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 Chadwick Eyewitness Account

Saw crowd drilling in military fashion on 15^th August 1819. Was present at the meeting, 16^th August, and says it was peaceful. ‘If any person was to swear that the people marched by with you, four or five abreast in a riotous manner, they would swear a falsehood. I saw no swords pistols or bludgeons.’

Place: Manchester
Role: Spectator
Occupation: Shoemaker

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Mary Cadman Eyewitness Account

Made up a bed for Hunt at Moorhouse’s. Went to the meeting on 16^th August 1819. ‘’Moorhouse took his wife there. She was then in the family way.’

Occupation: Servant

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James Murray Eyewitness Account

Went with Shawcross to the drillings on 15^th August and was badly beaten up. His house hissed at by marchers as they passed on 16^th.

Place: Manchester
Role: Officer
Occupation: Confectioner,Special Constable

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Robert Wright Eyewitness Account

Gives description of meeting at SPF. Knows Johnson. Says he was not asked by Johnson to attend meeting on the 16^th. Says that Johnson did not sell any of Paine’s works. Does not know Carlile. ‘If I called in upon him, it was only for the purpose of hearing news.’