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.

Edmund Simpson Eyewitness Account

Testifies alarm at seeing parties going to the field, expected a disturbance so shut up his shop and went upstairs in his house.

Place: Manchester
Role: Spectator
Occupation: Hatter

Find out more

John Shuttleworh Eyewitness Account

Testifies to peacefulness and good order of meeting and to seeing Yeomanry strike while still twenty yards from hustings. Also notes that constables drew back out of the way as Yeomanry arrived.

Place: Manchester
Role: Spectator
Occupation: Cotton & Twist Mannufacturer

Find out more

John Shawcross Eyewitness Account

Attended White Moss with Murray and Rymer. Fell unconscious after being beaten as a suspected spy.

Place: Manchester
Role: Injured
Occupation: Police Clerk

Find out more

Thomas Sharp Eyewitness Account

Alarmed enough by meeting to lock up his warehouse and take his daughters out of school; was stunned for some time, but saw no yeomanry attack crowds yet saw crowds throw stones at officers

Place: Manchester
Role: Injured,Officer
Occupation: Iron Merchant,Special Constable

Find out more

Thomas Brooks Eyewitness Account

Rode in Moorhouse’s coach to the meeting on the 16^th. ‘Moorhouse rode with him on the roof of the coach; did not have any conversation of moment with him’.