton,Rochdale
Role: Demonstrator
Occupation: Hatter

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John Railton Eyewitness Account

Manchester Guardian published a letter written on 16th August by John Railton to his wife in which he describes what he witnessed at Peterloo.

Place: Manchester
Role: Spectator

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Robert Mutrie Eyewitness Account

Letter to written by Robert Mutrie to his brother giving an account of the events of 16th August from his role as Special Constable on the day of the massacre.