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.

James Schofield Eyewitness Account

Dissenting minister. Preached and published a number of sermons and essays, but not political in nature. Saw no opposition to the cavalry. ‘As the cavalry advanced the people held up their hats as a sort of guard against the cutting of the swords.’

Place: Hulme,Manchester
Role: Spectator
Occupation: Dissenting Minister

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Joseph Schofield Eyewitness Account

Saw Oldham division with black flag, marching peaceably towards Manchester on the 16^th. ‘I never heard anything said about making a Moscow of Manchester.’

Place: Oldham
Role: Spectator
Occupation: Gentleman

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Thomas Schofield Eyewitness Account

Attended SPF. Saw no resistance or offence made by the crowd. ‘Saw no resistance from the first to the last.’

Note: A Thomas Schofield aged 81 appears in the 1884 photo of Failsworth Peterloo veterans.

Place: Lees,Oldham
Role: Spectator

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Thomas William Saunderson Eyewitness Account

Was at SPF, but not for the purposes of attending the meeting. Saw no resistance from the crowd. Does not consider himself a Reformer. ‘He found nobody in a state of alarm; saw nothing to excite the alarm of any sober rational mind when he first came to the ground.’

Place: Manchester
Role: Spectator
Occupation: Merchant

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Thomas Rothwell Eyewitness Account

Saw Bury division moving toward SPF, peaceably. Saw many women and children. ‘I have known Mr. Johnson seven years. I never heard him say that he ever intended to overturn the government.’