John Atkinson Eyewitness Account

• Place: Manchester
• Role: Injured

Petition of John Atkinson of Manchester

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House of Commons, Votes and Proceedings, 15th May 1821.

A petition of John Atkinson of Manchester, Lancashire was presented, and read; setting forth, that the petitioner was at the meeting held in St Peter’s Field, in Manchester, on the 16th of August 1819; the petitioner got there half and hour before the meeting commenced with the proceedings; the greatest harmony and decorum prevailed, when the Yeomanry Cavalry suddenly appeared, and rode most furiously amongst the people, cutting at them in all directions in a most wanton and unprovoked manner; the petitioner used every effort to get away, but found his progress interrupted by the Yeomanry and Special Constables, the latter of whom beat the petitioner most violently on various parts of his body with truncheons; after the petitioner had escaped from the constables he was assailed by the Yeomanry Cavalry, one of whom inflicted a deep wound on the forehead of the petitioner with a sabre ,which, together with the blows given to the petitioner, rendered him incapable of pursuing his occupation for several weeks; the petitioner, therefore, humbly prays, that the House will cause such inquiry to be instituted into this shocking outrage as will bring the offenders to justice.

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