James Lees Petitioner

(No. 632.)

A Petition of James Lees, of Stoneswood, in the township of Quick, in the parish of Saddleworth, and in the County of York, was presented, and read; setting forth, That a public Meeting being advertised to be holden at Manchester, on the 16th August 1819, that the Petitioner attended the Meeting with no intent whatsoever of doing hurt to any one, nor with any thought that anyone would do hurt to him; but when the Petitioner arrived on the ground whereupon the hustings were erected, and where there was a great concourse of peaceable men, women, and children, and had been there for the space of about an hour,the Petitioner, along with the rest of the assembled people, was charged with the Manchester Yeomanry sword in hand,without any provocation, cutting right and left, as if they had been hewing stocks or stones; and the Petitioner striving to make his escape from the in human havock they were making with their fellow-creatures,the Petitioner was pursued by two of the inhuman monsters to a Quakers’ Meeting-house, and there received two wounds from their swords on the head, which brought him to the ground, but Providence interposing, by a man pulling the Petitioner into his yard, and laying a plaster on to the Petitioner’s head, his life was saved, and the Petitioner, by the help of another man, was got to the Manchester Infirmary, where one of the Doctors mates dressed his head, and showed him the bed he was to sleep in, when one of the head Doctors came into the room where the Petitioner was, and asked him if he would come to a Meeting again,the Petitioner said he was not going to make any promises, when he,the Doctor, ordered the Petitioner to put on his clothes and begone home, for the Petitioner was undressed, and the mate told him, the Doctor, that he was not fit to go, but the Doctor said he must, and the person that went with him, the Petitioner,assisted him until they got to a public house, where he remained till some of his neighbours inquired for him, when two of them had to support him, the one hold of each arm, for the distance of twelve miles, for he was faint with the loss of blood,and when he got to his home his life was despaired of, and he was three weeks unable to do any work, with a wife and two small children; and the Petitioner not being able to get any redress by Law, thinketh that the only way to gain a remedy is,by petitioning the House to institute an inquiry into the transactions done at Manchester, so that justice may be obtained by the humble Petitioner.