Biddy Monks Petitioner

• Place: Manchester
• Role: Injured,Petitioner

Elderly petitioner was stood far from the hustings when she was inflicted with a wound on the arm, then crushed, her shoulder dislocated and side caved in.

She attended the meeting with her daughter, who dragged her away and was forced to plead with the yeomanry not  to attack her mother again. Petitioner was 70 years old at this time.

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Petition of Biddy Monks of Manchester

House of Commons, Votes and Proceedings, 15 May 1821

Transcribed by Lauren Jaye Gradwell

 

(No. 591)

A Petition of Biddy Monks, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, was presented and read; setting forth, That the Petitioner attended the Meeting on the 16^th of August, 1819, which was held on St. Peter’s Field, in Manchester; the Petitioner, who is upwards of 70 years if age, was accompanied by her daughter to the Meeting; in order to avoid the pressure, the Petitioner stood at a considerable distance from the hustings; the greatest peace and good order pervaded the Meeting; the Yeomanry Cavalry rode most furiously amongst the people, cutting and maiming indiscriminately all who were within their reach; one of the Yeomanry inflicted a severe sabre wound on the left arm of the Petitioner, which brought the Petitioner to the ground, in which situation the Petitioner was trampled on by the Cavalry; the Petitioner’s shoulder was dislocated, her legs dreadfully lacerated, and her left side crushed in; in this state the Petitioner was led off the ground by her daughter, who was frequently obliged to use entreaties and supplications to the Yeomanry to desist from again striking at the Petitioner; in consequence of the injuries received the Petitioner has been ever since in a very weak state of health, and is without hope of ever again being perfectly restored; and praying That the House will be pleased to cause such inquiry to be instituted into this shocking outrage as may bring the perpetrators  of it to justice.

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