Thomas Ashton Eyewitness Account

• Place: Manchester
• Role: Injured

Petition of Thomas Ashton of Manchester

Account

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

A petition of Thomas Ashton of Manchester, was presented and read; setting forth, that he was at the meeting held in Manchester on the 16th August; the petitioner arrived on the ground above an hour before business of the meeting commenced; he neither saw nor heard of any disturbance, till the band of armed Yeomanry, who were, in the opinion of the petitioner, in a state of intoxication, rode most savagely amongst the people, inhumanly killing and maiming numbers of them; on the first appearance of the Yeomanry, they halted for a few seconds, when an order was given by one of them to charge the assembly; they instantly made a furious, but disorderly attack; their lines were broken before they had proceeded 10 yards; in this scattered and confused state, each one appeared to lay about him with his sabre with the utmost ferocity; when they came upon the spot where the petitioner stood, one of them gave him a violent cut with a sabre on the head, and crushed the petitioner with such violence against some railing, as severely to bruise his body, which caused the petitioner to become seriously ruptured, in which state he has ever since continued; and praying that the House will be pleased to institute an inquiry into this brutal outrage.

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