Eyewitness Accounts

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

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 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.