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.

Edward Stanley Eyewitness Account

Watched from top floor of Mr Buxton’s house. Saw cavalry race to get toward the hustings then ‘swords up and down, the orator stumbled or thrown over, and the mob dispersed’.

Place: Cheshire
Role: Spectator
Occupation: Rector

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William Ellson Eyewitness Account

Describes the use of laurels to distinguish rank. ‘Sprigs of laurel were given to four or six, and ten or a dozen had an odd leaf to put in their hats.’

Place: Bury,Chatterton
Role: Demonstrator
Occupation: Farmer

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Jeremiah Smith Eyewitness Account

Testifies to alarm at influx of people, sent most boys away from school and secured those who remained in his own house. Saw Hunt’s carriage come into town and stop and hiss at the Star Inn & the Police Office.

Place: Manchester
Role: Spectator
Occupation: Headmaster

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John Ellis Eyewitness Account

Present at SPF. Saw many flags, people marching. Testifies that Ashworth died by being ‘crushed on the chest’. Knocked down during the tumult.

Attended Ashworth, a Constable crushed by crowd.

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

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James Dyson Eyewitness Account

Part of the procession led by Bamford to SPF. Saw Bamford address the crowd requesting them to be peaceful and non-violent, even if they were attacked. ‘I neither expected or believed, from the tenor of your address, that any disturbance would ensue on the return of the party.’

Knows Samuel Bamford. Walked in from Middleton in Bamford’s procession.